March 11, 2018 Our first night on Creekside Farm.

We crossed another milestone yesterday, we stayed the night in the Cabin after putting in a workday on our Creekside Farm. (Since we now have plants in dirt we shall dispense with the Camp Creekside name until we begin building the Camping facilities.)

This was always a big goal line to cross, one which we eventually put off for as long as we could because giving up our creature comforts, like a comfortable bed. The pull our sofa we bought has something of a thin mattress and the placement of the sofa, while opened up for sleeping, makes it hard to get around. There is also the limited amount of hot water as well. We do love a hot shower. The six gallon water heater is good for a five minute shower if you are careful. The creature comforts of home are an aside to the comforts of our dogs.

We have done our best to give them a comfortable place to be at night. We built an especially designed bed, with a heated floor, and have an auxiliary heater for the coldest part of the night as well. They get the same food as they do at home, but in larger quantities because they are so much more active out there. Each hound has his or her own insulated coat, some have two, to keep them warm. There is even a good supply of dog biscuits because our hounds would die without them. We took every precaution to insure they would sleep comfortably. But it remained that we would not know how they would do until they were put in the position of sleeping over.

As it turned out they did well for the most part. There was some grumping at first, a bit of wandering around in and under the work bench, knocking over whatever wasn't steady. The sleep we got was in direct proportion to the amount of grumping in the work bench area, but we slept pretty well. I think the dogs will come to tucking into their bed, once the lights go out, and then everyone will get a bit more sleep. But all in all, the place is at least livable, with more to do.

From this point in time onward we will likely be spending one or two nights a week out there, working the bugs out of our ideas and getting a great deal more work done. As it was we got some big stuff done yesterday before bed time.

We were able to move almost all of what looks like scrap (but is actually stuff to build with) behind the newly built greenhouse. The stuff was organized, but a bit of an eyesore when seen from the road. Now it has been re-organized and placed out of sight. We also took the time to re-shuffle the contents of the shipping container we use for safe storage.

During the year we acquired a great deal of stuff and all of it went into the container as it arrived in our hands. We moved all of the prepper food (about three tons of carefully preserved grains and foodstuff) to the back of the Container and carefully stacked it to be used as needed. This foodstuff cache, enough to feed a small army for a week or two, was something we acquired for free. Some of it is sufficient for human consumption, but only in an emergency, so having it out of the way makes the container more useful. We also moved greenhouse stuff to the greenhouse and weather resistant stuff outside. So we did some big-time shifting, sorting, and stacking.

I lit the burn barrel as the sun set and the chill of an early spring night came down on us all and after dinner everyone took a medium short walk down the Banks-Vernonia Trail as the light of day failed entirely. The dogs were happy to take a walk off of the Farm at first, but it wasn't long before they were wore out and had to be dragged back to the Farm bodily. We put the hounds up in their living quarters and headed inside. We had accomplished a lot before finally deciding that this would be our first real night on the Farm.  We made it into pajamas and blankets only after asking if "tonight would be the night" four or five times.

The night was a bit longer than some, but certainly not the worst night we have experienced. This morning we woke up at six thirty, made our coffee, watched some television, and most of the usual Sunday morning stuff. We used the shower, cooked a hot breakfast, and made the bed. All of the usual morning routine, and then spent a few hours doing Farm chores before loading everyone up for transport back to civilization.

I had no trouble getting the dogs to agree to leaving the Farm. This is usually not the case.

March 7, 2018 The first planting is done.

The greenhouse is finished and we have begun planting.  All and all, the thing went up almost exactly as I had thought it would. The only real change was adapting the thing to compensate for the slope of the land.

It was cool today, about forty nine degrees, but inside it was a steady sixty-five for nearly the whole day. When the sun did break through the inside temperature jumped to eighty degrees. Yesterday, prior to this morning's purchase of a thermometer, I assumed it to be over eighty inside the greenhouse for most of the day.

The temperature of the air inside the structure is not so important as is the consistency of the level of heat in the soil underneath. The higher high temperatures during the day store heat in the soil, convincing plants that it is growing season. The heat hangs around for quit a bit longer into the evening, keeping the interior of the greenhouse warm, and then never goes as low as the soil outside. So the plant grows better at the beginning of the growing season. For those plants which bear fruit late into the Fall fruiting continues a longer than do plants grown outside.  December tomatoes?

This is the north side of the greenhouse.
For the time being it will be used for storage.

The east side has a larger opening for cooling and moving things.

A view from the East side.
The tables are the work area.

I spent the day planting the first flight of plants. These were mostly tomatoes and peppers, but also nasturtiums, marigolds, and chives. There is a complete replanting of the cold frame every two weeks or so and the planting will continue all through the year once we get going.

This is my invention. A sprouting table with a heating system.

Even on a cold day, this frame stays a comfy seventy-seven degrees.
The babies are safe and warm, even on the coldest days.
Under the trays is a coil of tube which circulates
warm water and keep the ambient temperature constant.

March 3, 2018 The First Greenhouse.

The first green house is nearing completion, though probably not where it will ultimately be placed since the Garden it sits in is not in the right place either. Eventually the market garden and greenhouse will both be moved to their planned places, but this might take a year or two.

This was an ambitious project for a number of reasons. The first reason being that I had never built a greenhouse prior to this, or seen one built for that matter. The second reason was that any greenhouse of this size would likely cost around three thousand dollars, mine cost less than six hundred. If you take these two points and add my propensity and ability to build these things from my head without written plans it is a wonder that the thing got built at all.

It may be that the entire idea was poor, but as of today the thing seems solid as a rock and large as a cathedral. Now if only it handles high winds and snow, all will be well.

The ladder at the center of the picture, at the bottom, is six feet long.
This might give you a human scale to view the image.
The thing is sixteen feet wide, thirty feet long, and twelve feet tall at the center.