greenhouse

Greenhouse getting closer to completion

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Summer is definitely here. We are getting fire and lightning weather advisory messages every few days and have not had rain for a few weeks until yesterday. Mind you I am not sure that 2/100” counts as rain but it came quickly and just dumped on us. I had to run out and put all of the tools for the greenhouse assembly into the greenhouse so they would stay dry.

I have been focused on getting the greenhouse completed. I do know that the water piece won’t happen until next year but I needed to get the fence up around the greenhouse so the sheep or cows don’t damage it when they come into the ram pasture. To make sure that it is safe I used all wooden posts so the animals could not bend them and I used three cattle panels. I had these twist on joint anchors we had purchases for the barn and I used them to connect the panels together, even if the panels ended up on a post and both ends are stapled. The fence is one contiguous piece of fencing. I always have trouble with the gates spreading when they animals start pushing on the fence so I left the post tall and connected a piece over the top of the gate so it does not spread open or close up. The gate is set so that outside pressure closes it more and it cannot be pushed through the gap. The chicken coop serves as a stopping point for it. I did not put horizontal braces in as I did not want to limit light. I feel like we are going to get super lucky on our placement. In the afternoon when it gets super hot the sun is blocked from the greenhouse by our large trees in the front yard. I don’t think we will have to use a heat screen cloth to keep the temperature down in the greenhouse.

Gingerman came out while I was working on greenhouse with grandson. We walked out to the old chicken coop to look for the tables and automatic vent openers I thought we had already purchased for the greenhouse. I was able to find both tables, some construction glue and a bunch of brand new gaskets for aluminum irrigation sprinklers. I did not find any automatic vent openers. We did find a new driveway light and post for the kids. I also found a few more boxes that I had not dug into in the old grain room. This might be where I stashed the progressive reloader I have not been able to find! I have a shotgun, a single reloader setup and a progressive but I am still digging around for the progressive. When I set up my man cave room one half will be for a jewelry bench with all of its associated tools and storage while the other half will be the three reloaders with all the accouterments and storage. I really want a tall safe for the room but I want an old one, plus the thing will weigh a ton, actually so I will have to reinforce the floor underneath the building with some more concrete blocks and piers. I may even have to build a new frame underneath the building and support that frame separately. It’s just a dream at this point. I want the jewelry setup far more.

I started assembling the work tables but after getting one finished I realize that I will need to buy several more. Luckily, we are headed towards the time when all the stores want to get rid of containers and soil at discounted prices. So I will be on the lookout for good deals. I have an idea to use pond liner and some 2”x8” boards, form up four to make the sides and then use the pond liner. I could use 1/4” drip line hose to create a drain that would go all the way to the floor to minimize water just running around everywhere and this would allow me to stack the planters onto a multi shelf rack and regulate the water for each unit. I am going to have to think about this some more.

I am of course missing one piece of the greenhouse. I did read the warranty from Harbor Freight. I had 90 days from the date of purchase to notify them of any issues. Since I purchased it years ago and had it stored in the machine shed, new in the box, that is not going to work for me. Luckily, it is just a panel for the door and I can order the material and cut one to fit. Those supplies have been ordered and are on their way. We got a remote thermometer and humidity detector that we are going to store in the greenhouse so we can start tracking and trending the temperatures. This will let us know how it is going to perform as winter approaches.

I had to stop and move some items out of the yard as our younger border collie has figured out how to get out of the yard. I moved the blocks that have been in the yard hoping that was how she was getting out of the yard. By the next day she had found a different way to get out of the yard. I had purchased eyelets in the past to mount on top of the posts on the side yard fence near the lavender in the past but had never had to use them. I had to use them. Of course I had run out of wire so this necessitated a trip to town. So far she has not gotten out but that doesn’t mean I fixed the problem. She could be getting out over the fence on the front hillside. Who knows she is a border collie and the smart ones are about impossible to keep inside once they figure out a way out.

Annmarie has been canning, we have over 24 pints of green beans already processed. They are going gangbusters and hopefully we can get another 24 before the plants give up. We picked three times this last week to get enough for that many pints. We are trying reusable lids but so far 1/8 on two test batches have failed. So the verdict is still out on whether we are going to keep using them. We will try them for the rest of the season and see if we continue to have issues with them. This is our first year trying them.

Greenhouse build

Steve HardinLeave a comment

I have plans to get Annmarie’s greenhouse in place and put together so she can use it. We would like to grow vegetables through the winter so we are going to give it a go. We will probably put a remote thermometer in the greenhouse so we can track the high and low temps throughout the year. This will not be possible if I do not assemble the thing. Rainman and I had already built the base earlier in the year we just needed to assemble the actual greenhouse, or so I thought. The Quiet One and I worked on changing out panels down by the spring first. I had purchased some old metal panels and we swapped out the newer horse exercise ring panels for some old ones that can stay forever. I of course found a deep spot with my rubber boots and ended up getting water inside my left boot first thing in the morning. My foot stayed wet for the rest of the day.

Before we could even assemble the first part of the base I had to bring over almost two yards of gravel to spread around the outside of the base. The chickens had spread out the gravel and were eroding the base. Once we got that corrected we assembled the base and the instructions said to bury the base. We brought in another three yards of gravel to fill the base but kept it away from the metal. I wanted to get the entire thing assembled then use some metal to wood screws to attach the greenhouse base to the wooden base we installed. We also bolted the wooden frame to three foot ground anchors screwed into the ground in the spring. I do not believe it will be able to fly away. It might fly apart due to the wind but the base frame will stay attached to the ground if it does! All the videos said it would take two days but we were making stellar progress despite reading the instruction booklet. That is until the instructions started to tell us to disassemble one piece for every two we attempted to add. We will have to change out some longer bolts for shorter ones as we used up all the long ones and we need them for the roof.

I ended up on my back after attempting to jump off of a ladder at what I thought was a foot or so. It was more than that and I did not stick the landing, my feet slid out from under me and my back stopped my fall when it pounded into the ground. Surprisingly, I did not knock the air out of my lungs. I did end up bruising the bottom of my left foot. It hurts to walk now and I have a slight limp until I get used to the pain. I also wore a short sleeve shirt, it was hot, and I don’t usually do that so I got an impressive sunburn on my arms and neck. At 58 years old I am not near as spry as I used to be.

We ended up almost getting the roof truss pieces in place before quitting. The Quiet One did bring over chickens! I now have an extra approximately 25 chickens. So there are about 40 chickens running around now. They need to figure out that they have to go to the front spring if they want water. I got a dozen eggs today, so the dog is back to getting an egg on her food twice daily.

Our Ring camera is getting a lot smarter. It can now tell you that the critters it sees are a flock of chickens! It is pretty amazing. They now need to work on the logic so the camera tells you when a dog enters the picture.

Greenhouse project started

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Friday was a solid day on the farm. Mr Rainman came out to help this weekend and we were able to work on the base of the greenhouse. This took about three hours to level and set. We filled the middle with gravel and there are four earth anchors screwed into the ground almost three feet. I tried to find bolts anywhere on the farm that were long enough to go through the anchor and into the frame. No go, I had to run to town to get four eight inch 1/2” bolts with washer and nut cost $6/each! We were going to turn the greenhouse more toward the South but due to trying to protect the door from wind we went with this orientation. The greenhouse door will be on the old house side of this foundation. It was time to get the greenhouse up as we have had it in a box for several years.

Once we had that base done, we started to haul dirt to cover the culvert crossing. The dirt has been flushed away several years ago and I had not corrected it yet. So we hauled over a few yards of dirt and flattened it out with the tractors. This should make the crossing much easier now.

Mr Rainman drove out a large bale of hay out to the momma cows. We still have the last calves in the orchard. They still hide as far from us as they can in the orchard. They do walk around even if we are outside but they are still crazy.

I decided to work on the tractor gun mount. Mr Rainman pointed out that the tractor had two bolts on the roll bar and I could just bolt the support up instead of welding it to the bucket arms. It was going to be in the way visually if I mounted it to bucket arms. It was a great idea so I went with it. I cut the channel iron to the correct length, then proceeded to clean up the metal with a grinder.

As I was grinding on the rifle rack my wire wheel kicked back and sucked up my pants! I let off the trigger as soon as I realized it but the damage was done to my pants. I ended up with a couple of small superficial scratches from the wheel. Pretty good.

I painted it, then mounted eyebolts on the ends. I figured I am always trying to hang more stuff off the tractor since I don’t have a tool box that is very big and the eye hooks will let me hang a bag or just clip stuff onto the rack. I mounted the locking arms and then tried to bolt it onto the tractor. I was off by 1/4” on one of my holes and had to scoot the hole over. This is much harder in a piece of steel than it is in wood! I got it all done and now just need to use a piece of closed cell foam cut to the barrel shape to keep the front of the rifle from bouncing around. I ordered non lubricated condoms so I can cover the barrel opening with a condom and a rubber band. I am ready for predators now! I might have to put in some practice since I only get one shot! I wanted minimal parts and movement that could get mucked up from all of the dust, dirt and rain.

We had some friends bring out 16 laying hens. They are getting out of the chicken raising gig. I had to go out after dark, find them and toss them all into the chicken coop. They were all roosting outside the coop on the fence by the old house. Chickens are not that bright. The nice thing is their chickens are used to people and being handled so they are super tame compared to mine. I hope this does not make them easier food for the predators. We now have 24 hens.