The Door - And We're Done!

Even while the crew was working on installing the sides to the greenhouse, Grant and the boys were busy in the shop building a suitable door for the greenhouse.  We wanted the door to be wide enough for a wheelbarrow to pass, tough enough to last a while, and nice looking enough not to ruin the look of our project.  Here's the story of what we came up with...

William Gomez (l) and Alexander Garcia preparing scrap plywood sheathing to cover the door frame.

We started by dressing up some of the eucalyptus 2x4's to make a frame for the door, complete with diagonal bracing.  Then we found some thin plywood that we were able to salvage from some old shelving, which worked well to cover the skeleton of the door in a way that will be more durable than covering it with plastic.

Alexander Garcia trimming the thin plywood sheathing with the circular saw.

William Gomez attaching the plywood to the door structure with screws while Alexander waits his turn.

We were going to leave the door as it was after assembly, but then decided that a coat of paint would really dress up the result and help protect the wood from the weather.  So we used some leftover paint from another project and turned the door into the same green color we hope the thumbs of the people that walk through it will have in the operation of the greenhouse.

The painted door ready to install.

The diagonal bracing as well as the large size of the door made it pretty heavy, so we figured we'd need some stout hinges to support it.  Welding together some 1/8" strap and the sleeves I bought for the job we made some hinges that should do the job nicely.

The homemade door hinges after a couple coats of epoxy paint.

Once our shop work was done, it was finally time to install the door on the greenhouse on March 29th.

Henry Rairan adjusting the drill while Johan Egson tightens a lag bolt.

As usual, we had some adjustments to make during the installation, notably shaving the side of the post for the  middle hinge, since the post was bowed.  But with the help of a trusty drill and a handful of lag screws, the guys got the door hung and it looked just about perfect.

l to r, Leonardo Guzman, Henry Rairan, and Johan Egson pose proudly in front of the newly installed door.

Another bit of framing to seal the area above the door, and we could celebrate that the greenhouse was FINISHED!  After two months of construction effort, the job was finally done.  Praise the Lord!

Actually, the green thumbs at the farm (Leonardo's sisters Alejandra and Angie) had jumped the gun on us and had already begun planting vegetables inside before the door was attached.

The greenhouse was so warm and cozy inside, even without the door, that the plants came up from seed in just three days.

A view of the completed greenhouse at the end of March, 2011.  We thank the Lord for providing the materials, the wisdom, and the people to make this project possible.  May the fruit of this effort be healthy vegetables that bless and nourish his people for years to come.

Thank you, Lord!

Enclosing the sides

Adding the sides to the greenhouse turned out to be fast and easy, once we figured out the design and got some mesh to provide an option for ventilation.  The plants growing inside chew up the carbon dioxide in the air pretty fast, so we had been told we need to provide some mechanism for allowing air to circulate, otherwise the plants would be starved for this vital gas.

We started by stringing cables at designated levels along the length of the greenhouse.  We used a come-a-long to tension the cables and then attached them to the posts with fencing staples.

Anderson Mora (l) and Fabian Perdomo tensioning the cable with a come-a-long.

Einer Posada stapling the cable to a post while Anderson Mora helps.

The next step was to begin attaching the plastic and mesh, starting from the ground up.  Above the first 90 cm high strip of plastic we attached a 90 cm high strip of plastic mesh.

l to r, Henry Rairan, Leonardo Guzman, and Gonzalo Osario attaching the plastic mesh.

This work was straightforward, it went quickly, and we could sense that we were nearing the completion of the project.  We were encouraged and smiles began to break out as we could start seeing our goal in sight.

To finish the sides, we installed curtains of sheeting over the plastic mesh, so that the ventilation could be controlled.  The curtains can be closed at night and on cold days, and opened when there is enough heat inside to allow ventilation.

By March 24th, all we had left to do was to install an access door, hallelujah!

Building chicken apartments

We recently were able (by God's gracious provision)  to restock the chicken house, this time with 150 laying hens, a 50 hen increase.  Because of this increase in the flock, we now needed more spaces for the hens to lay their eggs.

I call the nesting boxes "chicken apartments" because we have built them in two-story high banks of boxes that look similar to bookcases.

Enter boys with boards, hammers, nails and a desire to build something useful.  Here's their story...

Camilo Castro (l), Arley Rocha (center), and William Cruz (right) nailing a trim board onto the chicken apartments.

They started with some 1"x12" eucalyptus boards that we purchased and cut them into the appropriate lengths, then nailing them together.

The boys found, though, that one of the final boards was so hard, that they kept bending the nails trying to get through it.  So, we pulled out the drill and showed the board who was boss!

The chickens need to feel secure and cozy in their apartments, so we found some old plywood to provide backing for the nests.

left to right, Einer Posada, Anderson Mora, and Fabian Perdomo attaching the plywood to the back of the apartment complex.

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the finished product, but the chickens have been very happy with their new apartments, nonetheless, and are laying upwards of 140 eggs per day.

Greenhouse ends and gutters

By the end of February, after finishing the roof of the greenhouse, we were hopeful that the hard part was over.  But, sadly, we were wrong!  We still had plenty of hard work left on this project.

The roof is on, but there is plenty of hard work left

So, we began forming the gutters and closing in the ends of the structure.  We found these efforts to be tedious and time-consuming.

Paul Stockley working to form the central gutter.

Paul took on the challenge of figuring out how to form the gutters, which turned out to be a little tricky, especially in the sequence of stapling the plastic together at the end of the structure.  

Roof and gutters in place

Covering the apex shapes at the ends of the structure also proved to be difficult, working up in the air, attaching plastic to the structure that wasn't all in the same plane.  But we managed...

Apex of the roof area now covered

We added some new framing on the ends of the greenhouse to support the plastic.  We could have used cable for this purpose, but the distances between posts was less than three meters and we still had plenty of 3 meter long 2x4's to work with.

Leonardo Guzman nailing lathe to attach plastic sheeting to the end framing, while Henry Rairan supports the framing inside and Johan Egson (red coat) looks on.

The cloudy and rainy weather during this period didn't help our enthusiasm for getting on with the work, there are always things to do in the nice, dry shop!

North-western end of the greenhouse nearing completion on March 8.

With weather delays and other distractions, we didn't fully enlose the east end of the greenhouse until March 14.

Day 2 - Finishing the roof sheeting

After a good rest over the weekend, we continued the process of installing the plastic sheeting on the greenhouse structure.

Upon arriving at the farm on Monday, Feb 28, we were pleased to see that the wooden structure and plastic sheeting installed last week were both still in good shape.  And though the weather wasn't sunny, it wasn't raining, either.

So, we got started, with renewed determination to finish this project up this week.  We also had a new member of the work crew, Paul Stockley, a member of the UK board of trustees who is visiting IMiC in Colombia for the next few weeks. 

Henry Rairan, left, with Paul Stockley securing the plastic sheeting to one of the trusses.

Fortunately, it only sprinkled a few times during the day, nothing to compare with our experience of last week.

We did improve our techniques, but most of the crew had to leave to do other tasks by mid-afternoon.  So we were only able to finish the rest of the roof.  The process of installing plastic on the roof is definitely tedious and time consuming.

Here's the greenhouse progress after the second day of installing plastic.  The roof plastic is secured, but the gutters remain to be formed.

Installing the plastic sheeting on the greenhouse

We knew that installing the plastic sheeting on the greenhouse wouldn't be that easy with just ladders, so we rented two sets of scaffolding to make the job safer and easier.

When we got started early on April 24, we were in good spirits, the weather was good, and we thought we were prepared.  By the end of the day, we were cold, wet, tired, and rather daunted by the task that still lay ahead of us.

It all sounded pretty straightforward - tack down the end of the sheeting, pull it tight, and then secure it.  But we didn't fully appreciate the issues of alignment, the number of times that we'd have to move the scaffolding and ladders, nor how hard it is to drive nails into seasoned eucalyptus wood, etc. etc.

About mid-morning, while we were patiently working through our issues, the weather turned sour, and it started raining and blowing.

Henry Rairan, staff member for IMiC, tensioning the plastic at the eve level, and securing it with staples to a guy wire.  We have secured the first sheet of plastic and the rain is falling.

We weren't about to be daunted by a little bad weather, so we pressed on.  We had installed the first sheet of plastic along the length of the greenhouse by lunch time.

After lunch, a group of boys came down to help.  Based on a good suggestion by Henry Rairan, we altered our procedures, now tensioning and securing each section of the roof plastic to the truss one at a time, instead of trying to cover the whole length of the roof at once.  This worked better, because we could easily gain access to nail the little strips of wood to the top of each truss along the way, rather than trying to do so from the edges after the whole length of plastic was in place. 

But after we'd installed one section of the second sheet this new way, the rain and wind really let go.  We knew we couldn't just let the plastic ride out the storm, because it would get shredded for sure.  So we blundered along, soon working with soaking wet clothes, numb fingers, and boots caked with mud.  Every movement became harder.  Most of the crew huddled under the completed sheet of plastic roofing while a couple of others stapled, hammered, and pulled sheeting out in the rain.  Late in the afternoon, the storm abated, just about the time that we finished securing the second sheet.  We started to install more cables in order to secure the edges of the plastic into gutters, but ultimately decided it was too late and that the loose edges wouldn't be damaged over the weekend.

Here's how the south bay of the greenhouse looked after a hard day of installing plastic.  Note the muddy ground and tired workers.

So we put everything away and tried to figure out how to make our efforts more productive next week.

We left, thankful that we didn't suffer any accidents or injuries working up at the 4+ meter heights during the difficult conditions, and thankful also for the best efforts of the entire crew in facing this challenge.

Finishing the structure of the greenhouse

Tuesday, February 22 was a day of success and rejoicing for all of us at Granja Peniel.

Today, we mounted the trusses on top of the posts for the greenhouse.

Here's how the process went:

In the morning, the staff (including Leo Guzman, John Egson Fonseca, Gonzalo Osario, and Grant Bye) sorted out the process for installing the trusses - installed half of them, plus the long poles at the ends of the bay.  We don't have pictures of that work in progress, but here's a shot of the greenhouse structure at mid-day:

The first four trusses installed, with long poles also in place

In the afternoon, after the boys came home from school, they helped install the rest of the structure as you can see in the following shots:

l to r, Einer Posada, Gonzalo Osario, Duvan Guayara, Leonardo Guzman, Andres Castro, and Camilo Castro installing a truss into position between the carevacas.  Gonzalo and Duvan are steading the truss with long poles while Leonardo inserts a 3/8" bolt into the pre-drilled holes in the truss and the carevaca.

On the second truss of the afternoon, Duvan takes over the role of inserting and tightening the connecting bolts.

Einer holding the free end of the truss, Duvan tightening the bolt while John Egson assists.

At the end of the day, the entire structure of the greenhouse has been installed, along with several more guy wires to stabilize the posts and trusses. 

The assembly of the wooden structure had been completed in just two days.  We had been blessed with nice weather to work in, by electric power from our neighbors to make the drilling feasible, and by plenty of helping hands on the part of the staff and boys at Granja Peniel.

And, as so often happens when things are going well, we got overconfident and began thinking that the project was about over.  As Nancy Centeno, the IMiC director said the following day, "all that is left is installing the plastic".  So much easier said than done....as we were soon to find out....