Langwater Farm

After 5 days of work we are making steady progress on the construction of the greenhouse. I think it’s starting to look like a greenhouse!  The frame is complete, with exception of the endwalls. On this week’s agenda is another run to the hardware store to buy materials (2×4, L-braces, doors) to start endwall construction. We also need to finish up attaching the hardware that will eventually hold the plastic in place on the frame.  However we won’t actually be attaching the plastic to the frame until early spring. This will save a winter’s wear and tear on the relatively delicate plastic and maybe allow us another year’s use of it. The type of plastic we bought usually holds for 4 years but we’ll be crossing our fingers for 5.

As some of you may have already noticed, I’ve started a Twitter account that displays in the sidebar here on the blog. I’ve been posting mini-updates on the greenhouse progress as well as some pictures. Here’s a pictorial recap of the week’s work (although some pictures are repeats from Twitter).

We started by stringing out the footprint so that we would know where to drive the foundation posts. Hours obsessing over fractions of an inch and perfectly proportioned triangles made us all a little cranky.

Mel, Rory and Kevin obsessing over fractions and angles

cranky Mel

Then we pounded each of the 26 posts 2 feet into the ground.

Rory pounding posts

Pounding in one of the last posts we hit a large boulder, which slowed work for the day as we tried various workarounds.

the boulder

Once we had solved that problem, we began setting in the rafters. It was exciting to see our painstaking work of the previous few days unfold into a series of dramatic archways.

Kevin, Kate and Mel setting in rafters

We finished the framing by setting in and fixing baseboards to the rafters, then started attaching the hardware components that will secure the plastic.

Kevin setting baseboard

Ours will look something like this when it’s finally finished in the spring.