September 17th

Well, today was an adventure!!! Cement trucks arrived early this morning (as in, before 7:00 a.m.) to pour the greenhouse floor.

We had our first, and hopefully our last, accident on-site today. God truly is present, because it was a miracle no one was hurt. One of the cement trucks rolled off the side of the driveway... and into the Landis Plumbing van.

Uhhhh... this can't be good.

Bigger truck to the rescue!

Finishing the floor!

And we're done!

September 10th - 12th

The rest of this week was a little slower as we finished preparing the floor for concrete. The radiant tubing was laid and had to be tied to the wire mesh so it doesn't float in the concrete.

September 9th

Despite our fears that today would be a wash-out with mid-morning rain and thunderstorms, much was accomplished. It was a busy day!

By 9:00 a.m., 120 tons of stone had been delivered from Martin's Quarry, and the cement contractors were beginning to spread the 4" stone portion of the foundation. (The foundation will consist of 4" of stone with 4" of cement on top.) Soon after 9, the skies opened up and the thunder hit causing a work stoppage. Not a good idea to be in an open field with a bunch of steel poles in a thunderstorm!
Fortunately, the storms didn't last long, and by 11:00 a.m., everyone was back at work. Two more trucks had to be called and came after lunch with some additional stone for a total of 170 tons!

All of the stone was laid and raked level by 3:00, and Landis Plumbing arrived to help lay the bubble wrap which serves a vapor barrier underneath the radiant heat in the floor. By this time two additional guys from the cement crew came to build several forms needed before pouring the cement and they also began laying steel grid on top of the bubble wrap. This will be used to secure the radiant heat tubing in the cement.

Week of September 1st

After several days of letting the concrete set, the excavator and plumber came, and the work began in earnest. Trenches were dug, and electric conduit and plumbing were buried in them. A 1200-gallon nutrient tank for the lettuce and a smaller tank to collect excess tomato nutrients were buried just inside the future back walls.

We made use of the excavator being here, and he dug a two-foot-deep trench around the perimeter of the greenhouse in which to bury insulation. It was amazing to see the precision and speed with which he was able to dig the trench. We were so thankful to not have to do all the digging by ourselves or by hand! Ryan and Ken worked hard in the hot sun covering everything back up with the dirt after the appropriate materials had been buried.
We dug more trenches in which to bury some of the preliminary geothermal piping. The geothermal work will be finished once the soybeans are harvested from the front field.
After all the excavation was finished, hours were spent cleaning up the hard-packed dirt and large rocks that had been brought to the surface to prepare for the four inches of stone and four inches of concrete that will cover the floor next week.