Building the Greenhouse!

On October 2nd, we had a good, old-fashion "greenhouse raising". A group of 15 men and boys came together, volunteered their time, and helped me put up my 20'x96' greenhouse almost entirely in one day. It was such a blessing!

Believe it, or not, there's to be a greenhouse here by the end of the day.

The work begins

The way you anchor the structure to the ground is by simply driving the sidewall stakes into the ground 2 feet.

 

You got to make sure they're straight!

These two young men (15 years old), plus another one or two around their age, worked very well and drove 25 out of the 50 sidewall stakes in.

Once the posts are in, a strip of metal is run along the top of them. This piece will be used for multiple purposes, such as strength, holding the plastic on, and stabilizing the roll-up sides.

 

After this, the hoops are put in place, which I thought was quite fun because it looked like we were getting a lot done quickly.

It's really coming together...

...but now it's time for lunch - steamers/Sloppy Joe's made with our own beef.

Lunch was a nice break, but now it's time to start working again because we want to get as much as possible up before the end of the day.

Work, work, work...Many hands makes light work.

Eric, an organic blueberry farmer and metal machinist

Elliot, a CSA member who worked very diligently doing one of the hardest jobs almost all day - driving metal screws

 

It's taking shape!

Now, it's time for the plastic...

...a job that takes almost everyone.

It was definitely a challenging stretching the two layers of plastic (one at a time) tight in the wind.

 

Aaron, an Amish man who's also an organic produce grower, was the foreman of the operation, and he did an amazing job of keeping everyone organized, occupied, and accomplishing something. I was planning on paying him for the day as the manager of the operation, since he's got quite a bit of experience and had the hardest job of the day - managing. But when it came to the end of the day, he said he didn't want anything - just wanted me to pass it on sometime to someone else. I was so blessed by his help, especially since he took on managing our large crew excellently, is a very busy farmer, and is skilled in what he does.   

It's all done for the day!

Monique and I (and I'm sure our baby, Elise) are so very thankful to everyone from our church, family, and CSA who helped put up our greenhouse. It went up much faster than we were expecting - in 6 hours the basic structure and plastic were on! We're planning to grow vegetables in here to sell through out the winter, which will hopefully provide us with enough income that I can remain self-employed, something I that's been a dream of mine. So, to everyone who helped put up the greenhouse, is part of our winter CSA, and buys from us during the winter, THANK YOU!