evan's ant village log

Hans, that's an excellent idea. I'll have to try that.

Much more practical for the lab than my idea; baling twine, the ubiquitous* farm fastening material!

*on farms which feed animals with baled hay

Interesting ideas; thanks Hans! For expediency and since we already have some we may just use a couple screws, but now I know to be on the lookout for free line.

Day 317

Thomas Griffin sent a little 6' by 8' greenhouse from harbor freight. Kai and I started putting it together but were frustrated by the instructions and only got about halfway finished before dark.

There were multiple points in the instructions where it seemed like the order of operations was unnecessarily complex, having us back-track to disconnect previously made connections and add pieces that could have been added in the first place, and other points where they were having us manually support parts that could have easily been supported by adding pieces in a more sensible order. One might think that such problems could have been avoided by reading through the whole instructions beforehand, but the pictures were not very clear and more than once we had to try different ways of putting things together to find a way that worked.

Day 318

Got the greenhouse put together! It's pretty lightweight and easy to move around, and it seems reasonably sturdy as long as we pin it securely to the ground and don't let snow build up on it.

Thanks Thomas for sending us this neat contraption! I hope you find it valuable as we share our experience with it.

Day 319

Since the greenhouse is not earth-integrated, it seems like it will suffer from a lack of thermal mass and a lack of insulation on the north side. In an attempt to remedy this, and also to stack functions, I started stacking some firewood inside on the north wall, which will hopefully act as a bit of thermal mass while also drying out nicely. Perhaps we can set up a kind of wood stack sun trap in there in which to grow tomatoes and peppers in pots.

Jim welded up a bunch of steel tubes to serve as extensions for his well drill, and also came up with an ingenious way of attaching them securely together while also making it easy for us to detach them as we add and remove extensions. Nice one, Jim!

Jim and I started drilling, and so far we made it down 20 ft. It's starting to get pretty heavy lifting out all those extensions. But so far so good.

Day 320

Jim and I rigged up a pulley system to help us lift the 20+ ft of drill and extensions out of the hole. Basically we stuck a huge post in the ground a few feet away and attached a pulley and cord to it. We also stuck a screw in up near the top of the post to act as a sort of hook on which to lean the drill after we pull it out of the ground to knock the dirt out of it.

The pulley makes it super easy to lift the drill up out of the ground, but after going maybe another 5 ft, we hit rock. It might be just gravel or small rocks, or it could be a boulder or even bedrock. We attached a rock bar to the pulley and dropped that down the hole a few dozen times, but I'm not sure if it's really doing much to break up the rocks.

It's frustrating to have gone down 25 ft only to be stopped by rock, but we're not giving up yet. If we can't break through somehow we'll try a different spot.

Wow, great gift Thomas Griffin !!

Ant Village my new testbed for stuff I think I might like....

Evan, sorry it was a pain to put together...does the greenhouse have a gutter to catch water off of it?

It get above freezing during the day inside it? It looks like it thawing out there. The idea is to get a jump on getting some seeds started. You think if you had a cold frame on the ground you could start leaf lettuce, spinich or radishes now?

Rob

you are over thinking your fence. the nails will last a lot longer than that fence will. not worth putting the nails into it. use twine etc and tie the two upright posts at intervals.

somewhat like this video. actually I would love to hear what you guys think if you try some fence building like in this video.

Thomas, I didn't mean to imply that I was anything but grateful for the greenhouse you sent. I hope my notes regarding the confusing instructions didn't come off sounding like a complaint. It does have a little gutter system for catching water. And I think it will definitely be a worthwhile place in which to experiment with starting seeds. Thanks again!

Kadence, Kai has actually been experimenting with the fence-building techniques shown in that video, but so far it seems like the wood we have is less than ideal for that style of fence. As far as the screws go, yes, they will last longer than the wood, and so we'll be able to easily reuse them for other projects when the fence breaks down.

Day 321

Spent the day mostly reading and enjoying the nice sunny weather we're having right now. Sharla and I finished reading Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. It was the third time I'd read it, and it's still in my top 5 favorite sci-fi books of all time.

These awesome folks sent the lab an advance copy of their food forest card game! Thanks! We tried one of their mini-games out, and it was pretty fun and very educational! I'm looking forward to playing with them more and trying out some of the other games.

Patrick Roehrman of MT Knives sent the lab a copy of his Beyond Razor Sharp dvd! Thanks Patrick! In it he explains knife-sharpening techniques and some tricks of the trade. I think I ought to watch it again and write up a proper summary and review, but for now I'll say that it was informative and interesting.

evan l pierce wrote:Thomas, I didn't mean to imply that I was anything but grateful for the greenhouse you sent. I hope my notes regarding the confusing instructions didn't come off sounding like a complaint. It does have a little gutter system for catching water. And I think it will definitely be a worthwhile place in which to experiment with starting seeds. Thanks again!

Kadence, Kai has actually been experimenting with the fence-building techniques shown in that video, but so far it seems like the wood we have is less than ideal for that style of fence. As far as the screws go, yes, they will last longer than the wood, and so we'll be able to easily reuse them for other projects when the fence breaks down.

Day 321

Spent the day mostly reading and enjoying the nice sunny weather we're having right now. Sharla and I finished reading Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. It was the third time I'd read it, and it's still in my top 5 favorite sci-fi books of all time.

These awesome folks sent the lab an advance copy of their food forest card game! Thanks! We tried one of their mini-games out, and it was pretty fun and very educational! I'm looking forward to playing with them more and trying out some of the other games.

Patrick Roehrman of MT Knives sent the lab a copy of his Beyond Razor Sharp dvd! Thanks Patrick! In it he explains knife-sharpening techniques and some tricks of the trade. I think I ought to watch it again and write up a proper summary and review, but for now I'll say that it was informative and interesting.

Glad you got time to watch it, I look forward to your review! I just posted a video you should check out over in tools, I split a hair 3 times in the same spot! I almost couldn't believe it myself I hope it helps you tons if you need anything let me know how I can help!

Patrick