End of 2012 Progress report.....

 The fish are happy with the cooler weather which is the major contributor to the clear water. When it is hot and sunny the algae gets a strong hold in the water and clouds the water up taking up valuable oxygen.

 We have started cleaning up for the winter flower garden, removing the heat loving Mexican petunias with cold loving pansies.

 Carport awaiting the outside skin.....

 The shop/kitchen is dried in , the next step is completing the trim and sealing the perlin openings that were created when we constructed the overhangs.

 The bathhouse walls patiently wait...

 To de-chicken the center planting area, Richard created a rock garden/patio area. I can't wait to plant the Zinnia in the spring!

 The closet guest house...

 The chicken pasture greening up....

The garden awaiting my attention......

Adding Tables to the greenhouse

 Richard is framing the tables to be very strong with many cross braces. Then 1X6s are nailed , (with a space between them for water to drain), along the top to create the platform.

 The finished levels. Notice our Myers lemon tree on the left loving the warm temperate enviroment, I picked about 2 dozen lemons already!

 I then coated the wood with a staining sealer to even everything out and protect the wood from the moisture.

Having done the green house this way ie: insulating the roof and East, West and North sides, placing a reflective wall covering , placing glass on the south side and lining the south side with 55 gallon drums full of water, The temperature stays between 55 and 80 degrees year round!

The winter garden

 We have not had a freeze yet. It has been a warm fall so the broccoli is just starting to head. I decided to plant more broccoli, thus the little plants in between the tall ones.
I am experimenting with a rye cover crop this winter. I have been having trouble with nematodes this year and heard that the rye will trap them and they die. I also bought beneficial nematodes to help as well. 

 The peppers have had a banner year, but the freeze tonight will take them down.

 You can barely see the cabbage and cauliflower I planted  in the rye grass.

 The snap peas are growing better since it has cooled a bit.

 The Garden looks a little ratty from this view but it is the best shot of the marigolds.

And here is the harvest! There are even a few pounds of string beans under the peppers, this will last us a few days anyway!

What a differance 2 weeks make...

 It is near the end for the Zinnias and the beginning for ryegrass. The above photo was taken  two weeks before the photo below and the photo does not give the grass justice!

Upholstering the building

  Here we are starting with the skeleton of the building. All the perlins are up , they are the support for everything else that is added to the building.

 We devised a system to easily apply the materials to the 26 foot expanse of the roof. First we measured the length that the chicken wire had to span, adding about 8 inches to that length to allow for variances. We attached a 6 foot tubing to one end, securing it with the chicken wire. We then tied a rope to the tubing and ran the entire length of the chicken wire.

Then, we rolled the chicken wire up with the string and tubing attaching it to a roll of tape (some thing soft , a little heavy and easy to tie a rope to).

 We took it up to the roof, with me on the high end, I held on to one end of the chicken wire and threw the tape  attached to the rope to Richard. He then pulled on the rope unwinding the rolled up chicken wire towards him.

We twisted together the wire where each chicken wire meet at the edges.

 We used the same system for the insulation and the Tyvek. We decided to apply the chicken wire all at the same time. We then applied the insulation, the Tyvek and finally the roofing panel. Since each of these materials are a different width, I calculated on a piece of paper at which point we had to apply each material. For instance,the insulation is 6 feet wide, the Tyvek is 9 feet wide with a 1 foot overlap and the roofing panels are 3 feet wide. Since we have a 2 foot overhang which will not have insulation, we started by putting one roll of insulation, one layer of Tyvek and 2 roofing panels.

 Here I am on the roof of the porch with all the chicken wire precut for the wall above the porch.

 This is how the layering looks, the chicken wire, then the Tyvek, ready for the side panel's. At each rafter sticking out we had to cut and shape the insulation and Tyvek around them.

 This is the building in the various stages of the insulation Tyvek and siding application.

 The front of the building with all panels in place.

 It kind of felt like a movie set with only the front façade. The floor looks pretty bad at this stage, just before I spruced it up with a few more coats of sealer.

 This is the floor after I applied sealer. Here we have lined up all the cut chicken wire ready to be hung. It is a little hard to see but we measured and marked where the chicken wire should end and on the top and bottom marked in 1 foot increments, as not to get too far out of alignment. We attached the chicken wire with lathe screws placing them where they would not interfere with the final siding screws.

 Details, details, details, making sure the chicken wire was secure at every end point.

We measured and cut the tin pieces at one time. The easiest way to create a template is to measure the width of your template board, then from a set level place on your wall measure up to the slope from each end, this will give you the slope of your roof. This template is what I used on each of the side panels above.
To get the insulation to adhere to the vertical wall, we applied heavy duty double stick tape. This worked like a charm, as long as it wasn't up too long on a very hot day.

 The insulation is up in this picture, and immediately we would try to get up the Tyvek  to secure everything in place.

Below, I am cutting out the space for a window. This takes all lot of measuring and allowing a little leeway for adjustments around the window.

 

I found it much easier to wait until we put the Tyvek up, to cut out for the Windows.

And here is the finished product with the Tyvek all tucked in.

 One side finished!

 Moving around to the south side, working the Windows.

This is the east side, the final wall. We have the insulation and Tyvek up ready to receive the panels.

The final panel being installed!
 One thing I should mention here is the value of scaffolding. It is not a cheap item, but it makes for a safe working environment. We were able to do work we could not have done on the end of a ladder. I did call around and checked on Craig's list for used scaffolding. I checked on the Internet and found Scaffold Store at  WWW.scaffoldstore.com they carry commercial grade scaffolding. We found them to be less expensive than what we could find used. We have been so thankful for this equipment and know we will use it on all our building projects.

It took us two months to complete this project, September and October. I know we will be very happy we took the time to do this, but in this moment it was a pain in the butt and we do not plan on insulating future buildings this way.