Hi I'm Mike, I know its gonna sound crazy, but it is only 33 degrees out here
And that means its time to start getting ready for winter on the Project List on Our Wyoming Life
Hi and
welcome back to our Wyoming life. Where we explore the ranch and life and escape the
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a new feature here on Our Wyoming Life called Life Streams. They are like our livestreams
but they are totally off the cuff and unscheduled and you never know when they might happen.
Yesterday for example, we found bubbles and went live as we made sure it was him, and
got them moving back toward home. It was a lot of fun and if you don’t that the bell
turned on, you might have missed it. Moving right along, today its time to hit
the project list and winter is fast approaching, in fact we have snow in the forecast, not
much but that snowflake is hard to ignore. There will be many more following it soon
enough. The project list is an ever expanding and
contracting list of things that need done around here and as part of our winter prep
we are going to be working at the high tunnels today.
Erin will be growing in these high tunnels all winter long. Although this is the only
second year of us doing this, we have learned over last winter that it can be done. Spinach,
lettuce, radishes, carrots and many other cold hearty crops will be harvested throughout
the winter and taken to our winter farmers markets which take place one day per month
from November through May. By growing all winter long, we can not only
continue to supply fresh vegetables to our community but also help out with our monthly
income, on the flip side it keeps us almost as busy all winter as we are in the spring,
summer and fall. Today we are working on the high tunnels.
With temperatures dropping down in to the low 30’s at night we are only days away
from a good hard freeze. The high tunnels will keep the temperature of the interior
a few degrees above outside temperature, its not much but its sometimes enough to protect
a crop as our freeze will often happen then we will have a few more days or even weeks
of nice weather. Weather this morning is a bit chilly but as
the sun rises in the sky it does start to warm up, but with that comes the wind which
doesn’t help. The whining you hear is the wind generator that is right by the tunnels,
the higher the pitch, the more wind there is.
Our main project for today is to finish sealing up the end walls of the new high tunnel, above
the garage door, gaps have been left for the installation of them. Now that the doors are
installed we can seal up that area and hold some more of the warm air inside the tunnel.
Today we are unloading 2x6’s , some pressure treated and some just regular whitewood. The
whitewood will be used on the end wall project and the pressure treated lumber will be used
on the older high tunnel which I will catch you up to speed on our plan for that in just
a few minutes. The gap above the garage door is roughly 9
feet wide by 4 feet high. We get a start by installing a crossbeam the width of the door
at the bottom of the opening. By cutting out some of our framing, we can
create an area on each side to slip the cross piece into, then its attached to the existing
framing. Because our sheathing is in 8-foot pieces
we are too wide to just cover the gap with just one, we are going to have to use two
and by adding a vertical support piece in here it will give us something to attach our
exterior sheathing to, and strengthen it. We also remove some helper blocks I installed
while putting up the previous sheathing and get it out of the way for the new lumber.
With a dimension of over 9 feet cover we cut two pieces of OSB sheathing to 55 ½ inches.
Using our same ledge blocks we took off the wall, we then attach them to the bottom board
to give us something to rest our sheathing on. When you work by yourself a lot, you have
to come up with a second pair of hands quite often. Then very carefully due to the wind,
lift it into place. Wind love to grab anything it can, and I don’t want to follow this
thing off the ladder. After one piece is in place the other can
be hoisted up, checked for fit, taken down, adjusted then finally screwed into its home.
With that it looks like we are done, our blocks are taken off and it looks pretty good, but
its only an illusion. Anywhere air can get into the high tunnel
it will. It will never be air tight but keeping out as much as possible will help maintain
temperature on the very cold nights and days. Above the door is gap that will allow air
to rush into the inside, we have to do something about it and luckily, I have some left-over
weather-stripping from somewhere that will work just fine. Its about 9 feet long, and
using short screws with washers to keep them from pulling through the rubber of the weather
stripping we can lay it in place and attach it.
As an added piece of security to keep the weather stripping in place we are also going
to add another 2x6 over it. After cutting it to length we get it in place and temporarily
hold each end in place with a screw. Then we very securely attach the two boards together.
The wind is still picking up, so rather than work on the other end. Let’s take a look
at the other high tunnel for a minute. This high tunnel lost its cover this spring, not
a deal breaker as Erin was able to grow in here all summer long still, but now its time
for a new cover to go on. The new cover has arrived and is being stored
in the shop but some modifications are going to be made.
The ribbon board along the side here holds the cover on and allows the sides to roll
up. On the new tunnel we used 2 strips of wiggle wire to attach the cover, adding security
and piece of mind. We are going to do the same with old one and that means we are going
to have to replace the existing 2x4 ribbon board with a 2x6 one to allow the extra room
for the wiggle wire channel. We have 2x6 pressure treated lumber for this purpose as condensate
can roll down the inside of the plastic and end up at these boards.
They will be placed right on top of the old ribbon board, to be used as a guide and then
attached to each other and then then the frame of the high tunnel.
But that’s later today, for now, I am going to go and finish up the other end of the tunnel,
basically the same procedure and then I can come work on these.
There’s always something on the project list, sometimes it’s the mundane and sometimes
it’s live or die but it all needs done, especially if you want warm dinner and expect
to sleep in your own bed tonight. I think the next couple of project list videos
are going to be getting ready for winter, something that always sneaks up on us and
adds to the workload. At the conclusion, we will be doing away with my summer hat, and
moving putting my winter felt hat back on, a symbolic sign that winter is here on the
ranch. Last year we burned it, I think this year,
something a little more epic and devastating is in store, should be a lot of fun.
Thanks for coming and hanging out for a bit today, I am back to work but please be sure
to subscribe and if you like what you see, give us that thumbs up, it really does help.
Until next time, have a great week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life.