High tunnel construction, part 2

My, we’ve had a busy week! Last Sunday, Jane came up for mask-making. She brought all of the fabric and other essentials. I hauled out my sewing machine and craft table. We made ten masks all together, so we each have at least two.

Making masks

Hilda and I have matching masks with chickens on them.

Our chicken masks

When we were done with that, we went to the greenhouse to pot up the lisianthus plants that Jane started from seed in December. They were getting huge!

Lisianthus ready to be potted up

Hilda and Jane in the greenhouse

When we were done, we each had three pots that looked like this.

Mission accomplished

We had a lot of rain in the first part of the week. I went back to check on the creek Wednesday. It was six inches from overflowing.

The creek was close to flood stage Wednesday afternoon

The rain we expected Wednesday night and Thursday went east of us. Whew! We were spared the flood this time.

To start the next step in the high tunnel construction, Terry had to drill holes in the pipes for the rafters.

Drilling holes in the rafters

Each rafter had eight pieces. The ends, as I reported in my last post, were in the ground. Terry put Tek screws in the four parts that made the curved part of the rafter.

Terry laying out the assembled rafters in the driveway

To begin putting the rafters up, we put the second part of the leg in the leg pieces that was already in the ground. We secured them with bolts and nuts.

The second part of the leg bolted to the leg  in the ground

After that, we matched the hoop to the legs. It wasn’t as hard as I feared it would be. It was like a canoe—as long as you’ve got it balanced, it’s manageable. But if it gets away from you, it’s a struggle to get it back.

First rafter up

Terry then put screws in to attach the hoop to the leg.

Attaching the hoop to the leg

After two rafters were up, Terry started putting in the purlins (horizontal supports). The purlins were attached to the rafters with brackets.

Terry putting the bracket on the purlin

There were four purlins all together. As each new purlin was put in place, Terry had to put in a Tek screw.

Screwing two pieces of purlin together

Here’s where we ended on Friday. I now know that this is not just a high tunnel. It is a HIGH tunnel. Twelve feet is higher than it sounds.

End of day Friday--seven rafters and two purlins

Also on Friday, I saw the first Baltimore oriole. Terry checked his notes and discovered that they came back on May 1 last year as well. Almost like they follow our calendar.

The first oriole

It was time to move the hens to the apple orchard. This particular batch of hens did something that no previous chickens had done. They liked to stick their head through the fence to eat the grass on the other side. Look at what they have done to the lawn! There’s a little dent next to every post. I’m not sure how much of this behavior was associated with the hole in the fence through which they regularly escaped until Jane saw where the break was.

A chicken with her head through the fence

We went out at 8:00 Friday night. We have our system down now. I take the hens off the roost and hand them to Hilda. Terry opens the door on the kennel, and Hilda puts the hen in. We reverse the process when we get to the orchard, and I set the girls on the perch in Coop 2.

The fun doesn’t start until the next morning. All that grass! All the mulch around each apple tree! The hens were very busy all day.

Terry had to water the trees in his nursery Saturday morning and couldn’t start on the tunnel until after lunch. I went back to the creek to do more weed whacking and pull box elder seedlings from my woodland garden. The mayapples were unfurling.

Mayapples unfurling

The Dutchman’s breeches were blooming. They are so cute, these little pairs of pants.

Dutchman's breeches

The violets are flowering too.

Violets

Hilda’s favorite part of violets is that if you take the center petal off and look at it from the back, you can see the king washing his feet.

The king washing his feet

Terry started in on the center purlins, beginning with the ones that were the farthest distance from the ground. (The high tunnel site slopes to the northwest.) He got out his tree climbing equipment and hooked a rope around the frame so if the ladder went over, he wouldn’t hit the ground and break his neck. After he got the bracket around the purlin, he put spongy tape and clear tape over the joint so it wouldn’t make a hole in the plastic covering.

Terry, attached to the frame, puts tape over the bracket of the center purlin

I weeded the garlic while waiting for Terry to call for something. It started to sprinkle a bit, although it never really rained. Terry called it a day before the last section of purlin was in. He’ll finish that up today. Next step is to mount the diagonal rafter supports. We’re learning a lot.

High tunnel construction, part 1

We started the week by counting the poles for the high tunnel. Terry assumed that since there were 7 hoops to the hoop house, everything should be in multiples of seven. I preferred the approach of comparing the inventory sheet to what was delivered. Between both methods, we arrived at the conclusion that we were missing 6 posts for the hoop and one of the ground pipes. Before Terry called the company, I thought it prudent to check the rest of the inventory. I know that Terry doesn’t have the patience for that activity, so I did it myself. There were lots of boxes.

Boxes of hardware

And about ten thousand “Tek screws,” which I assume are proprietary to Farm Tek, the company from which we ordered. Every one of those screws will have to have a hole drilled for it in metal. I just hope we don’t have any big parts left over when we’re done.

So many Tek-screws!

Terry started by putting in wooden stakes and getting the corners square. I helped by holding one end of the 100m tape measure. I couldn’t get my head around what needed to be done to get the corners matched up. The Pythagorean theory was involved somehow. Terry had a better mental image from having had more experience, and soon it was exactly how he wanted it, or at least close enough.

Marking and squaring the corners

Terry then drilled holes for the ground posts. 

Drilling the post holes

After the east side was done, I held a string so he could adjust the posts up, down, or side to side so all the posts were in line and the same heights, or at least close enough.

East side posts in with base board

Two days later, he had the west side done. 

East and west sides done, with baseboards

He was raring to start drilling holes in the hoops today but got rained out. It was a nice, gentle, all-day rain with an accumulation of only 0.3”. it will all soak in and do the plants good.

Hilda and I reinstalled the fence around my woodland garden. I hope that with the rain and the exclusion of the damned varmints, what’s left of the plants will start to grow.

The re-installed fence around the woodland garden

In all my experiments with aggressive native plants that might out-compete garlic mustard, the only one that is showing promise is the mayapples. Here’s a picture of 5 out of 10 plants that are coming up. I keep finding more and more as time goes along.

Five of 10 mayapple sprouts

Still no orioles at the grape jelly. This house finch has acquired the taste, though. So much for hard-wired food preferences.

House finch eating grape jelly. It's for the orioles, silly bird!

We’re hoping for warmer, drier weather this week. If all goes well, we will move the chickens to their summer pasture in the orchard. They love that. Best thing ever.

High tunnel delivered

Easter Sunday was a lovely warm day. I walked all around the property without coat, gloves or hat. Hilda told me that the creek bank had lost a chunk by the railroad bridge. I took a picture of it. Hard to say how long it will be before the tracks become unstable. Thankfully, that is not our problem.

A chunk of the bank, left, has fallen into the creek. Not too long before the pole goes in.

Looking the other way up the creek, washed out drain tiles are visible.

Drain tiles that have washed into the creek from our field

The grass by the fire ring is looking good. We have at least wrested that much of the riparian strip from the garlic mustard.

Grass around the fire ring

The box elder trees are starting to bloom. The pollen-producing structures shown here look like rusty-colored rice.

Male flowers of box elder

I finally got a good picture of a male cardinal.

Mr. Cardinal in an apple tree

I got all excited when I saw sparrows with sort of a white throat. They never got close to the house, and it was not easy to get a good picture when the grass was nearly as tall as the birds. (I will be mowing before long.) I thought at the time they were white-throated sparrows, which are usually only around for a single day on their way north. When I compared the picture with the book, I realized it was a chipping sparrow. I was still happy to see them, but they will be around all summer.

A chipping sparrow

The ground squirrels came out of hibernation when it was warm. When the weather turned cold last week, they had to fluff out their fur to stay warm.

A fluffy 13-stripe ground squirrel

A pair of robins has been hanging around the deck, but I have not seen any activity in the nest from last year. This robin at the bottom of the deck stairs seems to be guarding the area. I think Terry knocked the nest down in previous years. I wonder if one can prevent robins from nesting by leaving the old nest. If true that would be useful information. I’ll just watch and wait.

A robin stands guard at the bottom of the deck stairs

I made osso beefo for Easter dinner. I have a good recipe for slow-cooker osso bucco (braised veal shanks), but I use beef shanks which are easier to come by and taste as good if not better. Hilda made polenta, and the dinner was enjoyed by all.

Osso beefo

I also made some cinnamon swirl bread this week. It is very good with cream cheese. I gave one of the loaves to Hilda. She made French toast with it. I never thought of that.

Cinnamon swirl bread

The parts to our new high tunnel arrived on a semi Thursday.

The delivery of the high tunnel

The shipping weight was 1320 pounds, and at least 1200 pounds was in one 4’ x 9’ box. The other box fit easily in the Gator. The big box couldn’t be budged, so we had to open the box and unload it onto Terry’s pickup one pipe at a time.

Unloading the big box

In this photo, the first box is on the pallet to the left of the Gator with some of the plastic covering on top, and the contents of the big box are in the pickup bed.

The high tunnel parts to the left of the Gator on a pallet and loaded in the back of the pickup

After lunch, Terry and I laid out the pipes on the lawn by the site of the high tunnel, matching everything up by shape.

All the pipes for the high tunnel

And Friday it snowed.

Friday morning, more snow

The male goldfinches are almost all gold. This one is probably not too happy about the snow but is glad I finally got my feeder filled.

Goldfinch in the snow

By 11:00, the snow had all melted. It wasn’t supposed to get cold again, but it was 27°F again this morning. Nothing we can do about it except have faith that it will get warm and stay warm sometime.

Snow

Winter came back yesterday. The temperatures dropped, and we had periods of snow instead of rain.

Afternoon snow shower--if you look carefully, you can see streaks of white

In the evening, I looked out to something coming down right lively. I thought it might be pea-sized hail.

It had been so nice and warm that Terry turned the outside spigots on early. Before he went to bed last night, he had to turn the faucet under the deck on just a tad so it would drip all night. For my readers in perpetually warm places, the running water prevents the pipe from freezing. Frozen pipes burst. Burst pipes mean water everywhere and emergency calls to plumbers ($$$).

When I went out to do the chicken chores this morning, I was greeted by an ice garden. It was beautiful in the early morning sun.

The faucet is next to the pillar supporting the top of the stairs. Wind blew the dripping water out into the yard.

I’m not sure how it happened. I will conjecture that as each drop splattered on the ground, the wind bore the spray away from the house. Meters away, in fact. Admire, if you will, how much water was able to accumulate on each blade of grass. I was amazed.

Look at how much ice grew on each blade of grass!

Some of the snow/hail was still on the grass and in the garden. Hilda and I disagree about the nature of the precipitation. I think hail because the balls were too big for snow; she says, “rabbit snow, because it’s not ice.” We actually did not do an in-depth study of the pellets. They might have been white ice. It’s gone now, and it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the garlic was undamaged by the frost.

Garlic and hail/rabbit snow

The rhubarb is also maturing regardless of the cold. It won’t be long before rhubarb coffee cake!

Rhubarb

Hilda and I found pussy willows on our morning walk today.

Pussy willows with pollen-producing anthers (yellow)

Some of Terry’s trees are budding as well. This is dappled willow.

Dappled willow catkins

The ramps are not spreading like we hoped, but two plants came up and are looking robust. Perhaps they will sucker next year.

Ramps

Trout lilies are also among the slackers. Three leaves have come up. Like the ramps, they are supposed to clone themselves.

The mottled leaves are trout lilies. The scalloped leaves are the ubiquitous garlic mustard

Yesterday, Terry asked me what I would think if he used the rocks that he dug out of Kate’s landscaping under the deck. (Kate preferred plants to the rock bed that came with her townhouse, which is a little odd, as I think about it now, because she is a geologist. I guess there are limits.)

“If you do that,” I replied, “I won’t be able to get my feed muddy when I take out the compost.”

He got to work, and now it looks quite beautiful. His larger goal is to control the runoff from the slope under the deck so it doesn’t flood the patio. We hope it works.

Rocks beneath the deck for better drainage

On Tuesday, we decided to support our local economy by ordering pizza and wings from Angelo’s. We’d had dinner there once, but not pizza. The pizza was good! I was not impressed with the wings. They were not spicy, nor a good value. Kudos to Angelo’s, though, for not packing their take-out in Styrofoam!

 

Angelo's pizza and wings in a paper bag (front left)