The Class E Network

Zitat von olduser

Did the window have to be a certain size? The win:vent looks like 6:1, is there a reason for this in botanical environments?

No specific reason. It was one of the biggest windows I had which translates to the largest screened opening available when opened. Locating a big screened area, as close to the top as possible, was the intent for passive convection venting. Venting a greenhouse in the heat of the summer is a big deal.

I have an vinyl window that I was going to side mount but they have built-in springs to assist with lifting the bottom pane, in a vertical mount. In a side mount that made it nearly impossible to shut. The all aluminum framed storm window was a better choice for side mounting. With the latches facing the outside, it's easy to open and shut. Also, given the humidity in a typical greenhouse, aluminum is a good choice.

Zitat von olduser

Also, is there a trick to bending that cage overhead?

The bow is natural. Since the panels are a fixed dimension, we did a few tests to determine width versus the height needed for a standard door. (It's easy to do - drive 4 stakes in the ground at varying widths.) Those measurements determined the width of the greenhouse and, since we wanted a usable width, the additional height needed from the wood walls.

With the walls built, I cut 2X6 sections, 1 foot long with a 3/8" wide slot x that is 1 1/2"inch deep, for the panel ends to rest in. We walked the panel ends up and dropped them in the slots. (3/8ths is the width of the cross section of the welded wire in my panels.) Once in place, they were clamped into the sides with longer 2x6 sections (no slot) with a 3/8" thick shim at the bottom, using C clamps and 3" deck screws. The panels became more ridge as they were now clamped firmly to the sides. That created the shape of the arc. We joined each of the panels, to each other, with heavy black UV resistant tie-wraps at each cross junction. (I'll probably replace the tie-wraps each time it's re-skinned.) At the ends of the tunnel, I put upward pressure on the 2x4 framing on the end cattle panels making the overall structure much more ridge at the ends. That translates to more rigidity through out. While the structure will flex somewhat, in buffeting winds, I believe the plastic would blow out before there's structure damage.

If you're interested, I can supply you with a few more details to build a similar item.

I'm certainly glad we have it. At our altitude, it's actually snowing right now.

Zitat von crashtest

Venting a greenhouse in the heat of the summer is a big deal.

Pretty much impossible. Attach a chain link top rail on each side, add a hand crank and roll the sides up in summer. Better yet, take the plastic off and save it for next season. Tie a tarp over the top to shade young starts from the scorching heat.

Zitat von Agricola

Pretty much impossible.

At our altitude, we're 7 to 15 degrees cooler, on average, than locations at sea level and we get real breezes and wind almost year round. I'll have to see what the temps are, in July. Poly shade cloth is a possibility, and the door end has square areas where more active ventilation can be retrofitted.

Mostly, it's planned as a seed starter and off season growing. Otherwise plants will be in the garden.

**Edit** Today, we have a minor snow accumulation and a forecasted high of 41 F. There will be another hard freeze tonight.

This is what I've been doing lately - expanding the garden:

To get a sense of size and perspective, the greenhouse (from -> this post) on the left is just under 21' long and close to 10' wide. The next project is building a corn crib for grains and drying shell beans.



I built a bat box that's installed, above, on highest post. (About 12' off of the ground.) To attract bats to box, I put a temporary light under the box that I leave on at night. That attracts plenty of moths. The idea is to get bats into the bat house before the corn comes in, to kill corn earworm moth that lays it's larva on corn silk, leading to corn worm. The moth is nocturnal, laying it's eggs at night so a nocturnal hunter, bats, would make for an ideal solution.

We'll see what happens.

It will be interesting to see if the bats impact the corn ear worm population.

Well, first, I have to get bats to take up residence in the house I built for them.

I'm new to this "bat" thing. The plans for building the house were easy enough, but is it an ideal house for brown bats? I don't know. I went with the best design I could find. All I know, with reasonable certainty, is that rough cut wood creates a rough surface for bats to cling to, as they hang around, and a 3/4 inch thick cavity that's 16" wide and 16" tall (with various height ventilation gaps for different seasons) is supposed to attract the brown bat.

I built the box out of scored skid wood (very rough), sealed it up and painted it.

I'm hoping the night light attracts some bats to a free lunch, of moths. If it does, I'll have something to report this fall. Otherwise, I'll have to figure out what is needed to get some bats close to the garden.

I would like to do something like that. I like to see them flying around just before all the light is gone. I always see a few every year. I don’t know if putting up a box would bring in more or not. We have a couple of Martin houses and this year we have four pairs. There weren’t any at all last year so it’s been a treat. Their main diet actually is not mosquitoes, as is reputed, but rather dragonflies and the like. They really do not do anything beneficial for the garden either. We just like to see them flying around the open space over the garden. Who knows, maybe they do have some benefit.

Zitat von Agricola

I don’t know if putting up a box would bring in more or not.

I'm going on the premise that they'll hunt for a meal, as close to home as is possible. If the bat house is their home base, my corn would have to benefit from their consumption of the cornworm moth.

Sounds like a plan. How high is the box mounted?

About 12 foot up. That's for the young. Bats drop into flight and they say that the youngsters, being goobers like most youngsters are, need a few extra feet to take to wing.

Funny.

We got a bit of snow.

The front yard. (It's more like +100 yards.)


The green house and garden area. (A tree came down. I'll have to take care of that when this melts.)

The driveway. (I'll be firing up the snow blower this afternoon.)

And,,,, power just dropped out as I was posting this. I'll have to clear out around the generator, a bit sooner than I planned to.

We had a “blizzard” about 10 days ago that kept us on the hill about three days. Nothing pressing so we didn’t even try to get out. It was maybe three or four four inches with deeper drifts and over-night lows in single digits. Some ice still persists in the shadows, but it’s over. Likely it will be our only winter storm of this seasons. Daffodils are already poking up.

This little strom was 6 to 7 inches and we got all of it overnight. Curiously, it was a wet and heavy snow, despite the overnight temp's being in the 20's

Zitat von Agricola

We had a “blizzard” about 10 days ago that kept us on the hill about three days. Nothing pressing so we didn’t even try to get out.

That's one of the reasons I love retirement. We don't have to venture out if we don't want to. (Back in the day, I commuted through some treacherous stuff to get to and from work.)
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I fired up the snowblower and, after 30 minutes, cleared paths to sheds and cleared the driveway. For some reason, VDOT clears the gravel road that comes back into this hollow and they're very good about getting it done promptly. They had it plowed by around 10AM.

I drove tractor trailers ( doubles and triples) for UPS for 35 years, and we NEVER called in or shut down for weather. Since retirement (2015) we haven’t had anything like some of those ice and snow storms back then, but these days I go into hibernate mode at the first snowflake.

Zitat von geaves

We haven't seen any of that white stuff

While that may be true, as I remember it, skies of that shade of grey are common on your side of the pond.

For my area, this was the second 5 inch plus (+13 cm) snow fall this year. We've been lucky that it's been a mild year.

The howling winds, this spring, have been something of an adventure

We heard a "thud" inside of the house and the power went down. We took a look in the front yard and saw this:

"Half" of this old growth pine broke off.

It's hard to get a good perspective on the break but it's BIG.

The trunk diameter is about 24". (The dog is about 60 lbs.)

The power company came out in a matter of hours and swagged the lines back together. I was really surprised and grateful for the speed of the repair. With the price of fuel these days, running a generator for an extended period can be somewhat expensive.

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That wasn't the only break either. I was looking for the root ball of this tree.
(What's on the ground measured around 14" in diameter.)

There was no root ball to be found so I looked up and found that a "limb" from this old growth pine broke off and took a couple of smaller limbs with it.

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This break is proof that God loves me.
This is another bifurcated old growth pine. I zoomed the camera up to about 25 or 30ft where one half of the top broke off. This tree is right next to an old hunting cabin that's on the property. The break is on the North side of the tree, next to the cabin, which is about 20ft north of the tree.



Physics would have the falling upper half of this tree landing right on the roof of the cabin.

Below is what happened:
Somehow this break, which should have fallen north (on the roof of the cabin), fell to the rear of the cabin on the eastward side. The broken end of the trunk is actually farther south, than the trunk of the tree itself (which, again, is next the cabin.) There was no damage. Given that the winds in this valley typically blow from South to North, there's no rational explanation for this one.

Yep, God loves me.

We had another tree up root and fall across the driveway. That was another "thud" but the power didn't go out this time. It was roughly 18" diameter at the base. I didn't take pictures of that one.
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All of the trunk sections from these incidents are now feeder material for this:

I bought a small saw mill with an extension to cut up the 16' lumber. Given the need for lumber out here and that 2x4's are going for up to $10 each these days , I think the mill might quickly pay for itself in money saved. (I have a few outbuilding type structures to build.)
While it's difficult to see in this pic., beyond the mill (in the area of the aluminum tank), I have a BIG pile of log sections in varying lengths to cut 8', 12' and 16' lumber. While this is a small mill, it's capable of cutting 6"x17"x16' which is more than enough for my needs. (Some of these large log sections will have to be ripped with a chain saw before this mill can process them.)

The rest of this spring and summer will be busy. My wife wants me to take down the pines that could, conceivably, hit the house. (One of them is old growth and big.) I agree with her. They have to go.

It all looks like a ton of work to me. Be safe.