A good old-fashioned greenhouse raising!

Over the past four weeks or so Keith and I have been focused on one thing and one thing only-getting this greenhouse up! We bought a kit from Oregon Valley Greenhouses. Saying it's a kit makes it sound so simple! It was really all the giant pieces of a 16 by 20 ft structure and some confusingly vague instructions. It took a while, but we finally got it all up!

We prepared a section in the pasture that gets an amazing amount of sun even in the winter and has kind of a sweet view!


BJ and Fang (now referred to as Ebony and Ivory) were helpful throughout the whole project. I'm pretty sure that Ivory/Fang is hoping to live in the greenhouse-that will not happen!





For the frist few days of working on the greenhouse were absolutely beautiful! Warm sunny days in the 60s and 70s were perfect for pouring concrete and framing the structure. Most of my job on these days was holding the metal posts level while Keith left for 20 minutes to mix concrete, that kind of sucked, but at least it was nice out!


Then winter descended with a vengeance! Snow, freezing temps and wind made hours of working outside less enjoyable, but thank goodness for smartwool and snow pants! This amount of snow this early in the fall was as a reminder as to why we are even building this greenhouse.



The part I was really worried about was pulling and the securing the plastic on to the frame. Through this whole project it was just Keith and I working together and I thought this was the time to get more that two pair of hands involved. Keith firmly believed we could do this together and I have to give it to him-he was right and we got it up with pretty much no problems at all! After that we just had to put the corrugated plastic ends on and we were good to go!



Today was the first day I had time to actually work in the greenhouse! I planted my little broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula, endive, and leeks sprouts that I hope survive through the winter! I also planted seeds of beets, carrots, radishes, and even more lettuce. Please grow! But take my word that there is something really planted under there because this is what the inside of the greenhouse is going to look like pretty much all winter-rows double covered with frost protection fabric.


Today started out sunny and while I was out there working today the temperature got up to 75 degrees inside! But while I was in there the weather turned dark and stormy-at the moment we are having a mini blizzard!


I know I'm planing a little late in the fall/winter, but hopefully soon we'll have some veg!