Post Holes for the Greenhouse

Welcome back!

One of the things we're building is a greenhouse. A greenhouse is a house where green things grow. We want to grow plants in our greenhouse. A greenhouse will let plants grow earlier in the spring before the snow melts, and later into the fall and winter after the leaves have fallen off the trees.

Someone in your class noticed there was a corkscrew on the back of the tractor. The real name for that piece of equipment is a post hole digger. It's very heavy! We need it on the back of the tractor when we are moving hay to balance the tractor.

We also use it to dig holes in the ground.

Do you see how much it bounces around?
That's because there are so many rocks in the ground!

Someone has to dig the rest of the rocks out of the hole before we put the mold in.
Matt is strong, so he helps.

The hole has to be deep enough for the mold.

Next we need to fill the mold with cement.

The post goes in next.
There is a hole in the top of the post because the hoop for the greenhouse will fit inside it.
The hoop will help hold up the greenhouse roof.

It's very important that the post is straight, and in the right place.
We use different tools to measure. We used a tape measure to measure where to put the hole, the mold, and the post.

We use this tool, called a level, to make sure that the post is straight.
Do you see the bubbles in the top two tubes on the level?
The bubbles inside the tubes need to be between the two black lines.
It's a little tricky to get the post straight up and down.

It's exciting to see the greenhouse get started!

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Yes, we have a cat.
This is the barn cat, Midnight.

This morning she decided to climb on my back while I was hooking up the hose to the faucet.
She works hard keeping the mice out of the barn.

We also have two indoor cats.
This is Stinky.
She's lazy.
She likes to take naps.

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We've had some problems with the chickens and turkeys roosting in the barn.

The problem is they don't know how to use a bathroom. They leave their droppings all over the food barrels, and the hay in the stalls! Ewwww, YUCK!

Bryon and Matt installed bird spikes so the chickens and turkeys
will find someplace else to sleep at night!

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Photos from the Farm #26

Welcome back!

I hope you had a good week. We've been busy, but not very busy on the farm. We all have jobs outside the home, and we have a farm.

Matt took some photos for me to post. Thank you, Matt!

Cows like to play. Sometimes they play with their water bucket.
That's not a good idea when it is warm outside.

Remi is very thirsty!

Matthew checked on the animals when he got home from work.
He noticed that they were thirsty and filled up their bucket.

Thank you, Matt!

Clover peeked around the barn. She was looking for Matthew.

The bucks wanted to say, "Hi!" Zeek is on the left, Curly is on the right. Can you name some things that are different between Curly and Zeek? Can you name some things that are the same?

I thought you might like to see a photo of Charlie. He's a nice looking rooster!

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Now I have a guessing game for you!

What are we building?

Bryon is sinking some stakes deep into the ground.

When the stake is deep enough into the ground he has to pull out the post he used.

He is also screwing some big metal poles together. Some of poles are curved at the top, but you can't see that in the video.

What do you think we are building?

I'll post more clues in the next few posts. I hope you can come up with some good guesses!

Have a great week!

Fall Planting in the Greenhouse

We wanted to see how some cool weather crops would do in the greenhouse this winter.

Here's how we set things up.
The original idea was to fill the entire bottom of the greenhouse with 4-gallon square buckets filled with water. We had quite a few square buckets that a friend picked up for us for 50¢ each. They were used and needed to be clean. And ours didn't come with handles. It was a great deal--even without handles!

Dumb mistake #1: I was asked to give up quite a few of the buckets I had purchased for someone else.  My friend was giving them to another friend who lives out of town, she didn't have any to spare and asked if I had used all mine yet. She promised to get me more since they were so easy to pick up. I think I gave her 15 or so.

She never got them replaced.

Dumb mistake #2: She also asked if I had any extra lids, she would replace them when she got me more buckets. So I gave her some of my lids.

Nope. Never they never got replaced, either.

I've called the place she got the buckets from.... they NEVER answer their phone. Not in the morning, not in the afternoon, not in the evening. So no more buckets for me unless I can find another supplier.

I ended up with 13 buckets and I'm am praying I can get my hands on another 19 sometime.

There were two reasons we wanted to fill the bottom of the greenhouse with buckets of water. The first is that we hoped it would be a heat sink for the greenhouse in the winter. The second is that if we have a problem with water, we have water stored for the animals that would last a week or so.

Thirteen buckets means we have about 3 days of water for the animals if we are careful with it.

 I filled the 13 buckets I have. Two are without lids so they are covered with plastic bags and duct tape.

Here is the board I laid over the top of the 5 buckets in the previous picture. 

Here are the other eight buckets. I've packed some of the extra space in the greenhouse with bags of dirt we had stored. Hopefully that will provide a little more heat capacity.

What I planted.

These trays have spinach in them. If I can find some lettuce seeds, I'll plant another tray with lettuce in it. I covered the buckets of water with black plastic hoping that would help the water heat up.

The planter on the left has kale, the planter on the right has spinach.

All closed up! 

The thermometer in the greenhouse reads 46˚F, the outside temperature is 45˚F. Not a big temperature difference, but only I closed the greenhouse about 20 minutes ago and the sky is full of clouds.

We might have to insulate the back of the greenhouse with some foam insulation to help with heat retention. We'll keep an eye on the temperature and if it consistently stays below 45˚, then we'll see if we can scrounge some insulation from someone.

This is our first year with a little greenhouse and we're not sure what we're doing. We have our reasons for doing things a specific way, but that doesn't mean it is the best way. It only means that is the best we can come up with right now. If you've got hints, tips, or ideas please feel free to comment and let me know!