Part 11

Pipes are no longer under water but there is some mud and moisture, maybe as the air begins to circulate it will dry out?

I bought a sump pump yesterday and within an hour the underground system was pumped out. I haven't had to run the pump again all day.


I fasten another barrel over the fan, so that the intake air is being taken from about 7 feet above the floor.
I installed the circulation fan and the two thermostats that operate it so the circulation system is now in operation. I'm not sure how many of the tubes are open but clearly some of them are; there is a nice breeze circulating through the underground tubes. The underground tiles are cold though and tonight the air temperature coming out of the ground is only 34 degrees tonight. It's going to take some time and some warm days to raise that subterranean temperature. This is the grate over where the air comes out from the underground system. A little restrictive maybe?

I also insulated the north wall with R-19 insulation and covered the outside with construction fabric. I'll get the plastic on the interior wall tomorrow. I also filled in around the base so cold air isn't coming in like it was. Even today before all the progress was made sealing it up and with the fan circulating through the underground system part of the afternoon, the temperature got up to 71 degrees. If it's sunny tomorrow I will be surprised if it doesn't reach into the 80's.

Right now, the system is working but cold. On previous nights without the fan running the indoor and out door temperature were the same once the sun went down. Tonight, with the system running, the outdoor temperature is 22 degrees but the greenhouse is at 29. Not a big difference but I expect improvements as the system thaws and recovers from a bad start.

Weathering the First Storm - Part 10

This greenhouse is 32 feet long, 16 feet wide and about 12 feet high covered in a single sheet of plastic that measured about 32x34 feet


Over the past 24-48 hours, we've had rain, snow, sleet, thunderstorms, and a driving wind from the east. The wind speed has varied from 15 and 25 miles per hour with gust to 40 mph and the greenhouse withstood the pounding without any sign of failure! That is a very good sign and a wonderful accomplishment. I attribute success in weathering the storm to the aluminum channels and wiggle-wire used to secure the plastic to the frame and the basic structural strength and design.

A thermometer censor is suspended and loosely wrapped in aluminum foil to reflect light and heat and send an accurate temperature reading to the bass station in the house on my desk.

The structure is solid and able to stand up to what should be some of the upper limits of bad weather in our area. Now to work on some of the failings. The underground water is one of the first and worst problems that I must try to tackle. So far, siphoning the water out has been the only successful way of removing the water. My shop vac would not suck up the water from the depth it's at and I don't have sump pump. Purhaps I'll have to buy one and see if I can use that to dry the system out.
Looking down the barrels to the opening connections to the 650 feet of underground drain tile. This is the waterlogged Subteranian Heating and Cooling System. In the photo, you can see perhaps a dozen pipe ends in the lower barrel, there are actually 27! There are many more below the water level in that photo. It also appears that the lower barrel is distorted in places due to the weight and pressure of the soil. That may have been an error caused by choosing an older (lighter) plastic barrel for that first one, different than the other barrels used in the system. The long white to green line in the photo is the garden hose that I've been using to siphon the water out.

Starting the Mantis Wisconsin - 24th of March, 2011, 10:15 AM. The temperature outside is 22 degrees. The greenhouse, for all the cracks and open spaces left to be closed up is already up to 46 degrees. The sun hasn't shown for several days and while the ground outside is frozen solid, I started the Mantis tiller and tilled up a little section in the greenhouse floor in the corner. Nothing frozen although the soil temperature is around 32 degrees, Nice! I'll wait a few more days to get things organized but I think Spinach could go in the ground in the corner right now or very soon? Maybe I'll get an old window and make an area to cover and start some cold weather seeds for the next few days or weeks until spring arrives a little more?

St. Patricks Day - Part 9

I finally installed one layer of covering over the greenhouse on March 17th, 2011. It was a quiet windless morning when I began, but before I finished three hours later, the wind had kicked up a little. The plastic cover is secured to the greenhouse frame using 8 foot lengths of aluminum channel and wiggle wire. Working as quickly as possible as the wind increased, I worked the wiggle wire into the channels around the base and over the curved ends of he greenhouse.

The snow is still melting as winter draws to a close and there is mud everywhere as my fingers attest! Blackbirds and robins began arriving a day before I covered the greenhouse and their songs filled the air as I worked. I put the cover on by myself and it wasn't too hard. I tied a rope to each corner of the plastic, threw the rope over the hoop frame, and went on the other side and pulled! Not too hard. It would have been easier and faster if there had been two or four people but with so much mud, I didn't want to bother others. The channels were all installed and the weather seemed acceptable so it was kind of a spur of the moment decision to attempt to cover it before I had to go to work in the afternoon. It went surprisingly well.


Inside, I still have gates that I used as scaffolding and the soil still needs to thaw in places. I cut a top opening in one of the barrels that connect to the underground pipe maze and discovered that it is filled with water! That's not good. I began siphoning the water out this afternoon but may have to invest in a sump pump, but it appears that my whole entire underground maze is water logged! At least it isn't frozen.


The temperature in the greenhouse was around 80 degrees when the sun was shinning, but dropped into the 70's when it was overcast. Right now, the temperature is 25 degrees, the same as it is outside. There are a lot of open holes around the base where the dirt has settled and the north wall is only covered in light plywood with lots of cracks.

I bought a cheap $15 indoor/outdoor thermometer and put the outdoor sensing unit in the greenhouse and the display is sitting on my desk. It records the high/low temperatures for the day which I wanted but resets at midnight which I didn't want. I had hoped I would be able to scroll back through days past to check that information but not so. I'll have to remember to write down the temperature extremes in the evening before midnight or they'll be lost.

I couldn't believe how bright it was inside. Even though the plastic isn't clear, I found it necessary to ware sunglasses while working in the greenhouse. The plastic is SunMaster and rated at 92% light transmission and I think I got a very, very, lite sunburn this afternoon.

Now with the greenhouse covered, I will begin to fill in the cracks and holes around the base and finish covering and insulating the north wall. The second thing is to get the water logged heat storage area dried up at least to the point that air can begin circulating through it. After siphoning this afternoon, the water level is down to where the underground tubes begin but is still about 4 feet deep!