Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

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Good Morning

Just, wow!

Yes, it feels damn good to be allowed to work again. I know I pushed it, The doctors said Monday, for my job, I started back on the the greenhouse and back porch project first thing Saturday morning. Thank you Jason on Saturday for doing all the heavy lifting, and again on Sunday for putting out that huge effort and bringing Matty to help as well. Perfect, just perfect.

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First treated boards go on and get anchor bolts. We then added a second layer of treated boards to tie it all together and beef it up.

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Finally, we made concrete and filled in between the new base and the very roughed in rocks. Oh boy that really made a difference in the feel of the greenhouse shape.

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Thank you Sara and Jona for the mulch and placing it on the gardens. As if that wasn’t enough you put the leaves bags over the fresh concrete. All after working yourselves numb on your house in town, my goodness.

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For sure I’m tired, but I don’t know what could make me happier. Thank you all for coming together and getting us a chance at finishing this project.

It did get pretty cold after a beautifully warm Sunday. Last night I added two more layers to the plastic bags in an attempt at keeping the wet cement from freezing. Over the plastic went two layers of burlap and a layer of old plastic tarps. Seems to have worked. or it never got any colder than it was a dusk.

I’ve got more rock work to do inside. The sitting area will get seats and steps, but first I need to get it covered so it doesn’t freeze at night. Freezing is definitely not good for setting mortar and concrete, worse for the former because it doesn’t have mass on its side like for instance a footing has.

Anyway, yes I’m stoked.

Even got our giant Christmas tree up on the wind turbine tower. Merry Christmas and to all a good night!

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Looking good!

I'm curious to see it all come together!

Thanks it feels really good to be back at it

What's the dirt patch inside the square bit going to be? All fish pond?

once I get the pond enclosed from the cold weather, yes it is just about Winter here, I've got a lot of finish rock work to do. That dirt patch will be a sitting area. Modeled after a Pueblo kiva

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Good morning

Nice hairdo, sheesh.

I worked on the Jeep like I hoped. Found out the error message on the Jeep dashboard that read LOWASH which was making me crazy by incessantly chiming, was only a loose washer pump. It had gotten nudged during the big mud bog wheel fell off escapade.

It was a beautiful day yesterday. I just slid a carpet under the Jeep for the oil change. That was the first oil change since the lift kit was installed. An extra couple inches off the ground makes all the difference in getting under the vehicle.

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After giving my Jeep some much needed TLC, I removed the plastic, the burlap, and tarps from the latest concrete work.

Oh man it looks great!

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We left some of the stucco rough because more coats will be applied when the weather permits, probably in the Spring, right?

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This section of rock wall has the most coats of cement, so it looks a little smoother. The concrete is below ground and will be spray foamed all the way around, before the dirt is built up to create the earth-sheltered effect.

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The pond will protrude above the ground level by several inches. The water level won’t be all the way to the top of course. There needs to be some room for splash. Plus with the flow I am planning there will be fluctuation in levels especially when the flood and drain grow beds release water.

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Along the back wall between the house and the pond there is a channel. I don’t really know what to do with it. At this point I’m thinking of gravel and plumbing. There will be some kind of step coming from the house, perhaps another massive plank.

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Lastly, a shot down from the boardwalk to the interior of the pond. Recommendations from the knowledgeable people at Backyard Aquaponics have convinced me that putting Spray Foam inside the pond might harm the fish because of the fungicide in the foam.

All right I better get my act together and finish off this work week.

Brian morning hair Rodgers

Wow, that's a mammoth effort. Looks like all the hard work is paying dividends though. I can't wait to see it when it's full of fish and plants!

thanks katmac, the clincher for me was a chance to burn calories to get what I want. It is a literal win win. Brian

Hiya Boss, that looks like the beginning of a pretty impressive system and looks like a beautiful home in a you have there too.
What are the plans for the growbeds and what fish are you planning to grow?

Thanks Skeggley. The house is basically a one room shanty. Long story short, I lost the house I built over a period of twenty years by hand aka the hard way. On the bright side my daughter lives in that house which is down the hill. Also I learned some building tricks since then. When I finally started getting my act together after that divorce, my new wife and I started building on this place.
I can't seem to find a pic of the finished kitchen ... here is one of the kitchen this morning
I now have a wonderful wife and soul mate who supported me when I said instead of building us a bedroom so we didn't have to sleep in the living room, I want to build a greenhouse next. Go figure. I'm a lucky guy

FYI, I felled those Aspen trees some twenty years ago. Hauled them down from ten thousand feet elevation in my pickup truck to my buddy's saw mill. Helped repair an old planer and ran all of the 1000 board feet before hauling it back home and putting it in storage to cure until two years ago.

Impressive work!

That's some pretty wood too!

many of my "projects" have stories associated but the aspen ceiling is one of my favs

GUTTER AND FLASHING DOWN RAFTER HANGING TODAY

Something about tearing down stuff I built, especially recent improvements like the rain catchment system, arg, it is down and I'm moving forward!

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BMN RAFTER PLAN WORKED YAY
DECEMBER 22, 2014 BOSS LEAVE A COMMENT

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Good Morning

Wow, I hope you can see how happy we are. It couldn’t have happened without Jason.

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Once all three panels are in, there will be three 2″X6″X14’s laminated together.

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We hand forged custom brackets to bolt the top of the two main rafters to the fascia.

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Jason came up the plan to build the header all the way across the east wall. This tied everything together. The opening below Jason is the space for one double glazed repurposed sliding glass door panel. This is the main window of only two in the greenhouse. It measures 34″X76.5″ I’m adhering to the earth-sheltered design as much as possible. Every window has a loss factor, as do the acrylic panels in the roof.

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One of the things that I was never quite certain about was how much headroom there would be as the earth-sheltering design has this greenhouse sunk in the ground. Perfect, that’s how it feels inside.

I’m 6’1″ and I can stand fully erect even on the lowest roof side where the pump and bio-filters will be. This is a good thing because the bio-filters require weekly maintenance. I’m leaning toward two 30 gallon drum bio-filters at first, with room for a third under the fig tree if needed.

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Yes, there are a few whoopity whirls in that rock wall, oh well. As long as it can be squared up around the picture window I’m totally good. Indeed the roof over the house was built with timber from the ranch, sawn at Slim’s Mill and it is far from square.

Once we lay the roof sheathing on, there will probably be some noticeable incongruities where the two roofs meet. It should work just fine as we left the right angle flashing which was under the tin there, so it can bend and put pressure down on the joint between the two rooves.

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Oh boy, I’m getting excited about this project. Once the acrylic is on, the space will be protected from the snow if we ever get some.

We got to buy replacement lumber for the walls because we used that to build the roof. It was the perfect quantity, as Jason and I spent a good deal of time calculating what we could do with what we had. I think there are two 2X4s left over.

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Can you believe that double spot light on the left is LEDs. It is friggin bright.

Hopefully today I can buy the lumber for the walls and load it on the Jeep roof rack. Then I’ll still need plywood or OSB to fill in between the acrylic panels. I’ll need to put some kind of foam or felt tape between the two different medias for expansion.

But hell yeah get this thing covered and the walls up so we can work inside doing the rest of the rock work and finish the pond. A couple doors, and blammo.

Brian Happy Camper Rodgers