Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Flag and I 40 are always good for some fun in the winter.

It looks very promising for some snow bitching this week

I will leave very early from work, because I have to get one more load of water up the hill, 1200 gallons, because that damn snow will make the hill very slick.

I haven't been around much the past few weeks... so here is whats happening...

Last night I discovered that my small hoop house is on it's last leg for this winter. I put it up using just cheap builders plastic instead of greenhouse plastic since I had the builders plastic on hand... builders plastic cannot take the cold weather. It frosts over and becomes brittle, then hit it with a little wind and it rips the plastic open. I noticed a slice in the side next to the door and then noticed each of the hoops at the top has popped through the plastic too so I started trying to catch the bluegills that are still in that AP system last night. I think I caught 16 of them, there are probably about 6 more in there I need to catch still. I also messed up, the sump was low and the pump was sucking air so I pulled the standpipe out of the lower bed that I hadn't finished filling with hydroton yet figuring I would let the water in that bed drop down and refill the sump since I had no plants in that bed, which resulted in hydroton getting sucked into the drain and blocking it. So I shut the pump off. I will have to try and catch the last few fish tonight because I imagine there will be a layer of ice on the tank by tonight.


Over the weekend I went over to my grandpa's farm and went through some stuff with my aunts and uncles... they have sold the farm and are trying to finish cleaning buildings out before they transfer ownership of the farm in March. I knew there was an old cider press in the basement of the barn that I had told my uncle I wanted if no one else wanted it, so he told me to come get it. That was all I planned on getting, but then saw no one had any interest in my grandpa's welder so he told me to take it if I wanted it... then there were two wood burning stoves that weren't connected to anything, so I looked them over and brought one of them that was in better condition (although it is the smaller of the two with no blower vs. the bigger had a blower). So I am now thinking this summer when I am reworking my greenhouse I am going to get rid of the water barrels because they don't seem to help as much as I would have liked and I will end up putting the wood burner into the greenhouse to help dry it out a bit and just light a fire at night before I go to bed so it helps the overnight temps stay warmer. The propane heater is OK but since it is ventless it is adding moisture to the building which already has moisture issues due to the AP system being in it. So hoping the wood burning stove will be the answer.

My most prized possession that I inherited of my grandpa's is a pre-64 Winchester model 94 30wcf rifle... when my grandpa first passed I had brought all of his guns to my house until my uncle moved the gun cabinet to his house and this was the gun that I wanted most of my grandpa's, so my uncle gave me that. It is a gun that I've always wanted in my collection and I had bought one several years ago that wasn't very nice shape so later sold it and have regretted selling it ever since... so now I have my grandpa's which is in much nicer shape and will stay in my collection the rest of my life.

The big hoop house is still going strong. I've added a way to hold the plastic on the big bed in the center and lift it up and not have it fall on the floor which seems to be working really well... unfortunately I can't find a picture of it right now so I'll have to take one later.

Lettuce with turnip greens in the background


Lettuce


Garlic that I missed last year that started growing on its own so I pulled it separated it and replanted it.


Onions started from seed... will need to pull them and replant them farther apart to grow bigger onions once it gets a bit warmer again.


The greenhouse wasn't doing great because it was only hitting low 40s rather than low 50s where it was last winter, the tomato plants looked terrible so we trimmed them back quite a bit, then my DWC wasn't growing plants very well either, stuff lingered but didn't get bigger so I tossed a couple of aquarium heaters in the bed and now things seem to be taking off... I'll try to remember to get pics of those tonight too. Also noticed last night there are new buds on the tomato plants now and some tree limbs I cut to try and root in the AP system have new buds growing on them too so I think adding the aquarium heaters might have got me back in business to get stuff growing again.

Nice. What type of lettuce do you have?

the first picture the front lettuce that is green and red mixture is "Five Star Greenhouse Lettuce Mix", I am running this as cut & come again and seems to be doing well, we just cut them about an inch above the soil so there is still a little leaf left and they seem to regrow well.

the same picture to the right (smaller lettuce, red/green in the same plant) is "Truchas"

Both of those are from Johnny's Seeds.

The second picture with just green lettuce I think was a Ferry Morse "Grand Rapids" lettuce.

We also had some Burpee "Four Seasons" lettuce that did fairly well for winter growth that we've pretty much finished off so I didn't take a picture of it.

I probably spent about $100 on seeds last weekend... gearing up for spring (still 3-4 months out, but we will probably start seeds indoors by early March)!

My weekend projects...

Built a bench at the back door for sitting down to put shoes on, also covers up the sump pump so it looks nicer. Put waterproof anti mold backer on the wall then built storage shelves because we never have enough storage space. The top of the bench opens so I can hang wet dive gear there in the winter and let it drip down to the sump pit.






Added shelves to the closet upstairs to better organize it, moved the filing cabinet there, added mailboxes to put paperwork in until we get around to filing it.

I shut down the small hoop house AP system last week. I had pulled most of the fish out but still had 6 left to catch. Over a few days the non running system had an inch of ice in the tanks, 2 plus inches in the sump. I busted it out and got the rest of the fish out.




Some greenhouse pics...






Gingko tree about to bud

Willow tree showing signs of growth


Strawberry plants in dwc


We got 4-6 inches of snow over the weekend. I haven't finished putting the tractor skin back on but it runs enough to plow with.

Hoop house in the snow


Warm inside when the sun shines


Lettuce in hoop house




What do you do when you have a lot of snow and can't water the hoop house easily?

Make slow release water containers...

Great idea those slow release buckets.
We got hammered in January and have over 4 feet of snow on the ground.
According to a nearby snowtel station it has nearly 9 inches of water.
It snowed last night again, around a foot.
2 more month of winter to go.

It's been an odd week. Friday/Saturday we got about 4-6 inches of snow. Monday it was -21F. It got up to about -10F through the course of Monday. Yesterday we had freezing rain which made for some interesting roads several bad accidents... Today it is nearly 40F and rain. Supposed to drop back down and get 1-3 inches of snow again tonight.

The slow release snow watering system might not be the best most effective method, but it should be better than nothing until I get the chance to run the hose to water or carry buckets out. I haven't carried buckets yet because the last couple nights I've been working on a leak in the AP in the greenhouse. Moved my bluegills into the tank that hadn't had any fish in it and had to reinstall the SLO which apparently loosened the bulkhead fitting and dumped 50+ gallons of water. So I have been carrying water the last couple nights a couple trips per night to refill the AP system, need to add some silicone to the bulkhead fitting because it doesn't want to seal anymore even when I tightened it up more... so will try siliconing it otherwise need to find another 2 inch bulkhead.

I've been reading the last couple of days about hand drilling shallow wells... I am thinking I might try it this spring/summer... it would be nice to add a shallow well inside the greenhouse, hoop house, and chicken coop so I wouldn't need to haul water anymore.

If that bulkhead uses an O-ring you might be able to just replace or lubricate that with some Vaseline and get the seal back.

I gave it a lubrication of silicone last night then squeezed it back down tight and siliconed around the edge inside and out. We'll see how that works. I'll let it set for 24 hours and then reconnect everything tonight and cross my fingers it doesn't leak.

I think part of the problem is that the IBC tank wall is pretty thin so it doesn't clamp very well. I also don't have a wrench that is big enough to tighten it very well... on my 1 inch bulkheads I 3D printed a wrench for them, I probably need to print a wrench for the 2 inch bulkheads.

Haven't had any leaking issues since I siliconed the IBC tank.

I'm going to start drawing up plans for how I will redo the greenhouse. I am going to remove the water Barrels and add a wood burner and more beds. I also may add more fish tanks... Will see what I come up with. I just won an auction for (14) IBC tanks... So I will pick them up tomorrow or Saturday... Need to start thinking of how I will use them. Might have to add on to the greenhouse to get space for them all that won't freeze in the winter. With a wood burner in the greenhouse should finally solve my issue of heat and moisture...

Good that you got the leak fixed. I always use a small bead of silicon on bulkheads, just in case.
I wondered how much of the cold spell would get to you.
The weather is truly wild this winter. -30 last night. 2 days of rain over the weekend and than a foot of snow.
I still have close to 4 feet on the ground.
Nothing much can be done outside, besides shoveling snow. 12 inches of water in the snow, will make for a great spring, when ever it comes.