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Old 09-06-2008, 07:40 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.orchids
wendy7 wendy7 is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,013
Default My Greenhouse: a warning to those who still wish for one...

Oh my oh my Al, that is back breaking work. Forget about the wenches. . . .
.. .
Can you not rent a little backho????
Cheers Wendy (Who once dug an 18" deep trench for gas pipe, about 75', used
a posthole digger)

"Al Pickrel" wrote in message
news:v4c3k.7685$lE3.3333@trnddc05...
The picture shows one quarter of my greenhouse floor space. 3/4 of it is
filled with orchids. Many many in bloom. But I want to talk about the
big
dig and so it is the subject of the picture and the rant that follows.

I added an extra 24 inches to the old knee wall when I rebuilt it after
the
fire. I am spending June digging a ditch and installing panels of
insulation against the new waste high knee wall. The knee wall is 36 to
inches
high from the ground at its greatest heights, which is in the middle. The
ground slopes downward toward the middle of the long side of the
greenhouse,
so the knee wall at each end is actually more like 22 to 24. I am digging
the ditch along the inside of the greenhouse, along the new knee wall. I
am
installing the 1.5 inch R-9 insulation panels so that they start at the
top
of the knee wall and extend 15 to 18 inches into the ground along the base
of the knee wall. These are the kind of panels you can put down below
concrete floors. In addition, I am going to add a 16 to 18 inch long
strip
of insulation horizontally against the vertical insulation barrier along
the
whole length of the wall. This will be buried about 1 foot below grade.
(That's why the ditch is so wide.) This will, I hope, make a very good
barrier against heat leaking out into the air and cold earth along the
greenhouse walls. An engineer who is also a customer told me this would
be
almost as effective as insulating the whole floor and much less disruptive
and expensive. He did not mention it would kill me to do it. This is a
massive undertaking for me alone. Before I could dig the trench, I had to
rake back the gravel floor far enough so I could work. I was not even
finished raking before I knew I would not survive to finish the OTHER SIDE
TOO. I am about ¼ done with one 98 foot side. Add 100 degree
temperatures
and humidity like you can't believe and. well, I am thirsty and tired and
it
is only 10 AM and my fourth day of this part of the task. I will be doing
this for some time I think. It is worse than digging the footings for the
deck last summer during the heat wave/draught when the ground was solid
and
the shovels kept snapping in two. Or maybe it is the same and I am just
older.

What keeps me going is the daily reports on the news about the cost of
oil.
Can you imagine what it will be next winter? I am planning for ALMOST the
worst I can think of. I am going to put a clear lexan wall up which will
divide the greenhouse in half and then I will only heat half the
greenhouse
this coming winter. The plants I have left after the fire should fit in
half the greenhouse easily. We'll see what happens after that. You can
see
the framing for this middle wall is already built in the picture. It is
the
old south wall before I went insane and doubled the length of the
structure.

The worst I can think of is not being able to afford oil at all...

Where are all the winches when you need them? I have been handing every
customer who comes though the door a shovel and trying to put them to
work.
I think the word is getting out. Walk-in customers have all but stopped
in
the last 6 weeks.