A Greenhouse Build (Summer is just the time!)

[BaboonScience]

Several years ago, we acquired a greenhouse (very large) from a local feed store that was going out of business. The total building was in two sections, about 60 feet by 21 feet each. We sold half of it and made back the cost of purchase. The rest has been sitting around waiting for the right time, which is now. Not the whole thing, the neighbors would complain! And why not now? Summer is upon us, what better time to build a hot house? We decided to throw up a 12 by 16 foot section for starters. The idea is to have a place where we can try some new growout techniques and perhaps expand on the food supply.
The build looked simple enough at the start. We will see where it takes us.
We finished the post foundation last week. And started to place the walls, starting with the door to now where.

And you can see some of the rest of the house in the background.

And yes, it might be nice if I mow the lawn but then what would the deer have to eat?

Finally got the walls up today and will finish the roof hoops tomorrow. Of course, we are getting plenty of rain, making that raw dirt a perfect place for mud wrestling. More pics tomorrow.
John

[PaulG]

Of course, we are getting plenty of rain, making that raw dirt a perfect place for mud wrestling. More pics tomorrow.

More pics of the greenhouse hopefully.... not the mud wrestling

Coming along nicely though.

[Amie]

Okay, stupid question...what makes your dirt so red? Copper? Can you grow anything in that? I thought our soil was bad, but at least it's the color of, well, dirt.

[Clownfish75]

I also have a question, is venison a good fish food?

Christian

[Lady Baboon]

Amie,
we have a lot of iron in the ground. Combined with the clay it is just perfect for a garden. grrrrrr Takes a lot of mulch and horse manure and back braking work to turn it into something usable.

Christian,
now that is a thought. We have not even tried that yet. lol Maybe you just gave John an idea.

[Luis A M]

Okay, stupid question...what makes your dirt so red? Copper? Can you grow anything in that? I thought our soil was bad, but at least it's the color of, well, dirt.

A good question,Amie. I never saw this red soil in North America.But this is the typical soil of most tropical SA.

I also have a question, is venison a good fish food?

???

John,I´m sure the weather in Summer will be very hot there.It is very difficult to prevent greenhouses from overheating.See that Anthony C.says in his book something like that greenhouse coral farming is only possible in higher latitudes.
True,ORA is built in greenhouses,but they are very large and tall and they run large exhaust fans.

[BaboonScience]

Luis
When we purchased the greenhouse, we also bought the evaporative cooling system. That will be installed later.
We do have a powerful exhaust fan and louvered doors. That will be used for the time being.
Georgia is famous (supposedly) for its red clay. Very high in iron (rust), thus the color. I am planning to use the packed clay as flooring. Wet it and pack it flat. It dries as hard as terra cotta.
Fresh pictures posted later tonight.
John

[BaboonScience]

No Rain today! Made major headway in spite of the mud from last nights storms.
First, yesterdays pics. Was too dark when I finished today to take pics.
Will get them in tomorrow.
But this is what the framing is looking like.


This one shows the louvers for the vents. The larger one is for the evaporative cooler intake and the smaller one goes to the exhaust fan. The exhaust fan will go at the top of the end wall, next to the door.


It just occurred to me that the red clay looks so red that the picture looks doctored. Other than resizing, these pics have not even been enhanced. Raw camera output. That is really the color of wet Georgia soil.
John

[lance]

looking good so far

lance

[PaulG]

It just occurred to me that the red clay looks so red that the picture looks doctored. Other than resizing, these pics have not even been enhanced. Raw camera output. That is really the color of wet Georgia soil.
John

Looks normal to me, but then I grew up in an area that was known for its iron oxide clay & to make matter worse my father was a builder so more often than not I was out on a worksite with him.

The properties of that stuff are amazing, no matter how hard you tried you would not be able to avoid getting the stuff on you when it was wet, almost had magnetic properties now getting it off... that was fun NOT.

[Amie]

Well, it's a very pretty red, if that has any merit. But I can imagine that it would stick right to your skin and get all over your house if you weren't careful. We have one of those exhaust fans in our house, if I'm not mistaken. It's a huge attic fan that sucks air through the windows, through the house and out the attic. No one here in Utah has ever seen one before, but we knew about it because everyone had one in Texas where I'm originally from. It paid for itself the first year we installed because it reduced our air conditioning usage. Great invention.

[Peter Schmiedel]

John,

good to see that you recovered that good that you already have energy for new projects

[BaboonScience]

John,

good to see that you recovered that good that you already have energy for new projects

Thanks Peter
By the way, is your knee any better? I hope that you are up and around fairly soon if not already! I do wish you a full and speedy recovery.
John

[spk]

Cool stuff, i am envious.
lets see more pics.

Steve

[BaboonScience]

Finally making some headway again.
We had a problem with drainage in the red clay so we had to change the slope on the uphill side of the house and increase the drainage field to divert water flow under as well as around the greenhouse.
It took the excavation contractor (me) several days to move the soil from the uphill side to another location and another few days for the drainage specialist (me) to ditch out, lay the drainage pipe and backfill with gravel. In the process, the drainage contractor discovered that the conduit for the electrical had a bad joint and was taking on water. After the electrical contractor (me) had repaired that conduit, additional drainage was added to move water away from the buried electrical conduit.
To make a short story long, those jobs added several days and several bruises to the project. But it was well worth it. This was the first day that I did not feel like I was hauling half of the work site around on the soles of my shoes. Dry ground!
The skin is on the house, FINALLY. Today was a day of rest and allowing the sun to soften the plastic, removing the wrinkles and creases. Will finish pulling it tight tomorrow and start placing the Lexan end panels.


Finally, the Skirt around the base and the construction phase is done.
Electrcal is next!
Then plumbing will be installed.
Finally, the working end. More on that as the project evolves. I have been talking with several MOFIBians about some innovative projects.
OH! And I need to get the cleaning person (me) in to wash that red clay and grime off of the plastic.
John

[spk]

John,
Hi there, looking good. I am glad that you have such an able bodied team of contractors (you) to get this job done.
Really neat.
Would love to see this in the flesh sometime too.

[Amie]

Looking good. I guess you are going to have to hire a plumber now...I hope you are paying these contractors well. I can't wait until the projects are up and running.

[Lady Baboon]

Paying these contractors is my obligation Lots of good food and don't forget the home made cookies to keep up the strength

[spk]

Tina,
Glad to see that you are the catering, health and Saftey officer too.
Keep those pics coming John.

[BaboonScience]

OK,OK! It has been some time since I did an update here.
No new pictures today, they will come tomorrow.
I had to lay off of the build for a couple of days. I had an inverted microscope tune-up that I had promised to complete for a friend. NICE trinocular scope with digital camera and all.
The landscape contractor did spend a couple of hours a day adjusting the drainage away from the greenhouse and cleaning up from the drainage ditch work. Boy are his muscles sore and he wishes that he had rented a bobcat.
Also moved the plumbing and electrical supplies in, so that work is next.
I am planning to run the system with two Barracuda pumps, one for the greenhouse systems and one for the fish room supply.
More later.
John

[BaboonScience]

Just an update.
Regrettably, I have had to lay off of this project for a bit.
The reason, the septic system totally failed about the time of the previous post. After over a week of working on the system (lots of digging in.....muck), I have done all that I can. It appears that the drainage field may have completely failed. If that is the case, we will have to replace the field to the tune of big bucks (for us at least).

At any rate, other work (real work) has fallen seriously behind schedule. I have to spend the next week or so in an attempt to make people happy. That means finishing the accountable jobs.

As soon as I get caught up, this project will start again.
John

[BUGSY]

now i see why you havent returned pms.....this is cool.....greg

[BaboonScience]

Greg,
I have responded. To almost all of them.
Wierd that you have not received them.
Sorry, man!

Send me an email johnlauth@bellsouth.net
I'll get through that way.
John

[BUGSY]

john.....please dont take offense,i made a misunderstood comment.... building a greenhouse is a... lot of time consuming.... and back breaking work.....cant wait to see it when we get moved up there.....greg

[Clownfish75]

This looks so cool john,

Whats next on the list to be done?

Christian