Jay's Jellies, Produce, and More

February 17, 2011

We have germination!

It is hard to believe, but on February 11th, I started seeds in the high tunnel for this years early harvest. The morning of the 11th it was -11. I planted that evening. Fast forward less than one week and they are coming up!

These little Haikuri Turnips sure will be tasty come Mid to late March!

February 16, 2011

The difference in a Weeks time

One week ago, on a Thursday morning, it was -11 below zero. Soil temps hanging on in the low 40's. Fastforward one week, high of 67 and the soil temps are in the low 60's. Last Thursday I planted 1.5 beds of seeds. Most of these are slow to germinate, but with this added early heat, I am sure they will be coming up soon.

Time will tell. Until then, we can dream about spring and summer.

Here is one of my most favorite harvest pictures.

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.

February 7, 2011

Endwalls almost done

I worked most of Saturday to complete the endwalls. I had to add the 2 bv 6's above the two 8 foot doors on both ends. Then add extra framing for the windows above each walk through door. I still need to complete the 8 foot doors. They are going to be plastic, stretched across opening. Then I am going to sandwich the plastic between two furring strips. Once this is done, I will mount a guide on each side so we can pull the door down to vent. The door will have pins in it to hold the plastic up. My hope is that I will be able to vent the heat out and not have cold air pouring in on the tomatoes.

In my mind it works great, in real life is another story.

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.