Greenhouse update 9/26/26
Welcome back to the Farm Life Farm Blog. We have been documenting our build and have many accomplishments to share.
Last post had a list of things to do. I am happy to report we are making our way through that list. Lets look at them in order of the list.
Trim outside of windows and doors.
Windows and doors have been trimmed and foam insulated. These are the first two Sarah trimmed. All air gaps are sealed with spray foam. I will have pics of that for the next post. We used scraps for all the trim.
Build the back door.
We created a sliding barn door. This is a simple 2x2 pine frame with scrap 1 inch first cut boards covering it. In the side-by- side you can see the inside of the door insulated with 2 in foam board. The outside picture shows the door hanging in place. We mounted the track on a 5 degree angle so the door slides shut without assistance. A french door might have been the better option. I do plan to mount the power system controller on the hallway wall. The sliding door occupies 3 feet of wall space that I cannot use for control panels. I do believe there will be enough wall space for the equipment. If by chance there is not, then we will cut the door in half and transform it into a french door.
Snow load straps
Sarah began adding the hurricane straps but found the angles disagreeing with her wrist, so that remains on the list. Snow specific strapping is done however.
We have blocked the back wall half way up and ran 2-2x6's along the length of the back wall, at the bottom, covering the first 12 inches of the studs. We have another 2x6 running the length along the top.
Front steps remain on the list. We are currently using milk crates for steps. I might just zip tie them together and call it a day. Or we will build some steps out of something.
Insulate
Imagine every seem lined with orange or yellow lines of spray foam. Again, pics will be in the next post. We only have the east side of the metal roof remaining to spray foam. Everything else is complete. Weatherstripping has been ordered. The side-wall doors and east-wall door need weatherstripping. I don't think I will weatherstrip the back doors. We might want a bit of heat to leak for the electrical components in the winter. Though I suppose I could just block the door open a bit when we need heat to escape. It may be more beneficial to seal it so we retain more heat during the extreme cold.
The plastic will be the last thing we do inside. I do not want to rip the plastic sheeting while we complete the build and move in shelving and other incidentals. When we get there, from the top roof foam boards down to the front pony wall will be covered with 5 mil polyethylene sheeting. This will create an air cushion in the rafters while allowing the light to shine in. This simple addition. O.k., that's a lie. Installing the plastic, wrinkle free, is a nightmare of a job. Get the plastic laid out. Get it squared to the not square building. Attach it with furring strips. It is not complicated, but it is difficult. Why bother? 30-40% additional heat retention.
Barrel Platform
The barrel platform was simple. An 18 inch wide plank that was 2 inches thick and just the right length was laying out back. The pavers were just outside the greenhouse. We blocked the plank every 12 inches to ensure it can hold the weight. We also have the water tanks in place. That is coming up. The barrel stove is going in next to the IBC tanks. I have a 4x8 sheet of metal. We will mount this to the IBC tote with some spacers and then place the metal 55 gallon drums behind the stove.
For the past few years, we have been filling a 65 gallon transfer tank from the hose at the house and hauling it up the hill. We would then either hook up the gas powered pump and transfer the water to the IBC tote, or we would raise the transfer tank above the IBC tote and let the water gravity feed. Both involve 10 minutes of filling while the well pump is working. Then diesel and engine wear on the tractor, then the time to transfer the fluid from one tank to another.
I envisioned a self-contained, auto-filling rain catchment system. With a roof surface area of 252 feet sq., we will collect about 75 gallons of water for every 1/2 inch of rain that falls. If we can collect this water, we wont need to haul water anymore.
It all starts with a gutter which runs into the flexible downspout extender. Two of these extenders were screwed together to make the run from gutter, around the corner, and into the barrel. I then took a 2in MIP to 2in Slip fitting and attached a 2-4in adapter and hose clamped some screen in there. You can see above that there is a plastic screen in the gutter to keep the big stuff out, however the little bits get through. Hopefully the screen will keep the little bits out as well. Below you can see the pump does have a mesh screen on it. I purchased a small float valve but missed the "normally closed" bit and I decided I had no other choice but to use the big float switch pictured below. I had to cut a squared notch out of the barrel fitting.
I then ran a piece of flat stock steel down to the side of the pump and secured the pump to the stainless steel with stainless zip ties. The water hose was zip tied every 6 inches for the length of the steel. The float was zip tied to the shaft about 6 inches above the pump with enough cord to drop but not touch the bottom. With about 6 inches of cord, the barrel fills about one third before the pump kicks on. After completing this project, I had a realization about the normally closed switch:
I had a 5 pin relay!
So, the little float switch had a max amperage of 0.7. The pump has an amperage of 8.0. I had to use a relay due to the amperage overage. Well it was a 5 pin, meaning I had the option of having the relay activate when the switch opens or closes. Having the 4 pin wiring diagram in my hand, I failed to realize the additional pin would allow me to use the little float.
The IBC totes are nestled nicely into the corner. We built a wooden support structure for the upper IBC. There are support legs for the structure that were installed after the photo. The PVC tote connector will be explained below.
The IBC totes are for watering plants and animals. Next summer, we will insulate the totes so they do not get hot like the barrels. We discussed in the past that the barrels will become a giant thermal heatsink. The blue barrels will be painted black to collect as much heat as possible. We placed two of the blue barrels behind the lower IBC. They will stay blue and will be separated from the other barrels and insulated with the totes. My theory is that the two barrels behind the totes will help stabilize temperature overall. Maybe this is silly; either way, they will stay.
The point of this system is to gravity feed the animal water troughs in the two upper fields. We will need some pressure for the float valves to operate properly. We will also need the tank water level to be higher than anywhere we want the water. The Greenhouse is built on the highest spot on the farm, but then we dug down below the surrounding area. Given the lower tank is lower than the paddock troughs, it will never work. I am hopeful that with the top tank tied in, that height will make everything work.
Lets take a moment to run through the system.
Water flows off the roof into the gutter.
The gutter flows to the rain barrel.
Water is pumped out of the barrel into the top IBC tote
The picture to the right is a recreation of the entry tube into the top tote. I did not take a picture of it but here are all the pieces:
The fill tube enters the top of a T.
The right side of the T has hose with an off valve at the end of it.
The bottom of the T is fitted to a mechanical float valve which is threaded into the tote lid.
The goal was to have the water flow past the overflow into the the tote. Once the tote is full and the float closes, the additional water will flow out of the building. For now, we will use this overflow to fill all the 55 gallon barrels. During testing, we found that there was less resistance in the overflow hose so I added the off valve. We will keep it closed until I can find a way to restrict the flow. It might be as simple as elevating the hose a few inches to add an elbow elevated a few inches above the T-fitting.
The final part of this project was to connect the two tanks. I used a camlock fitting and adapted to 2in sch40 PVC. There are two unions in this in case we need to remove it for any reason. With the camlock, I probably only needed one at the tote lid, but I had two. I wont know how water tight this is until the top tote is full. The goal here is to have the weight of the water in the top tank to force water through the garden hoses to their respective locations. I have never wanted rain so badly.
Cut down rafters: All done and covered with flashing.
mount gutters: done
run water lines out to paddocks and gardens. This will be the beginning of the next post. I will wait to complete them and take pictures.
I just added build back shed to the to-do list. Pretty much the remaining list is all electricity related. We need the back hall built so we can mount the electrical components. I mentioned this during the back door section. The back shed will have a four foot wide walkway to a ten by ten shed. We have two fiberglass tanks that we will be converting to fish farm tanks. The two tanks will be in the back shed. The hallway will be sealed off with a door on the shed side so we can protect the electrical components and keep them cool and dry. I have attached the ledger board and built three 46in sections of walkway. I used Oak for the lumber so they are super heavy. The next step will be to get supports in place so we can begin building the walkway.
Here is our updated to-do list.
Cut chimney pipe hole
Build 55 gallon barrel stove and run chimney pipe out back wall or through roof
Build back shed
Install vent fan
Wire in a few outlets and lights
Cut hole for wind turbine mounting pipe
Install wind turbine and all its components
turbine
control board
inverter
batteries/charge control
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