the fence is up!

Many thanks to the Ramsey family for braving some really foul weather to help get a fence up at the farm this past weekend! On Saturday we dug holes and set in corner and end posts in concrete- all while it was raining.  The members of the Ramsey family are troopers- and they didn’t stop there!  We were back out on Sunday pounding T-posts and stretching fencing across the posts.  Jeff and I literally couldn’t have done it without them.  Thank you, thank you!

(part of) the Ramsey Family 

The design of the fence is cheap and simple.  There are 7 foot end and corner posts are cemented in with 7 foot T-stakes every 10 feet in between. All the posts are in two feet in the ground.  I bought the posts at Superior Fence, a local fence supply store.  The fencing is a 5 foot high deer and rabbit fence, which I bought off craigslist from a nice guy in Kelso, WA who gets fencing that is rejected from the manufacturer for slight flaws.  

Jeff and I finished the fence on Monday and were rewarded with a rainbow! (two rainbows, actually if you look closely). I am really happy with how it turned out.  Come by and see it sometime!!

giving thanks

A lot has been going on at Blue House Greenhouse Farm and there is a lot for which to be thankful!  A couple of weeks ago, as many of you may recall, we had some LOW temperatures dipping into the upper teens. Yikes.  We were really worried about the seedlings growing in the cloches- the ones that were transplanted and the ones that had begun to grow from seed.  After the few nights (and days!) of below freezing temperatures, we dared to check under the plastic. All the seedlings made it just fine!  The fava bean cover crop was touched a little by frost but is recovering splendidly.  Thank goodness.

And thank goodness for friends and family- for many, many reasons, specifically here for the help they give to this project!  The day after Thanksgiving, after our pie breakfast, my mom, sister, Jeff, Jessie, Dave and Buddy headed out to the farm for a few hours of weeding in the rain!  No better way to work off a feast. 

Jen working on the north wall of the greenhouse

That following Saturday and Monday, my sister, Jen, Jeff, and I worked on the greenhouse. From the frame pictured in the last posting, we added a door and plywood wall to the north side, connected them to each other, fastened them to the frame with zip ties, and screwed them into the base boards. It’s remarkably sturdier than it sounds!  On the south side we attached a wooden structure connecting the PVC frame to the baseboards to eventually make a vent for the greenhouse.  This may be hard to picture, especially since I don’t have a photo, but I encourage any of you to come and see it for yourselves!  Lastly we covered the whole structure with 6 mil greenhouse plastic and secured it with the wire lock (which is used to fasten the plastic to the base boards and plywood sides).  It is beautiful.   There is still more work to do to get it ready for starting seeds this late winter, but it really looks like a greenhouse now! 

 

In this photo, you can see how the north wall is attached to the
 PVC frame, the structure of the south wall and how the wire
lock is attached to the base boards and north wall

What’s coming up next you may be wondering? A fence.  If you have any suggestions, experience, materials for building a fence- please contact me!  I will definitely be working on this fence this coming Saturday, December 11- so if you are interested in coming out to help, please let me know!! bluehousegreenhouse@gmail.com