Greenhouse progress

Here's what it looks like so far...

Spring work

Since we've had such ridiculously warm weather this month I figured it was time to turn my attention back to the greenhouse. I got the door frame up plus a couple of windows. Slow and steady...

I'm also adding a frog pond next to a new garden so we can grow squash... hopefully the frogs will take care of the squash bugs for us. I dug the hole for this last year when I needed the clay. Now it has a liner and I'm still working on the border.

Julien and Hank are very curious to know what's going on in their yard!

Greenhouse Entrance and The Shaggs

Finished the step to the greenhouse entrance today. I dug a shallow foundation and lined it with landscaping fabric. Then it's basically a border of slate built up in rows, filled in with gravel and sand and then capped with the surface you see in the picture. I just finished reading The Art & Craft of Stonework by David Reed and wanted to try something. Plus I wanted to get this done so I could see how much slate I have leftover. It's a little off-center with the entrance, which is annoying  because I actually measured when I laid it out. I think it has to do w/ how I stacked it, plus the top stone on the right juts out where the one on the left is missing that corner. Like the guy with the portable mill said when he saw how I was building the greenhouse - doesn't look too scientific.

 I think I'm going to pack it in for the winter on the greenhouse. I'm out of sand and will probably save my money (or spend it on heating the house) and get a truckload delivered in the spring.

This is a picture of the Shaggs. We got them back in August from the Amish farm but I think someone else rescued them and gave them to him. They had their beaks clipped and all the guy would tell me is that he didn't know how old they were or what kind of birds they were. They have to be Rhode Island Reds, and I'm guessing they must be somewhere between 16 - 20 weeks old but they haven't started laying eggs yet. Their pal's name is foot-foot.

Books and New Pictures

I started using this blog b/c when I began planning the cob wall and the greenhouse I was reading a lot of other blogs to try and learn how to use specific techniques, solve problems, etc. I thought if I ended up doing anything interesting, it would only be fair to return the favor and share my methods. However, as I started building, I ended up relying more on books and now only really look at blogs to see cool pictures of other people's work. So, here's a list of books I haven't mentioned yet but have read and learned from:

Michael Reynolds:  Earthship, How to Build Your Own
Ianto Evans:  The Hand Sculpted House
Becky Bee:  The Cob Builder's Handbook
Joseph F. Kennedy, Michael Smith, and Catherine Wanek:  The Art of Natural Building
Mike Oehler:  Earth-Sheltered Greenhouse
Rob Roy:  Cordwood Building

And here are some pictures of the Greenhouse. Slab was layed in 8' sections with a sand&gravel/clay/cement mix. I mixed a wheelbarrow at a time and shoveled it into a form made from 2x4's. Each slab section has a sheet of chickenwire in the center. Slab is just sitting on top of the tire foundation. North wall is 18", east and west are 12". South wall is 18" but most of that will serve as an interior shelf; I'll set the windows on the outside edge of the slab. There are three rows of slate mortared together on top of the slab at the north, east, and west. Mortar is also sand/clay/cement (mix is roughly 3-1-1) with the gravel screened out and spread on the floor. The floor has 2 layers of landscaping fabric between the ground and the gravel. I built the first window frame for the east wall and started the first (northeast) stackwall corner. That's it so far!

View from west (with bottom of doorway frame)

View from South

Irene

Well, the greenhouse roof is now "in a heap on the ground over collapsed posts" (as I feared in the earthquake). The hurricane took down the 3 largest persimmon trees in our backyard, two of them fell onto the greenhouse and took it down. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. However, the ranch-like arch that I put over the entrance to the goat pen caught one of the trees and kept it from smashing the fence and probably the chicken coop run. So... that was good.

Some photos Crystal took of our yard after the storm...

 

All Shook Up

Progress on the greenhouse so far:

Over the past few weeks, I finished the last row of tires, set piers, and put up posts. The posts are a collection of what we had down on our property - 2 cedar, 2 oak, and 2 maple. Cutting and peeling posts is hard but I enjoy it. Almost wish I needed more. After setting the posts on the piers, I got 2 oak beams and 2 cedar beams w/ the help of Jon Sola. I peeled all 4 of those and then decided the cedar were too narrow. So I set double 2x6 beams at the South that I also got from Jon leftover from a barn we took down on his parent's property. Next, I took a trip to the Amish lumber mill to order rafters and ceiling boards, all poplar. The order process consisted of me writing down what I wanted on a sheet of paper and putting my initials on it. I was there on a Saturday and they told me to come back Thursday. I talked to a friend who asked for some wood and was told to come back but when he showed up again they didn't have it. I didn't get my hopes up to high b/c of his story but when I showed up looking for my order on Thursday, it was there all bundled and ready to go. I think my friend forgot to write down what he wanted and initial it. I set the rafters on Friday and had Jon's help again putting up ceiling boards Saturday.

Northwest corner: Posts, oak beams, and rafters

View from the Southeast

Today the earthquake hit Virginia and it was pretty strong here. I was in the middle of a meeting at work, in a corner office on the second floor, and the whole building shook and swayed. I've never felt an earthquake before and it was definitely unnerving. As soon as we all got out of the building and I realized everyone was ok, I started to worry about the greenhouse. I began to picture the roof down on the ground in a heap over collapsed posts. But when I got home....

It survived!!

Greenhouse Foundation

I finally made some progress on the greenhouse. The first two rows of tires are finished and so is the drain. The drain is set on the inside perimeter, just below the level of the first row of tires, and runs out the south end (to the right in the 2nd photo). Pounding tires is slow work, and fatigue is definitely a factor in how much I can finish in a day. Especially this weekend with 100+ degree heat to contend with.

Footings with first row of tires

Greenhouse Foundation