Week of October 20th

The fans are in...

Starting construction on the pole barn...

It wasn't the most exciting week this week. The remaining greenhouse tasks are interior, small, and tedious (according to Ryan). More on that next week.

Week of October 13th

Gable ends are completely enclosed... Inside of the greenhouse with the roof covered, table supports in place... Doors on Head House, front end fully covered...
Insect Exclusion Covering on south end...

Exterior view of Insect Exclusion Covering...Interior view of 120' of Lettuce Nutrient Return Pipe...The Head House is nearly complete (the siding matches the existing barn)...

End of the week... exterior mostly finished...Inside of Head House with electrical boxes... Cooling Wall at rear of greenhouse... Interior at the end of the week...

Week of October 6th

This week the greenhouse really started to take shape, as evidenced by these pics...

Here's the building early in the week (from the lane)...

Building the Head House (entrance to the greenhouse)...
The beginnings of the cooling wall at the rear of the greenhouse...

The supports for the lettuce and herb tables...Starting to put up the siding on the front end of the greenhouse... Stay tuned.... we're getting close!

Week of September 29th

Happy Construction returned after being away for 10 days and will be with us until it is finished! They finished the basic frame, giving the greenhouse its shape; framed the gable ends with steel; and started covering the frame with plastic.On Tuesday, CS Garber came and set up everything to dig the well, which they did on Wednesday.
The telephone company came mid-week and opened up a trench from the greenhouse to the site of the future packing house. They ran a telephone line between the buildings, and connected the water and electric lines, and buried them all in the trench.

The geothermal trenches were completed by the end of the week.

Week of September 22nd

The soybeans were harvested from the front field on Tuesday, and the rest of this week was spent digging the trenches for the geothermal heating. Several people from the community wanted to know what was going on when they drove by and saw the fields being completely dug up.

The excavator dug a trench out from the headhouse about 20 feet and then up toward the road about 130 feet. The trenches are about 5 1/2 - 6 feet deep. When completed, there will be a total of eightteen trenches coming off the main one on one side and twenty-two of them coming off the other side. These branches are each 120 feet in length. Picture a very large tree.

Once each trench was dug, we took forty 800-foot-long flexible conduit and made giant slinkeys, tying the loops together with plastic zip ties, laying the slinkeys in the bottom of the trenches. Eventually, all the slinkeys will be connected to the heat pumps in the greenhouse.

At more than five feet below ground, these slinkeys will carry liquid antifreeze, taking heat from the ground (which at this depth is a constant 55 degrees). This reduces our dependency on propane, thereby reducing our carbon footprint.