We previously published a blog post that featured Wesley Ebenhack, the 2018 “Giving Away the Farm” sweepstakes winner, and his plans for the Morton building.
“We live on a family farm, 10 miles southwest of Circleville, Ohio, that’s been in my family for over 100 years,” said Wesley. “Our building is a 36’ x 80’ structure that has a porch that goes around two and a half sides of the building. We’re going to turn it into a produce storage and retail space for our farm where we grow berries and other types of fruit.”
“We ended up turning it from just a grain farm operation, which we had share cropped, to a point that I wanted to be involved in the farm, and we brought in produce. We’ve been a produce farm for six years—we’ve had blackberries, strawberries, tree fruit, and some other fruits and vegetables. And we’ve tried to use existing structures to meet our needs, but it wasn’t really tied together well.”
“We might have got a little bit crazy in a few areas, but it definitely is something we can grow into and will really help my operation with growing in the future,” said Wesley. “Our special features are more cosmetic than anything. We tried to have a nice-looking front that had a peak area out of cedar and cedar wrapped posts on the actual porch itself. We also have with the barn, three different types of rafters set up, for the different parts of the barn on how it had to be structurally sound. We ended up adding in a lot more loft area than we thought so things had to be changes many times.”
“I think it’s helped now that the building’s up for everybody to get a good idea on how well placed and how well the building is constructed,” said Wesley.
“It was definitely a surprise after I realized that it was true that I’d won. And even more of a surprise because I didn’t realize I was winning the Cat skid loader, I thought it was winning some hours to use it. So, when I learned I won that too, I was like, “wow”! That was something I really needed to move forward in our operation. My friends and family are still saying how awesome it is that I won this.”
Stay tuned for more details about the 2019 “Giving Away the Farm” sweepstakes!