13August2008
Posted by admin under: Brushwood.
Once again, I believed we were much closer than we were to finishing the job. Mounting and fastening the gutters took a solid day of work and placing the bows took almost as long. The ridge purlins were gruelingly difficult because it was so high in the air and really needed a drill to complete. I sing the praises of battery tools once again! Here’s the final look of the frame:
Sadly, I have to go back to Pennsylvania now to get ready for fall shipping season and teaching at Longwood Gardens. I won’t be able to get back to this until November. The next steps will be to gravel the floor, skin the greenhouse, install irrigation and build benches. Piece of cake!
10August2008
Posted by admin under: Brushwood.
I should note for you now that I’m actually catching up here and the project has been underway for over a month. These steps have each taken much longer than the few days I’ve been blogging about them.
We got a new piece of equipment to erect the frame. It’s an all terrain forklift. Very handy!
It’s shown here holding one of the 36ft long trusses. The greenhouse has 2 bays, each one 36ft wide by 90ft long. Gimme those wide open spaces! The columns simply slide onto the anchor posts and bolt through. Then the trusses go on all the middle runs. It took just a day to put them up and I was excited to think it would finish up within a couple of days. Hah! It’s been a solid week of 14 hour days adding all the support pieces and cross braces to the frame. Considering it’s a used structure, the parts fit well together and almost every bolt was saved by the person who dismantled it back in 2006. We’re lucky.
Above, you can see the columns waiting by their respective anchors. We couldn’t put them all in because they’d be in the way of the trusses as we swung them into place.
The gutters were next. They are also a challenge since each is 30ft long and there’s all that framing in the way. At least they were light aluminum. They are only about 90lbs each.
Next: Bows.
8August2008
Posted by admin under: Brushwood.
This turned out to take a very long time. It hasn’t rained any real quantity for weeks and the ground is rock hard in places. We had a track hoe with teeth on the bucket but I think a regular backhoe would have been a better choice for the job; at least to break up the soil first. Live and learn.
Turns out the track hoe was great for post hole digging! I got the attachment for 1 day and dropped all 70 post holes 18 inches by 30 inches. Imagine that with a hand post hole digger and a bar. It would have taken weeks with this soil.
Yes, that’s a hole I’m showing. Very exciting blogging here!
This all took a lot more preparation than I’ve shown. The grading was laid out with a surveyor’s level. That’s like a transit but simpler. Thanks, eBay! I didn’t rent it because I knew we’d be going back to check each step for weeks. Here’s the boss checking my work:
I had to run to North Carolina for anchor posts since the original ones from the greenhouse were left in the ground. Oh, yeah. I think I forgot to mention that we got this greenhouse used and brought it down. Here are some of the parts waiting in the wings:
The anchors are in front. Then the columns; 12ft tall! The bows are in back.
The next step was to call for concrete. This took just 1 afternoon but it was hard work. The mix had to be thick so the posts wouldn’t slump after we put them in. They had to stay exactly in line and level. The truck came and the driver dropped the mix right in each hole. No wheelbarrow needed! We were placing posts and had gotten to about number 40 when the mix began to harden. The last few had to be hammered into place with a sledge!. We’ve had to trim a few that weren’t quite level but it has worked out in the end.
We’re ready to build!
7August2008
Posted by admin under: Brushwood.
I’ve known about an alternative method for heating for over a decade but never had the right situation to install it until now. I’ve tried to retrofit 2 old greenhouses in the past but never succeeded. This time, we are building new on high, dry ground and I have the right equipment at hand. While clearing and grading for the new greenhouse, I dug several trenches the entire length of the structure.
Then I went out a got a whole bunch of corrugated drain pipe; the kind without slots in the sides. It’s a big investment, but so is a heater.
The next step is to lay them out flat in the trench.
That’s Becky and Sophia helping. They’re adding a fine layer of soil between tubes. They are separated from each other and from another layer to make 6 runs per trench. That gives plenty of tube, each with lots of ground contact.
Once they’re covered, they look like this:
The ends are covered with duct tape for now to keep dirt, rain and critters out. They’re tied to a metal fence post for now to keep them straight so we can work closely around them. The ends are all right by the ends of the greenhouse where posts will be anchored in concrete. We were rained out of installing more trenches but i may get back to it and add 2 more before we have to gravel and add benches. This will at least add a good many BTUs. Down here in Georgia, we’ll hardly have to heat most of the plants over winter.
The idea is to connect a fan at one end and draw air through the ground and back into the greenhouse. The ambient soil temperature is warmer than the air, so it picks up heat along the way. The temps under a greenhouse should be even higher. Corrugated pipe adds surface area and also creates turbulence in the flow to improve energy uptake (in theory). I know of a large nursery in Nebraska doing it. If they can do it up there, we should be able to down here. This concept is being used a lot now for heat pump systems. They do it for heating and cooling using water in small tubes that run in trenches or even loop through wells. In our case, if we used it for cooling, we’d get condensation in the pipes and I’ve heard of trouble with mold buildup (this has to do with relative humidity and carrying capacity of water in air. ask and I’ll bore you with it thoroughly!). It would be silly to try to cool a greenhouse that way anyway. It could be used to cool the potting shed but that would take smooth pipes and a sump pump for moisture buildup. Hey, maybe that’s a good idea!! It reached 101F today.
2August2008
Posted by admin under: Brushwood.
Well, the summer has finally come. We’ve started the first real work on our move to Georgia. I’ve been planning this construction project for years now. The property we bought is 5 acres with a nice house located near the back. It’s old cotton land (but what isn’t in Georgia ) which works out really well. It’s been terraced and falls away gently to the south. We’re on high ground, so the air flow is great. Here’s the location where we’re starting. It’s in the corner of the property up near the road.
This shot was taken shortly after we started. You can see the boss walking down to inspect our work! The field was mostly open with a few trees in it and a bunch of brambles. There were lots of trees on the perimeter that had to come out. Most were smallish and will make good firewood. We also chipped a few yards of mulch out of the branches. Regrettably, there were a few really nice Oaks that had to come down. I’m working on finding a local sawmill for the big logs so we can put them to use beyond firewood.
The backhoe turned out to be perfect for pulling these stumps. It was also great for holding trees with a cable so they didn’t fall the wrong way. It even pulled one back from the brink of taking out our power lines!
The boss had to come supervise and show how it was supposed to be done:
At one point both chain saws were down for a little bit and one of my boys remembered seeing a two man saw in the garage. No doubt it was left behind by the former owners as a curiosity not worth hauling to their new home. It proved to be much more than a curiosity!
They took out a few of the trees before the handle on one side gave out. Nice job, Drew and Rich!
17February2008
Posted by admin under: Brushwood.
Well, we finally started a little work on the new place! We contacted someone who came out with a little tractor and brush cutter to clear the main area for the head house and first greenhouse. Didn’t take him long. He’s going to come back and clean out some of the small trees but we’ll have to deal with the big trees ourselves. There’s a beautiful Oak that has to come down. Looks like it will heat the house next winter and maybe provide some project lumber, too. We’re sorry to see it go but at least it’s the only one. Even if we expand all the way to the east end of the property over time, there are no more big trees to take out. Here’s a quick pic of the cleared area from last week. Doesn’t look like much but it’s beautiful to me! We’re finally started!
24January2008
Posted by admin under: Brushwood.
Noticed yesterday that the Brandywine Hellebores Becky saved are beginning to bud out nicely. She picked some really great colors and forms from the quarts we were selling briefly. Looking forward to seeing some of the reds and doubles when they open!
Built a couple of benches yesterday for potting next week. We are so very-out-of-room. I’m really glad we’ll be getting started on the new place in Georgia this summer. W’ll be starting with 4 times the production space we have now with enough room to expand to 20 times (if that’s ever needed)! Each time we’ve expanded a little, I have thought we never needed more room for Brushwood. This has proven to be the case a couple of times. Shows my lack of experience as a business planner! Been a good grower for a while now but still learning how to run a business. I think the best thing I’ve done along those lines is to always put myself in my customers’ shoes. Yeah, they’re plants and not all plants leave the nursery in perfect conditions but I’ve made sure we hold to a high standard.
21January2008
Posted by admin under: Brushwood.
We’re planning our trip to the new place (in Georgia) to take the first steps toward construction of the new facility! I’m really excited about it because there’s been so much rolling through my mind about it and time has just slipped by so quickly. We decided to move south 5 years ago and half of that time has gone already.
18January2008
Posted by admin under: My Family.
Got a few inches of good packin’ snow yesterday. Gotta do this sort of thing before we move south!
15January2008
Posted by admin under: Uncategorized.
Some words to get it off to a start.
