Happy Report – Greenhouse Edition

In the aftermath of the snow/sleet/freezing rain/ice/snow adventure of last Sunday you could definitely say we were disheartened at the sight of the collapsed greenhouse.  The broken internal structure was clearly evident, in one place the end of the snapped off arched beam had poked through the plastic skin.  Mrs. Barn rightly insisted on clearing off the ton of ice to assess the damage and get a plan for the reconstruction.

One thing we did not want to do was wail away at the shell and damage the skin even more than it was already.  Finding the right tool was a conundrum.  She tried with one of her gardening tools but it was a poor fit for the problem, plus she was too short to get up high enough to get much done.  I’m taller and with my spiked boots I could get up on the snow/ice dam along the edge of the building.  And fortunately I had just the right tool.

Many years ago my woodworking pal TomS gave me my favorite walking stick, about shoulder length with a bulbous knot near the top.  Since the knot was gentle in shape I could stand and whack the ice until it broke up without risking more damage to the plastic skin.  After about an hour of careful work the last of the ice slabs slipped off and the arched structure popped back to its original shape.    Hallelujah!  You can see that slab leaning up against the greenhouse, it was about six square feet of four-inch-thick ice/snow composite.  It is several hundred pounds.   So even though we have not seen each other in more than a decade, TomS saved the day!

I found just a couple of punctures to the plastic skin and repaired them straightaway.  I still have to build four new laminated arches, but the necessary repair is much less than anticipated.  I’ll get to work on the repairs as soon as we get a bit more warming.

I just checked and the outside temp is 16 and inside the greenhouse it’s nearly 60.

PS.  Here’s a glimpse of what we were dealing with.  We estimate it would have taken a month to clear the six inch thick ice slab on driveway with a pickaxe and shovel.  It was brutal work for us septuagenarians.  Thank goodness for hearty mountain men willing to work all night long in frigid temps with their monster machines.  It was well after 10pm when we finally got to the top of the list.  They finished with us and moved on to the next name on the list.

PPS   A fellow at church told me he had seen some of the Amish kids skating in a field.  Who needs a pond or rink?  We certainly could not navigate our place without snow cleats.