Kani Seifert

Thank you for all the interest in our progress and greenhouse. We have some news. We will be selling our WyOasis property at auction on Saturday, August 21st. We would love to see the property go to a permaculturist.

The house sits on 8.68 fully-fenced acres on the edge of Medicine Bow, WY. It has a large shop with cement floor, a 30'x90' barn, divided into 3rds. The front 3rd has a cement floor. There is a small garden shed. The chicken coop is a 20'x11' room and an adjoining tack/grain room next to it.

The house has 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with a finished basement and large pantry. The basement includes a canning kitchen, 2 bedrooms, bathroom, media room area, and office/library area. Upstairs, there is an attached 2 car garage, bathroom, mud room, newly remodeled kitchen, living/dining room, 3 bedrooms, and a screened porch/sunroom off of the master bedroom. It has city water, electric, gas, and a septic system. A separate grey-water system utilizes the kitchen sinks and laundry water.

The top of the property has been swaled and bermed on contour with over 700 shrubs and trees. It is on a timed drip system. There are apple and cherry trees in the side yard as well as a large, fenced garden. Water from frost-free hydrants is available throughout most of the property.

The greenhouse is thriving and the citrus trees look good. The peach trees in the vestibule actually have peaches starting to grow. Amazing, as they were only planted last June, 2020.

If you are interested in what we have on auction, the house, or are just curious, here is the auction information:
 
https://wyopetersenauctionservice.com/event/personal-real-estate-auction-medicine-bow-wyoming/

https://www.facebook.com/PetersenAuctionService/

Sorry I didn't reply sooner, somehow I didn't get a message that folks had been asking questions.

Devon, just give us a holler to come and visit.

Seth, we do have 1 battery bank tube through the center which we hook up in the fall. It has kept the ground fairly warm. The citrus and avocados are thriving. In looking at our recording thermometer, we did have a week of cloudy days in January and the temp inside dipped to 32F for about 15 minutes. The lime and large avocado near the windows suffered slightly, but they are springing back. The tomatoes on that end also bit the dust, although the peppers are fine. Were we to do it again, we'd use more tubes and place some coming into the middle as well as the end. The blower is placed to blow the air, but it doesn't push enough through the tubes, so I'd also place a "sucker" blower at the incoming ends to help move the air more. Also, we'd place the blower on the east end if we were going to have windows. I'm not sure they are really needed. It's nice in the summer to open the greenhouse, but when we started leaving it closed, the temps regulated themselves somewhat. The biggest problem we've had (besides some bugs) is keeping it cool in the greenhouse. Even in the wintertime the temps can get high if it is sunny outside. We are in Zone 4 and the greenhouse works great. I think it is due to the walipini effect of being 4' below grade. This design would work well at 7500' as it provides so much protection from the elements.

The peaches and plums we planted in the vestibule have all bloomed and leafed out. I hand pollinated, but am not really expecting fruit this year as we don't have any pollinators yet. We had problems last year with aphids and the dreaded red spider mite! This company doesn't sponsor me, but I have to share them - Arbico Organics has saved the day. We got 10,000 ladybugs that arrived ALIVE! No more aphids, and we haven't seen any this spring either. Also, I ordered mite predators. Assassin bugs and some other crawlies took care of the problem. I'm amazed. And we didn't have to spray at all. I think we might have a mouse. As soon as the strawberries get some red, they get chewed. Dang cat is slacking.

Dorothy, we've had a low snow year. It has all evaporated and/or melted and we are already dry. Dang it. If it is going to be cold and windy, we should at least get some moisture along with it. We've been sitting in the below 10% humidity, with most days in the 1-5% range. Being in Cheyenne, you should be one zone warmer and will be able to grow more plants than we can. There is a permaculture group in Laramie County with some really nice folks.

That's the plan. I've pruned them hard and they've started to grow again. Hopefully, they'll produce as well as they did this last summer.

Here's the latest update - January 24, 2021 --We did the last harvest of the season today. We've had a great season and the tomatoes went crazy! We pruned the tomatoes to about 1' to strengthen them for the next season. I pulled out the ones that didn't perform as well as we would have liked, and got rid of most of the cherry tomatoes. We can grow cherries outside, and the smaller tomatoes, though ripening quickly, aren't needed in the greenhouse. I'm going to try bigger tomatoes next summer, but we'll keep the Romas and San Marzanos.

If you live in a cold, short-season climate, I recommend the Red Siberian. It was uber-abundant and tasty, and the size is a little bigger than a golf ball.

The peppers are still producing. It took them a long time to get started, but now they are doing well. I will trim them back when I've harvested the fruits to strengthen them as well. The were somewhat spindly this year.

The citrus and avocados are exceeding expectations. One of the avocados is blooming. I don't know if we'll get fruit, but I'm amazed at their growth. We have oranges and lemons on some of the trees already. We're so happy with their vigor.

We've been keeping track of the temperatures in the greenhouse (until our battery ran out mid-December). The weather has been COLD for a long time, mostly in the 20's during the day outside. In the greenhouse, the lows have been around 45F and the daily average highs have been in the mid-60s.

Rik - first of all, you live in the Bay Area, so a greenhouse is not really necessary (I grew up in SJ). You get a bit of chill wind off the bay, and if you are trying for more tropical plants, a greenhouse might be helpful. In the Bay Area, you can grow almost everything, especially those fruit trees that I can't grow--Elberta peaches and Santa Rosa plums. Also, unless you are in the country, you can grow many plants that get chomped by the deer here. It so rarely freezes, that a "walapini" isn't needed. I can see an unheated greenhouse might be helpful during the few frosty nights. However, the biggest problem we've had is keeping it cool enough--even in winter. So if you are making a greenhouse, make sure you have great ventilation with cross-breezes.

To find more on this type of greenhouse, look at the video I've posted above of Russ Finch in Alliance, NE. There are also many YouTube videos of walapinis and "underground" greenhouses. There is a guy on YOuTube who used to live in the northern East Bay and he had a giant garden--I think his site is called "Growing Your Greens"

Best wishes,
Kani

Centennial is an interesting community, but it is high elevation and the growing season is even shorter than where I am. There is more precip. there, though (read, lots of snow). I don't know much about Tie Siding, other than there are very, very few people. It isn't really a town at all. If you are wanting a town close to the mountains, then, I'd recommend Encampment or Riverside. I lived there when I first moved to Wyoming and loved it. It depends on what type of land you want. I'm on the high desert plains. Dry and windy, but the land is inexpensive and it is not crowded. The closer you get to the mountains, the more expensive the land is. -Kani

Have you been to the area? The Wild Horse subdivision has major covenants, so check it out before buying. Plus, for the same type of land, they are expensive. Most everywhere out in the country, you'd have to get a well. I'd look carefully before buying out in the flat prairie. The winds are constant and strong everywhere, but if you can find some varied terrain, then the wind can be mitigated a bit. I think there is one earthship in the area, but I haven't seen it. If you have any questions, let me know. - Kani

Howdy!  There are quite a few lots available from private owners. Also, there will be a sale coming up (not sure on the dates) from the city where they will be selling lots they've acquired. You can give them a call to find out when the sale will happen. You can go to the Carbon County website to fin the GIS tax map with the owner information. This wouldn't be a planned community, but it would be great if like-minded folks decided to settle here. There is a lot of potential in this small town, and newcomers who want to live here are welcomed heartily. We are finding that if you can keep the plants watered, protected from the deer, and sheltered from the wind, that plants grow really well.

If you want to see what we're doing, you can search WyOasis in the forums.

-Kani

I thought I'd give an update. The last pictures were from May 23rd. These are all from June 20th (so they're already out of date). The only issue we're having with the greenhouse is cooling it. We are about to install some heat operated louvers on the back wall. I'll post more when we get them in.

The tubes are putting cool air into the greenhouse, but just not enough. We installed a recycled swamp cooler in the east wall, and it cools the vestibule. We open the west windows and have a fan blowing air from the vestibule into the greenhouse. We are keeping the greenhouse at about 90F during the day. We are probably going to install some heat activated louvered vents in the north wall, just to keep ahead of the heat. Even if the day is cool, the solar load coming into the greenhouse is intense.

However, the plants are loving it. Everything is growing like crazy. We planted 7 citrus and 4 avocados. We are also trying out a Santa Rosa plum (my childhood favorite--Bay Area girl) and an Elberta peach in the vestibule area. I hope we can keep it cold enough in the winter to get the required amount of chill.

The ladybugs have helped with the aphids, but some have flown away home out the windows, so I need to get more.