So the husband and I went out the other day to start building our greenhouse (it’s going to be about 40 x 25.  We’re calling it “Erika’s winter home” lol)

Every step of the way I was making us stop and take pictures.  “I want to show people what we’re doing!” I kept saying.  He would roll his eyes, but oblige by helping me hold things in certain ways so I could get pictures of whatever I was going to talk about.  He’s a trooper.

And man… I got GREAT ones.

And then, a few days later, my phone died.  It was a sad death.  It froze up and just refused to do absolutely ANYTHING.  And of course I couldn’t upload the pictures.

(Brief side note:  This was the THIRD “new” iPhone I’d gone through in about 4 months.  I never EVER recommend getting a refurbished iPhone, as they I had massive issues with all of mine.  Not worth it, even though they were free to me!  But now I’ve gone and purchased an actually NEW phone, so hopefully here ends the great phone debacle of 2014!)

So sadly I have no in-progress pictures of the greenhouse to show you.  But here is what it looks like so far:

I can give you a few tips though if you’re putting together your own:

1)  Do NOT think you and your husband can do it in two weekends.  (As you can see we’re STILL only about halfway through.)

2)  DO pick a good spot that drains well so you don’t have to bring up too much dirt and rock.

3)  Do NOT leave the hoops laying in your driveway so that your neighbor drives over one when he pulls in to see what the heck you crazy people are doing now.

4)  DO use as many scrap pieces of pipe laying around the property as you can.  Old fence posts from a chain link fence work WONDERFULLY.  We pounded them into the ground to drop the hoops into (note: when pounding in ground, be careful not to distort the top or the round hoop won’t slip inside.  Try putting a piece of wood on top and hitting that with sledge hammer instead of the pipe itself):

5)  Do NOT put the hoops up and then realize you haven’t measured for any cross braces yet:

  (Lol.  This may lead to you operating the skidloader, with your husband precariously in the bucket trying to measure along a rounded hoop.  And oh yeah, it was raining!)

6)  ….In reference to not thinking you can do it in a week or so…. DO go to Tractor Supply, and spend $100 on a little 4×7 greenhouse where you can store at least some plants, while you’re waiting to find the time to finish the greenhouse.  Seriously, this thing is pretty cool.

There’s about 550 tomato plants in there.  And once I figured out the balance of when to have it open, versus closed and when to pull them all out, it works quite well.

What’s coming up in the next few weeks you ask?  Well, really, we never know.  Fact is, you have to be flexible around here.  We make plans and then other things just come up.  But “next on the agenda” (for whatever that’s worth) is this:

Finish Greenhouse

Plant small area in field

Till and plant garden

Till front yard (which looks ridiculous) and plant grass! (for anyone who has been here, that is a BIG deal)

Can’t wait to tell you about it all!