Reachwood perfect.

Pretty early on in our time here, we knew we were going to want/need a greenhouse of some sort. It was pretty obvious that we weren't going to build a state-of-the-art glass greenhouse, so we opted for the next best thing -- a Reachwood-perfect high tunnel.  Reachwood-perfect is a phrase we've coined to describe something that might not be made perfectly or the most beautiful by most standards, but it functions, looks okay, and is a job that's finished.  I think the chicken tractor falls into this category.

At any rate, we found a NH based company that supplies you with a kit to build your own high tunnel.  Sounds easy, right?  Buy the kit, get the kit, put the kit together.  Simple. It shouldn't take too long (this phrase is no longer allowed to be uttered on our farm).

Here we go...

The building site -- alllllllllmost level.  It has to be level from side to side, but it can be on a slope end to end.  You can see that we started building this in the fall (2013).

All of this + some wood + a LOT of time = high tunnel.

First order of business, pound the posts 2 ft into the ground. The kicker -- they have to be plumb in all directions.

Get it!  The board is a guide to help us keep the posts spaced correctly and (hopefully) plumb.

Procedure -- post driver to get it started, sledgehammer to finish it off.

Naturally, we were well supervised.

We've squared the corners (at least 3 times), and marked level with the carpenter string.  All lined up and ready to be put in -- piece of cake....this shouldn't take too long. 

Son of a #$)@%*#!!!!!! We wanted to double check to make sure everything was spaced as it should be.  This happened at least 2 times.  By the time we got all the posts in and squared, we had pounded them in, removed them, and re-pounded them in at least twice.  

To get to this point, it is supposed to be a simple putting together of the pieces. You simply put the tops of the bents together, then slide them into the larger posts (the ones in the ground) and secure them with bolts.  Here's the kicker.  In all of our driving in, removing, driving, removing, driving we managed to dent one of the big posts in the ground (how this happened still escapes us).  As a result, we were unable to get one of the bents in all the way....this will come back to haunt us for the duration of high tunnel construction.

Ridge pole is up -- and clearly some time has passed since we started.  With the amount of snow we had this winter, it was almost impossible to get any work done on the high tunnel -- not to mention that we were busy plowing our road and cutting firewood in the snow.

Aaaaannnndddd....we're back!  Spring has sprung, and we're itching to get the tunnel done so we can plant seedlings in it.  We've framed one wall, put on the hip boards (shoulder height, why hip boards?!?!), baseboards, and we're ready to finish the walls and get the plastic on.  We are feeling so confident about the speediness with which we're going to finish the high tunnel that we got 2 yards of greenhouse compost so we're ready to plant!  Right.

One wall is done (save for the window at the top -- we want ventilation).   Yes, the door is purposely off centered....though I honestly don't remember why.  I'm sure it was totally logical.

Super sweet cedar door for $30 from a local junk shop -- love the hooks on the back.  We'll find good use for those.

Second wall is framed -- we're going to use plastic on this end since it is the sunny side of the house (not south, but the sunnier end).  Waiting for the greenhouse plastic set us back a bit, but it was worth it.

Plastic is on!  We got an old sliding door that we're going to put on hinges and on this end.

Baxter is inspecting the area for planting.  As the spring presses on, things are growing and growing in the tunnel -- and not the things we want to be growing in there...

Weeding has happened, extra earth has been added in the low spots, and we're ready to spread the compost.  

Spreading compost....and the door hooks are already coming in handy. :) 

More and more compost -- so delicious!

Warm compost on a cool day = oh yeah!

A little nest dug into the dirt just your size = oh yeah!

 

Compost is spread and ready for plants....almost.

 

Paths are lined with shavings to help fight off weeds.

Life is good -- and my hair is a situation.

Tomatoes were so desperate to get in the ground, we couldn't wait for the plastic.  We were repeatedly thwarted on putting the plastic up by crazy windy days.  Wielding 36 ft of plastic in high winds = recipe for disaster.

Planting peppers -- one particularly small seedling (attacked by...ahem...a certain dog with lots of grey fur) needed special attention and some TLC.

 

Giant roll o' plastic -- farm manager is ready for the challenge.

Are we up for the challenge?  Our faces aren't very convincing...

It wasn't that scary -- we like working together. It actually went way more smoothly than any other aspect of the high tunnel -- and way more smoothly than we thought it would.  It actually didn't take that long.

I love this shot.  My dad took all the photos of us putting on the plastic, and he totally nailed it with this one.

Almost done!

Roll the plastic down, and as quickly as you can, attach it to the hip board.  Another aspect that went relatively smoothly and quickly. :)

Attach the plastic to the ends, trim off the excess, and voilà! 

It's a thing of beauty.

From another angle...

OK, just one more.

 

They're so happy -- if only I had a photo of them now! They're practically at the top of the tunnel.

The high tunnel will allow us to grow greens all winter long, and we'll get a jump start on the growing season early in the spring. There you have it.  We started last fall and finished this spring.  It shouldn't take too long....and it's totally perfect...for our standards.

450+ gallons in less than an hour!

It is a gorgeous day outside, and there are plenty of weeds to be pulled, but alas, I'm feeling less than optimal so I'm taking this time to write a much overdue post.  One of these days I'll finally get some sort of a regular schedule going on this blog...

We've all heard the talk about the benefit of using rain barrels to collect water, but it wasn't until my permaculture course that I realized just how much water we were 'wasting' by letting it just run off our house.  When we moved into our house, there were no gutters on, and we had a hard time keeping the basement from flooding with really heavy rains.  We wanted to add gutters to collect the rainwater, but we were also looking forward to the benefits of keeping the water away from the foundation of our house.

Enter rain barrel construction.  Now, you can buy rain barrels completely ready to go at many hardware stores, and there are even some cities that sell them or give them away.  We bought 3 barrels that were put together off 'Bob the Barrel Man' on Craigslist.  The put together barrels were about $75 and the plain barrels were $30, so we opted for doing the rest of the plumbing ourselves.  Our overall plan was to daisy-chain many barrels together uphill from our veggie beds, high tunnel, and duck pond so we can use the water as efficiently as possible.

Here we go...

Site prep -- remove grass, add gravel, repeat.

More prep work -- add cinder blocks on which to build a level platform.  This is the side of the house that will have the most barrels that will be used to water our veggies.

Here's the other side of the house -- these barrels will also be used for veggie watering, but also for duck pond flushing. The pond doesn't have a pond liner and is spring fed, but when we have a dry spell in the middle of the summer, it gets pretty low and can use some help.

Platform construction. I love building stuff. :)

Almost done.  We used left over cedar boards from our chick coop building.

Mighty fine!  

Unfortunately, we neglected to take any photos of the interim phase of rain barrel connection.  We had the barrel on the platform you see above connected to one other barrel, then one free standing barrel under each additional down spout.  So, in short, we had four barrels....and this is where it stayed for the winter.  We were thwarted by back ordered parts for the barrel connection, and by the time they arrived, it was too late in the fall to make our efforts worth it.  Now, one might think we would put the rain barrels in the garage or something so we could work on connecting them throughout the winter.....that would have been the logical thing to do.  Instead, they sat upside down just outside of the garage since the unfinished chicken tractor was taking up all the space in the garage.  Go figure.

At any rate, we finally got to the connecting part a week ago, so let's pick up there...

First, drill holes in the barrel -- watch out when that bit hits the barrel, it could send you flying!

Reason number 32879453785783280543 to marry Anna -- she can fit in a rain barrel.

Ear protection is essential -- and an adorable smile.

Did I mention these barrels used to hold Kalamata Olives, and they have not been cleaned?  Yum.

Yeah...

Duh....where did she go?!?!

And, if that photo montage wasn't enough...

We then used spa tubing to connect all the barrels.  We have caulked everything quite extensively, but we still have a bit of leaking going on.  Next time we empty them, we'll re-seal them, but it's ok for now as the leaks are really minor. 

It's a thing of beauty! I'm already regretting the high connection on the first two barrels, but alas, we were beginners at that point.  

Glorious.  About 500 gallons of water storage.  We have 5 more on the other side of the house, but we didn't photograph those.  

For those of you thinking that this seems excessive -- say you have 1000 sq. ft. of roof (not accounting for pitch), and you get 1 inch of rain.  You can collect 625 gallons of water from that one rain event.  Seriously.  The other day, the barrels were all totally full and overflowing after less than an hour of raining.  We still need to dig the overflow trenches to channel that water away from the house and into a more useful area, but the bulk of the work here is done.