Hoop House #1

January 14, 2010

Despite the fact that the ground was covered in about 4 inches of snow, we decided to continue on with our plan to erect one of the two hoop houses on Saturday. Chris, Phil, Patrick, and I bundled up and braved the cold, new world for the sake of creating future warm, passive solar space. Hoop house #1, here we come.

18 hoops, 2 eye bolts per hoop, 2 cordless drills, 4 cold Roots Farmians, and 4 hours later, we broke for lunch. Minor speed bump: we discovered that each footer had to be pounded in a few more inches to get the eye bolts closer to the ground and therefore the plastic edges of the cover closer to the ground.

Post lunch, 2 1/2 more hours to attach wiggle wire channels onto each of the end hoops and then attach a purline along the length of the whole house via a bracket attached to each hoop. 18 hoops, 18 brackets, 2 bolts per bracket, 2 self-tapping screws per joint. 2 ladders, 3 farmers, 2 impact drivers, 2 1/2 cold hours. Hoop house #1 is well on its way. Skeletal frame of what will be.

As a side note, after these 2 houses are done, I hope it's a long time before I see a self-tapping screw again.