Goals Past & Future

Our second year on the farm is drawing to an end, so we're looking back on what we've managed to accomplish and planning out next year's To Do list.  We can only completely cross off half of the 2017 list; one item is postponed indefinitely and we at least made progress on everything else.  Of course there were plenty of projects big and small that weren't on the list!

Speaking of lists here's our progress for this past year's wish list:

1. Buy a tractor - OH YEAH!

2. Finish grading/sprucing up the front yard of the cabin - Not done
This has been on the list since 2016, and each year we make progress but don't get it all the way done.  This year we added azaleas and a crepe myrtle, but still need to do the grading, paint the concrete block foundation, and plant more shrubs.

3. Clear brush and small trees along the lane - partially done (about 15%)
It's a marathon, not a sprint!

4. Prune the grape vine and clear vines from the Catalpa Tree - DONE

5. Start our orchard(s) - We added pear, peaches, apples, pomegranates, loquats, more blueberries, blackberries and persimmons. We plan to add even more, but starting the orchards is definitely DONE.

6. Get our gliders refinished and on the front porch - this is half done, one out of two are finished.

7. Build a farmhouse table for the dining room - On hold. Neta is still deciding whether she wants this or not. More to come possibly.

8. Clean out the little barn and make it a workshop and add a greenhouse - DONE (mostly). Four steps forward and one step back...on the cleaning front. But we have electricity and a workbench and, obviously, a greenhouse.

9. Plant a wildflower meadow - DONE (and progressing each season). It was only a wedge of wildflowers stretching about 75 feet in each direction and about 15 feet wide, but we'll give ourselves credit.  It's a good start as we'll expand each year until we fill the field.

10. Put up bird and bat houses and hummingbird feeders - Partially. We did get the hummingbird feeders up and at one time had over 8 hummingbirds fighting over a spot.

Some of the other things we got done this year include:

• We cleared the underbrush and weeds from the first few rows of pines, expanding our back lawn.   
• We had several loads of fill dirt brought in, which Craig used to fill in low spots and areas where the logging trucks left deep ruts.  
• We expanded our vegetable garden, more than doubling it in size.  
• Craig cut numerous small trees and innumerable blackberry brambles on the island, as part of our plan to make the island more of a focal point in the landscape.  

So that wraps up 2017. We'll be back in 2018 with a new list of goals.

And speaking of new goals:  as we were discussing our plans for next year, our son Robert suggested we take a poll to find out what our readers would like to see.  He also made us promise to give him credit!

This is your chance to tell us what to do.  We've got three options (you didn't think we'd give you free reign, did you?!).  Let us know what you want to see and we'll include it in our 2018 To Do list.

1. Build a vine trellis tunnel - something like this (just not as impressive):
   
2. We've got part of the trunk of the cedar we had taken down when we demolished the old house that we think we can make into a bench.
3. Make some bird houses to put up.  We grew (and are currently drying) birdhouse gourds this year, plus Neta will probably get crafty with stuff she finds around the farm.

What project should we do in 2018?

If you're on a mobile device and cannot see our poll above, click the link at the bottom of the screen to view the Web Version.

The Greenhouse - The Finale

Just as 2017 is coming to a close - more on that in another post - our greenhouse is ready to go.  In the last couple of weeks I managed to get all of the air gaps covered, filled and stuffed with the silver bubble-wrap and spray foam. Anywhere I could see daylight or feel cool air, I covered or sprayed it.

It's not pretty, but it works!

Once I was confident that it would hold heat, or more accurately keep out cold, moving outside air, we moved the flowers and plants in that we wanted to protect from freezing weather. The "R" value of the plastic isn't much, but throw in a heater or two and it'll stay above freezing. Once the air-tight integrity was addressed, we were still waiting on getting power to the barn and greenhouse.  In the meantime I ran 200' of extension cord from the house to the greenhouse just to run one 1250 watt heater. On our coldest night (so far) the temp got down to 28 and the greenhouse got down to 36. Not bad for a single heater in a 10' x 20' space (8'-10' ceiling). And as of last week once the weather warmed back up into the 60's - 70's...

We got power!!!

Our current set up

The midday temps on sunny days have been in the high 80's to low 90's (heaters off, obviously). Our flowers and tomato are loving it!

January tomatoes, anyone?

Blooms on the Spider Plant.

Our Satsuma Orange is putting out new growth. Looks like flowerbuds too!

A blooms loving the "summer" warmth

So that about wraps it up for the greenhouse. I still have a shelf to build along the windows, but for the sake of checking off a list item, this greenhouse is done as it will safely protect our plants in the winter and even allow us to grow citrus and tropicals. That was our goal.

Speaking of lists...we'll recap this past year's wish list in our next post (coming soon!)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

The Greenhouse - Part 2

When we last left off there were still two walls to go. The urgency grows because as they say on "Game of Thrones", "Winter is coming." I'll grant you that winter down here isn't much of a deep freeze but more like a handful of days sprinkled throughout late December to mid-February where the nighttime temperatures get into the mid to high 20's. But still...it's enough to hurt or kill some of our tender plants and especially our citrus and tropical plants.

So the latest progress is... I've put up the third wall, which consists of 1/2" plywood at the bottom and I took advantage of supplies that I had on hand and used a large roll of sheet plastic for the upper wall. It was a quick and easy solution and will get me through the next year or two.

After that was put up and screwed and stapled into place, it was time to use the tractor to scrape the ground smooth (relatively so) and put down weed-stop cloth and order a dump truck or two of gravel to spread over the floor.

Third wall and some of the weed-stop cloth

The gravel is spread here...

...and here. I wanted enough to make things nicer for the heavy equipment too.
Greenhouse wall is to the right.

Once all of that was in place, I was now free to put up the final (front) wall.

Beginning to frame out the front wall with a door we reclaimed from the old house

All framed in. Door and window installed and plastic panels in place.

With the main part of the work done, now comes the detail work to keep the warm air in and the cold air out. The means covering up the spacing in the rafters at the edges of the roof and other overhead areas. It also means injecting spray foam into the open channels of the plastic (corrugated) panels at the top, bottom and around the windows and door. There are a lot of gaps and each type requires a different solution.

These are the rafters (and spaces I have to fill). Actual pine posts of an undetermined age.

This is the gap at the back end (same on the front) where I'll have to
cut pieces of the panels at an angle to fit.

I started with the biggest gap of all, where the front wall meets the corner of the barn. For that gap I used spray foam (in a can) to fill in every place I could see daylight coming through. Plus, it was sort of an out of the way place to practice my first time using spray foam. It's not pretty, but it filled everywhere I needed to fill and I cannot see any holes where air can pass through.

Ugly, but it's an airtight corner.

Since I was already using spray foam, I decided to keep going and fill in the gaps along the bottom and around the windows where the corrugated panels allow air in.

It expands quite a bit. I'll trim away the excess in a day or two

Along the bottom of the windows.

A better view along the ground and the window bottoms

I ran out of spray foam (4 cans so far and I'm about 40% done) so I turned my attention to adding weather-stripping to a window (as a test), a hook to hold it closed and a lid hinge (or stay) to hold it open.

I purchased storm door weather-stripping as I could get it in thicker sizing as some of my window gaps are quite large. I estimated I'd need over 40 feet of it as each window opening is approximately 28" x 28" and I have 10 windows. We'll see how far it all goes.

Weather-stripping and a hook to hold it closed

The lid hinge (or stay) to hold it open. No idea how long that cheap brass-looking metal will last.

It works!

For the rafter ends on each side I'm going to use the shiny aluminum bubble insulation. It will wrap around any shape and can handle moisture and humidity which is perfect for a greenhouse.

It staples into place, wraps around things and covers very large areas.

There are a lot of little things left to do, but the greenhouse is essentially done. It can now fulfill its purpose of protecting our plants from frost and mild freeze. The next step is getting electricity to the barn so I can run a couple of heaters out there. That should happen in the next couple of weeks.

We'll be back with another update after that happens.

If we don't blog before then, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone!

The Greenhouse - Part 1

Next steps... We had a brief cold snap a couple of weeks ago. We had overnight temps in the mid-30s which put the greenhouse project on the fast track. Of course overnight temps are back in the high-50s to low-60s, which means the daytime temps, for doing the build of the greenhouse are in the low to mid 80s. That may sound nice to our more northern friends, but trust me, it feels hot, especially in the more direct sun.

Refreshing your memory from the last blog post. We started out with this:

Before

And we left you with this:

In Between

The first steps were laying the "foundation" which consisted of leveling 4x4 beams along the bottom and securing them to the posts on the two exposed sides. Each span was approximately 10 feet.

Leveling up the "foundation"

Once the beams were in place, it was time to start building the upright structure. I wanted to create the first level to approximately "counter height" (around 36 inches) so I'll be able to build my interior shelf for plants to that level. It will also provide the base to my window frames. All framing was also going to be built on 24 inch centers (24 inches between the center of each stud or upright support). Houses are typically built on 16 inch centers, but, a) this is only a greenhouse, and; b) I'm not supporting a lot of weight or a second floor.

The first section (lower structure)

Second section

All lowers complete

Once the lower, counter height structure was finished, it was time to build out the next level and frame out my windows. We removed as many windows (10) as we could salvage from the original farmhouse and this was the perfect project for them. After measuring the windows we determined we had enough room for 3 in each exposed section and one for the door end. We also decided to hinge them at the top. We're still figuring out what we're going to use to hold them open. We'll probably use a metal hook to hold them closed against the weather stripping we intend to use to help keep the cold air out.

First set installed

All windows framed and some upper structure in place

Once all of the window frames were built and the upper structure was in place on one full side, I decided to jump to installing the clear plastic panels along the east wall of the greenhouse. I was eager to see how it would look from an aesthetic perspective.

First two panels

Installing the panels was pretty simple as I made sure all of my measurements were on and my upright structure was plumb. I used a utility knife to cut out around the windows.

One side complete

Interior view

Getting the first side done was a mostly all day job, though that day also included caulking all of the loose panes in the old windows and finishing installing the last 3 windows on that side. The next day I finished the upper framing of the south end. Today I finished the panels on that end as well.

Two sides complete* (*still have to cover gaps at the very top, between and up to the rafters)

Interior view

I'm at the halfway point, so to speak. I still have two walls to go. The north end (closest to you in the above picture) will have a door (French door, also salvaged from the old house) and a single window. The other side (right side of picture above) will be covered with plastic panels as well. I plan to remove every other plank that you see on that wall and move them up to create larger openings. This will give me structure to attach my plastic panels, and also allow more light into the area where I keep my mower, tractor and other equipment.

The remaining work also includes: scraping/raking the area smooth, putting down heavy weed-stop cloth and bringing in a load of gravel about 3 inches deep for the floor (we'll also do the same for the tractor/mower area), filling any panel gaps with spray foam, weather-stripping the windows...oh yeah...and getting electricity run to the barn so we can heat the place this winter.  I envision it looking like this:

A guy can dream, can't he?

Depending on how well the remaining work goes will determine whether we replace the roof with heavier duty clear plastic panels this year, or wait until later. This is plenty of light inside the "greenhouse" for now, so we're pretty sure any tender plants we put in there will get plenty of sun.

I hope to have the place built and sealed up (reasonably) tight in the next couple of weeks so I can write about Part 2. We'll keep you posted.

Checking off another project - mostly

For those of you waiting with bated breath for another blog entry, sorry, you've already passed out, gasped and revived and then repeated this process over and over for days, weeks and months. Well...wait no longer and breathe easy.  We're back!!!

The biggest reason we haven't updated you about things is, well okay, the many reasons are, we had a disappointing output from the garden (too much rain, weeds, etc. so we didn't want to blog about that), we have been very busy and when we haven't been busy we've just plain been lazy or have forgotten. There...we've admitted it.  But now we have progress to report.  Back in January one of the to-do items on our list for this year was to clean out the little barn and add a greenhouse on the back.  The barn is fairly clean so the addition of the greenhouse has begun.

Before

Let us set some expectations for you.  First, there is still no "greenhouse"...yet, but we're  starting on it.  Phase One involved raising the roof (this joke never gets old). Actually the side roof over the open side of the barn.

The span that needed to be raised was around 42 feet long. Some of the wood joists are rotten in places. This was going to require very fragile handling. After sitting down and going over a lot of algebraic equations, some geometry, in-depth engineering, architectural drawings and just plain old gut instinct I figured out how to do this very delicately.  Just lift that baby with my trusty tractor bucket like a boss.

Nothing a little brute force can't handle.

With boards and metal creaking and groaning, I lifted a corner of the roof. To my surprise, the posts lifted out of their holes and very little was bent out of place. This looked like it was going to be easy.

Another benefit of the tractor is ensuring that the structure isn't going to collapse on your head while working.

First span in place.

As mentioned, the entire length of the roof to be raised was around 42 feet. So my plan was to do 2 - 10' sections first, then 3 - 8' sections to finish off (that's 44', I know. More on that later). The larger sections will comprise the greenhouse portion of the barn, the other sections are wide enough for me to back the tractor in and drop my implements such as my tiller or bush hog (more on that later too).

The second 10' span is in place.

As most of the holes I needed were already there from previous posts which ended up being in about the same places I needed them, I didn't use the post-hole digger on the tractor and opted for digging them with a shovel. Luckily I was pretty close to the right depth with each hole I dug as well, only having to make small adjustments to get my top pieces level.

The third span! Two left to go!

Oops!  Sometimes the wood on the rafters didn't hold up to the lifting.

As I went along from span to span I was worried that the metal sheets on the roof would separate, but other than a small spot at the edge between the first two spans, everything stayed intact. The last two spans were the easiest of all and only required one lift with the tractor.

I just looks so much cleaner and open. Once I put windows
in that side of the barn it will be a lot brighter inside.

So about having 44' of boards for a 42' span.  I'll just cut that off.  Or maybe Neta will want to use it to hang something on, like a hanging basket. Who knows?

Remember that I mentioned backing the tractor under to keep my implements there? I'd already been doing that, but could only go so far because the roll bar on the tractor hit the edge of the roof. So by raising the roof higher and having 8' of clearance under that support beam solves that issue, right?  Not exactly.

The barn isn't built on even ground. The left side (south end) where the greenhouse is going to go has 96 - 98 inches of clearance, the tractor roll bar is at 95 inches. Keep in mind that my support beams are level. However, the further to the right (north) you go the higher the ground gets. At the far right side I've only got about 84 inches of clearance.I can back into the middle spot, but not the next one. DOH!!!  I might have to do some digging and leveling. We'll see.

The finished product...as new posts and supports go. On to framing out the greenhouse!

That's all for now. We'll update you as we begin to build out the greenhouse.