The Aftermath

Yesterday and last night an epic windstorm blew through. There were deaths in Spokane and over a quarter million people in Washington lost power. Our weather station from CostCo did not work out, so I'm unsure of the gusts, but they were well over 50 MPH.  It was the first time since I'd lived in tornado alley that the weather caused everyone to move away from the windows for safety!

So I did our first review of the property to see the damage from the windstorm. Overall not bad. We'd done quite a bit of prep in anticipation and it paid off. The truck was parked behind the greenhouse so it wouldn't take flight again, and most everything had been tied down to something else. We'd missed a few things that I had to fix during the storm, or Woody did when he got home, but fared much better than the last storm. 

The house on the other hand needs some work. While built very sturdily, it just wasn't ready for the force of the rain pummeling it straight on for hours with 40+mph winds. Part of that is our fault...did not take time for proper maintenance this summer. We had some major leakage frown emoticon Woody's fixing that right now. Also damaged the storm door. Also need to resolve downdraft issues with the woodstove - had to fall back a redundancy level for heat!!! All was good tho. We were prepared for that and rode out the storm watching a movie. 

Now it's a gorgeous morning, everything is getting cleaned up and we'll take a ride later to clear the road if necessary. Just another day out yonder!

Oh, the travesty!!!

So during our little 3 day wind storm, my greenhouse blew over.  Up and rolled over. Caught wind like a sail and made way. 

I did not appreciate it and may have had one of my multiple breakdowns of the week.  Maybe. 

But, as usual, Woody to the rescue!  He carefully rolled that sucker back over and decided to install a floor, so that all of the plants and etc that I put in it will give the building added weight.  And overall, not too bad of damage to the structure!  Little baby miracle.  

I saved the few plants that had been placed in it already - the citrus - and they moved inside for a few days.  After the floor was installed, I placed many, many, many pounds of paving stones, dirt and water inside, along with the plants.  Fingers crossed that our efforts will pay off!

Upright, with new floor!

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm calling this my birthday present - even though it is a pioneering necessity. Love love love it! Need to do a lot more to make it more winter-able, but its a great start & I've already thrown plants in it. Yay!

A bit of color

This morning on the way to work it was cold and foggy. So cold in fact, that when I saw some styrofoam peanuts on the side of the road, I thought excitedly it could be snow! But it's really not that cold... 

Still, I think we could all use a little dose of color. So here are pictures I took on my last day working at the greenhouse this year.

Challenges

We will have challenges when we finally settle up at the Broken Badger in Bickleton.  We plan to try to produce the majority of our own food, but our weather is extremely unpredictable.  I've looked into the history of the weather in Bickleton and there is a possiblity of freezing temperatures at any time during the year.  Yes, it can freeze even in July and August!  January or July?? While that is a rare event (the average lows for summer are in the 50's), since we are going to be self-sufficient we need to plan for the worst case scenario, if we can.  A lost harvest means a winter with less food than we should have.  Right now if my garden fails, I can run to the grocery store.  Up there it will mean stone soup and pine needle tea.  Yikes!  Dinner? I need a greenhouse.  I need a greenhouse with a footprint the size of Texas.  I may need multiple greenhouses.  I actually love the earthy smell and ambient warmth of a greenhouse, so this really doesn't hurt my feelings much.  But then there's the other challenge... the wind.  Part of what we love so much about the area is the fact we will be able to generate power from the wind.  Part of my challenge is the wind loves to destroy poly film structures.  I'm worried that polycarbonate sheets will be too lightweight as well.  (We can get some serious gusts up there!) This design will stand up to the wind I think good ole fashion glass will be the way to go.  I suspect they will mostly look like these: Awesome design from... Whatever it takes... So cute! Tomatoes, peppers, melons... all these warm weather crops will need to be protected from chilly nights, but also need to kept from frying during the heat of the day in the greenhouse.  It will be a delicate balancing act.  My goal is to have a system to open the greenhouse during the day, moving air through, then to close back up at night.  I have not come up with an actual design yet.  But this one comes close... I like that upper row of windows, so easy to crack open, release the risen heat and create a low to high air flow. Really liking this concept For some of the 'medium' crops (not really needing the warmth, but not happy with a freeze either) I will most likely use some type of cold frame.  Something that can be closed at night to keep warmth in and cold at bay, yet fully opened during the day as long as it stays above freezing!! Faaaancy cold frames :-) Of course, we'll also have to build an orangerie to house our tender citrus trees.  It will problably look something like this: I wish!!!  But seriously, I'm hoping to keep some more tender trees and plants from dying in the winter. What are your thoughts on the challenges ahead?  Any interesting building materials or structures for the garden?  Scary experiences with wind destroying all your hard work?