Daily Archives: August 22, 2015

It Is Starting To Look Almost Useable!

Aaron and I for yet another weekend, attacked the greenhouse project!  We had to take some time to eyeball and think through the end walls.  The posts you see that frame the doors were too long.  Everything else has fit perfectly and despite the aggravation of dealing with the manufacturer it is indeed one stout structure.  The problem we discovered was in the weight of the roofing and wall trusses.  In an effort to keep me from taking him to court, the manufacturer upgraded the framing steel from 16 gauge to 12.  It is seriously heavy.  I think the design software he was using didn’t take into consideration the sag that would happen because of the added weight.  Aaron sat down and did a few diagrams and we came to the conclusion that the added weight pressed down the roof and made it shorter than expected.  We went back and forth for most of a morning.  After all, this project wasn’t cheap.  Now we are considering cutting two pretty important pieces. It turned out that we were correct and all is coming together fabulously!

We got the front and back doors attached.  Today I finally got to move and fill the 12 raised beds.  They had been weathering in the outdoors since last February but they held up pretty well.  After watching the mice scatter after moving the tarp over the dirt we had delivered back in March, I set to placing and filling the beds.

Tomorrow, Aaron and I will put up the last 4 steel braces on the front and back and then install the fans and vents.  When that is all done, Zina and I will add the last of the plastic panels and check this project off the list as DONE!

I am so glad to see how well this has come together.  It has been such a ridiculous comedy of errors to even get the thing to the property.  This marks the last of my seriously huge projects that I will be doing myself.  There are a few others, but I am so tired of building things that I am going to treat myself to the use of contractors.  I’m spent.  Its time to just farm.

Next up once the permits are issued:  The solar array.  Should be up and going in a couple of weeks!

Beds 2 2015 Beds 3 2015 Beds 2015

Red Skies At Night….. The Country Is On Fire

Aaron and I were driving to the farm yesterday and I asked, “Is it foggy out here?”  I thought my sunglasses were dirty.  Aaron answered, “Yes it is very hazy”.  It turns out that once again our skies are foggy because the country is burning down.  Colorado and the north west are burning in a manner that is almost incomprehensible.  Fire fighters being brought in from other countries because, in essence, we are tapped out.  For the first time, they are looking for volunteers.  If you think climate change is a hoax and you are dumb enough to listen to the bought and paid for politicians that try to convince you it is not an established fact you are one of the dumbest individuals that has ever donned a human suit.  We are truly screwed and it is a very short time until we see most of our species, and the rest of them for that matter, die.  I don’t farm because I think I can do anything about it now.  I farm because it feels right.  That would be my suggestion:  sit down, close your eyes, and ask yourself…. what do you want while you have the time to choose.  I can no longer act like it isn’t happening when I have known for decades that it is.  Peace.  Please. Peace.

Blood Red Sun, Pink Skies.  From hundreds of fires.  We really screwed up this place.

Fire sun 2015