I measured out what I thought was a decent sized hoop house, and spray painted the ground with luminous yellow spray paint. Couldn’t find the rolls of plastic I bought a long time ago, but went and measured the old wood I bought from a policeman a couple of years back, wood from an old bridge and an old barn. The ends are knotched or have a hole the size of a dollar bill, so they somehow fitted together but I didn’t seemingly get any pieces that actually fit each other. In the shed I found an opened roll of plastic, so thought 14 ft wide x 16 ft long should work. Did the calculations on how much re-bar and PVC piping it’d need, and fittings, bolts, clips etc. Once Herbie was sleeping, I trundled off to Menards in the truck, as 10 ft long pieces of pipe and re-bar would definitely not fit in Noddy.
Then I found the new roll of plastic, 25 ft x 20 ft. So re-did the drawings and calculations, instead of 7 hoops, I’d need 11. Plus I needed thin wall, not thick wall so took the piping back to exchange it. Actually wanted conduit, but the slots for the 1” and 3/4” were empty, so bought 26 x 10 ft long pipes with the fittings to join them.
Yesterday morning, I looked up YouTube to see how to work the plasma cutter. I’d previously only used it under Herbies’ supervision with him doing all the attaching. Easy enough - unplug the geyser in the feed room I use to wash the milking equipment, as it’s the 220 v plug, and plug in the plasma cutter. Attach the air hose, then clamp the piece I’m cutting to ground it, pull the trigger and cut. I marked the 4 pieces of re-bar into 3 ft sections, lifted them off the concrete with wooden blocks, and started cutting. The dogs and cats skedaddled ! I’d moved Sheila with me to the shed, and attached her to a fence post, and she ran and hid in the shed scattering stuff everywhere with the lead. Anni and Lisa took off down the driveway, and the cats ran back to the garage. Have no idea where Rosco went :). Cutting is fun. All the sparks but you don’t need to wear a welding helmet. I struggle to see through the welding helmet, and wearing glasses under it distorts my vision even more. Alas, I’d neglected to update the quantity of re-bar when I’d done the calculations for the larger size. Oh well, will have to wait for the truck so I can go back to Menards. So I had 12 x 3 ft pieces. I went a foot longer as our ground is so clay-ey, I wanted to make sure it was long enough to smack about 2 ft deep. Dragged about 5 pieces of beam to the garden and then couldn’t budge a longer piece I wanted to use as a wall. Went and fetched the buggy and the truckers chain, hooked it up and dragged it into the garden. Unhook and repeat a few times.
Hit 2 pieces of re-bar into the ground at 14 ft, and discovered the 20 ft length of pipe was stretched too far, I wouldn’t be able to walk upright in it. Pulled the one side out the ground and knocked it back in about 3 ft closer to the other one, based on the beam length I was using for the back wall. Better shape and taller than my head. Then spent some time positioning the beams to form the base. Was originally thinking of using my chainsaw to cut them, but decided that was probably not such a great idea, so went a-hunting for the reciprocating saw. Eventually found it, with a buckled metal cutting blade still in it. Herbie had cut part of the tractor to fit the new starter he bought and I’d had to go buy a couple of blades as they were buckling, from the thick metal, or his swearing, I couldn’t say :). Had to figure out how to take the blade out, then found the wood cutting blades, and inserted one. Discovered that it’s impossible to cut old, wet, wood. Also didn’t help that the battery was running low. Maybe the chainsaw would have worked better. Had to pull nails from some of the beams, ancient, square ones ! They were gorgeous and not as hard to pull as some of the huge round ones. Wouldn’t want to hit a nail with a chainsaw though, or even with the reciprocating saw.
Time to bring the cows up, and make something for lunch, or rather dinner. I’d been so busy I hadn’t eaten all day. Made knock-off PFChangs lettuce wraps with the FrankenChicken Brad had smoked for me. Not bad. Herbie had eaten crap all day, so wasn’t really hungry, and even gave me one off his plate.
Had been messaging with Nanette because they’d induced her the previous evening to have her 3rd child. Rory eventually made her way into the world around 4:30 pm.