Jay's Jellies, Produce, and More: building

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February 27, 2012

Recovering from losing my first plastic...

First of all, if you ever need supplies for your garden or seeds, check out Morgan County Seeds in Missouri. They have wonderful prices, and best of all they understand people when they are in need and do their best to help you out.

On Thursday, February 24th, Linda called and said she had bad news. The building is still there, but the plastic is a total loss. On that day, the wind was blowing a steady 35-40 all day. We are use to that wind, the buildings have taken much worse, but today wasn't going to happen. I am not sure the order of events that let to the failure of the plastic, but it happened. Every time I do a presentation, I am ask if I have lost a building or plastic and I always say "No, not yet!" I knew my day was coming. It comes for everyone at some time. So today was my turn. Either the plastic ripped to the seam and then just split down the side or the ropes broke and then the plastic split at the seam. Either way, it was toast.

On Thursday night, I ordered the plastic and made a request to rush it out the door for shipment on Friday, if possible. I was hoping to get it by mid to late the following week. To my surprise, it was sitting at home on Monday the 27th! Wasting no time, the girls and I decided to risk the light breeze and try to put it on that evening. Since this is about the 11th or 12th time I have put on plastic on a building, I am starting to feel confident in my ability and tonight was very easy.

I have learned what you need to do, where you need to attach it, what you need to worry about. It took us less than an hour to put the plastic on, secure it on all four sides and then go in for supper. I came back out later to finish up stretching it as tight as possible and adding the side strings. All in all,it took about 2 hours to do with 4 kids under the age of 10 and one adult. They listened well and it helps this isn't their first "Plastic Rodeo" either. They knew the drill, they knew they had to hurry and they don't ask questions. Just do as you are told and everyone will be happy!

The before and after shots.

BEFORE

AFTER ( sorry it was taken at night)

We were lucky that the weather wasn't too cold as we have carrots just starting to germinate. We have tried to keep them under row cover, I think it has worked because I was seeing a lot of green under there tonight.

I hope I don't have to do that again anytime soon!

February 14, 2011

The plastic it ON!

Thank you to the many family and friends who came over, and braved the mud and muck, to help put the plastic up on the new high tunnel. I couldn't have done it with out you all. Thank you! You will be finding some "Fruits" of you labor in the near future!

All went as planned, including the wind. It would blow, then die down, blow, then die down. As we were carrying the plastic to the side wall, the wind was blowing. 2 minutes later it died. It was calm the whole time we were working on the building. It was much easier because of that!

More pictures to come.

January 30, 2011

Progress!

I spend most of the day on Saturday and Sunday getting the endwalls up on the new hoop building. It wasn't that hard to do. Dig a hole in the ground, set the post, fill it back in. Level the 2 by 4, attach a bracket at the top (13 feet, 4 inches in the air) screw it in. Move on to the next post. The problem arose because the north end of the tunnel is in the shade. It is January and the ground is frozen! It makes it hard to put in posts. So I had to chip a foot of frozen dirt before I could dig. On the south side, the sun side. It wasn't frozen, digging post holes was easy.

Along the way the 2 by 6 that goes along the edge of the hoop had to be attached. All of these pieces were marked when I took them down and when I put them back up, I was matching cut nails and nail holes. I guess I did a good job!

We still need to add some bracing and blocking between the posts, frame in for the doors and make the doors. Finally, we will add the plastic to the endwalls. Once the plastic is on the endwalls, we will be ready to pull the plastic over the whole building. Once that is done, we will take the smaller hoop building down (in the warm, wind free comfort of the bigger hoop building and reconstruct it at a new location.

All in time, well before planting time that is!

High tunnel when I bought it.