Carolyn Miller

I've been reading your blog from the beginning.  I love to see the progress, very inspiring.

Windy Huaman wrote:We planted our tropical food forest without regard to integrating animals in the early years. There are more than 11,000 small tree saplings.

Where is your tropical location that might help others assist you in finding a suitable animal. Do you have year around forage for the animals?  How established is your food forest? Do you want the animals for a purpose other than grazing weeds? Are any of your trees poisonous to animals?

Windy Huaman wrote:Maybe sheep? But I assume they would eat the young trees in addition to the herbs.

I find sheep graze the ground very closely and are also selective about what they eat, so you may find they don't eat the weeds you're wanting them to eat and that they end up eating your young trees and sheep should be rotated frequently for parasite control as well as to let the forage recover.  My experience with cows in tropical locations is they ate our one and only papaya tree, plus I think they might do damage with their hooves.  

You might want non animal weed control, like laying cardboard down and smothering the weeds? Not sure how feasible this would be for 20 acres.  

I have a beaver problem.  

I have a property with beautiful pond (mane-made, not by the beavers).  It's about 9 feet deep and stocked with trout.  Inflow to the pond is a natural creek that runs through the pond and then out over a dam when the pond is full.  Along the creek there are extensive channels to beaver habitat with lodges and dams.  

Last year the beaver decided it was time to dam the inlet to my pond. It's now getting ridiculous, I have to pull out their new construction every 2 days. If I don't the pond will dry up as the exit dam has a few leaks at the base, plus evaporation takes its toll.  I can see the water level drop about a foot in a day when the beavers block the inlet.  So does anyone have a good method of keeping the inlet open? I feel I need to let the beavers "think" they've dammed it and keep the water flowing somehow. I tried french drain submerged in the creek and running to the pond but I think they've blocked that all up with silt.  I'm going to try to bang on it today to see if I can get some water flow through it.

Also how would one go about fixing a dam that's leaking at the base. It appears to be concrete that has cracked and shifted. I don't want to drain the pond but not sure how to stop the water leaks at the base temporarily so I can fix it?  No water is currently flowing over the dam, so to fix this I need to stop or slow the flow. I was wondering if I put pond membrane on the non-pond side of the dam if that would slow the leaks down enough to build a new dam?  Suggestions? I'm totally over my head with this!
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I was actually thinking of lining the planters with foam-thought there might be two fold benefit-insulation and also protect the wood sides from moisture.

I am building some raised planters today for my greenhouse. I was wondering if there would be a benefit to insulating the sides of the planters with foam insulation? Just thinking it might help to retain heat in the containers?

What would be a good depth for planters?

My frost free hydrant broke and I had to change it out (we couldn't get the top off to fix it). Now that I have done that I really don't want to ever do it again. The bury depth is 6 feet so we had to dig a big 6 foot hole that I could fit into.

I've seen this website: http://www.yardhydrantmadeeasy.com/ which looks to make changing them out very easy but I'm wondering if the same thing could be accomplished with some pipe insulation and pvc pipe. I'm thinking about wrapping the pole with pipe insulation and then putting 6" pvc around it to the depth of the connection. I'd then drill a hole in a pvc cap and put the hydrant pole through that. Do you think this would work? Would this allow air around the pipe that might lead to freezing in winter?

Any better suggestions?

Thanks

Carolyn

It's time to get to work on this greenhouse! The sheep are in the attached barn and I'm ready to proceed with the greenhouse.

I'm trying to figure out what is best to do with the slope. If you look at the above picture -the south facing side of the greenhouse is about 18" higher at grade than the sheep barn. I was thinking of submerging the front of the greenhouse by building a knee wall-do you think this would be the best solution for this site. I'd be excavating a lot of dirt to make it level inside the greenhouse but I'm not really coming up with a better alternative. I imagine this would be good for the winter as the earth would retain heat better than exposed walls?

I have a mudroom which I use as a place to winter over my plants until my greenhouse is built. It is unheated except for electric space heater and leaving door from house open a crack. I have the space heater plugged into a thermocube plug so it doesn't come on above 40.

The mudroom has lots of windows so I want to make insulated blinds for them. I'm wondering about the insulating material for these-I'm planning on bubble wrap as I have it, but I may also be able to find some cheap bedspreads at the thrift store that I could use for insulation material. Has anyone here made any insulated blinds with either material? If so how did they work for you? As I said I'm leaning towards the bubble wrap as I have it, but will look for quilts if they will prove superior over the long run.

I plan on a nice outer fabric on room side (purchased at yard sale), insulation material and then waterproof curtain backing. I'm also intending on either magnetic tape on bottom or hooks to secure the blinds close to the wall so heat doesn't come up behind them.

Thoughts before I take the plunge?

Carolyn

This greenhouse will be located on our homestead at 9800' in the rocky mountains. We are zone 4. I'm attaching this greenhouse to an existing lean-to structure that is 16'x24' (the greenhouse will be attached to the long wall). I plan on using 1/3 of the greenhouse area as a chicken/duck coop. I'd like to try to use some of their night heat for the greenhouse in the winter, and also use solar gain to keep their coop warmer in the winter. Sheep and goats will also contribute to night time heat in the adjoining building and will also provide CO2.

I'm planning to make this a solar greenhouse and have read several books on the topic. Along the back wall I will be using containers full of water for heat sinks. My vermicompost bin will be in there as will a 300 gallon aquaponics tote system.

I believe I'm going with a tilted sidewall to catch winter sun and optimize angles. The front of the greenhouse will be partially subgrade as this is going on a hill but unfortunately the southern facing wall is the HIGH wall so front will be submerged about 12"-18". South wall (tilted wall) and part of roof will be clear, E&W walls will be mostly solid.

Questions I have so far:

1) Foundation-I'm planning on preserved wood foundation as I know how to work with wood better than anything else. I'm going to use 4x6 timbers. I see some sites recommend 2 timbers all the way around, others only one. I definitely will have more than one in front as I have to make at least grade height-but what about round the back where I'm attaching this to the existing structure-would you still use two timbers or is that overkill? Then I was wondering should I use all timbers along the front deeper wall or would I be better off setting posts, setting timbers on these and filling the space under the timbers with concrete block and then insulate the outside wall?

2)Kneewall-I wouldn't mind additional height in the front as due to the slope of the glass, there is not a lot of height for the first couple of feet. I'll already have 12-18" in front due to grade, but was wondering are there pros and cons to kneewalls? Is there an optimum height? I just read on one site that not a lot of useful light comes in down there anyhow? This would greatly improve the coop end of the structure as I could do nest boxes or something along there.

3) Glass/Polycarbonate- I will be using both glass/polycarbonate. I'm taking down a Santa barbara greenhouse that is falling down and recycling the 6mm polycarbonate panels (I have 8 4'x6') panels and then some assorted sizes from the roof and ends. I also have some double glazed patio door glass and some windows too. Would you use the polycarbonate on the roof, glass for the sides. I was even considering doubling up on the polycarbonate on the roof or would I be better off using it all around and not using the glass at all?

Any other suggestions before I get going would be greatly appreciated. I'm attaching an outline of what my plan is for now. I already have one change I'm considering and that is to make the north greenhouse wall a little higher than the structure it is attaching to, and then putting openable panels along it to let heat out. Good/bad idea? I could always make part of the roof openable.

Thanks-This is my first post here but I've been scouring the boards for a while!

Carolyn