Greenhouse Update (Reporting a Little Progress)

April is prep and planting month, so our other projects pretty much take a back seat. Even so, I have a couple of things in the greenhouse to show you.

The first is progress on our rainwater collection tanks/thermal mass.

They still need to be connected to the front porch gutter spout, and the overflow needs to be finished, but the big pieces are in place. 

The second is a solar patio light. 

I don't plan to work in the greenhouse at night, but it will be handy for fetching lettuce when winter dark comes early, or to check to see if any cats are out there. (I say that because Riley loves the greenhouse during the day. At 14 years, he appreciates long naps in the warmest places he can find.)

I got this one on Amazon. What I liked about it (besides the price) is that it has a pull chain to turn it on and off. 

So many of them have remote controls only. In my mind, a remote control is just another battery I have to monitor and provide, and I'd rather keep all that to a minimum if there's a simple alternative. 

I'm happy with it.

With the warmer days of spring, I've also been monitoring my winter plants in the greenhouse. Some days the interior temp is topping 80 (27).

The broccoli is flowering, but the kale is still happy. Also, on the right you can see some volunteer cherry tomato plants! Last year's was my cold weather bellwether, and while it eventually froze, it provided valuable information about greenhouse temps when it gets really cold outside. I'll use this one to monitor summer temps (and my attempts to mitigate them).

My potato containers are doing well, and my potted lettuce is still producing. I cut it back pretty ruthlessly, but it hasn't bolted yet, in spite of warm days.

Also in that photo, you can see some of my early seed starts. That's winter squash right below the potatoes, and starter trays of tomatoes and Swiss chard in front. Working with these has emphasized the need for more appropriate greenhouse furniture! I need something tall for a potting bench and higher growing tables. 

We're busy these days, but even a little progress is welcome. I don't plan to use the greenhouse in summer, but hopefully, it will be finished by next fall.

Greenhouse Update (Reporting a Little Progress) 

© April 2024 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Shortening the Barn Completion Checklist

The to-do list to finish the goat barn is gradually growing shorter. Progress is somewhat random, depending on weather and resource availability.

The second Dutch door is done.

The first one was the front entry to the milking room, this one is to where the goats will live.

The windows in the hayloft help a lot for light, but I wanted a light for winter evenings when it gets light so early.

Solar light for the hayloft

The solar light pictured above is a smaller version of the one that's in my current milking room. It has only one brightness setting instead of three, which is fine for the purpose.

The light's small solar panel.

You can also see the roof flashing in the above photo. That's another project Dan's been working on when it isn't raining.

Flashing (in progress)

Before we move the goats in we needed to fence the barn entryway.

For this we used goat and sheep stock panels, like we did for the hay feeder. They are higher in price than cattle panels, but the openings are smaller to keep baby goats in. That's a necessity!

In the milking and feed room I now have a workbench!

Shelves will go to the right.

Even with good progress the checklist of things to finish still seems endless, There are so many little things on the list, but they all take time! Even so, we are slowly getting closer to goat-moving-in day.

Shortening the Barn Completion Checklist © June 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

$10 Windows for the Barn

After we put the skylight in the milking room roof, I found myself wondering if we could use the same translucent roofing panels to let even more light into the goat barn. Dan isn't crazy about those panels, so he suggested we take a trip to the builders surplus warehouse to see what they had. We bought all our new energy efficient windows for the house there at a huge savings.

We looked around and found door windows for $10 each. Some were for doors and some were front door sidelights. We found a small window that would be just right for the milking room.

It was perfect.

Then we started discussing the hay loft. I have a small solar shed light to put at the top of the stairs, but I would prefer to save the battery and use natural light during the day. Dan had the idea to install sidelight panels horizontally along the top of the hayloft wall.

We headed back to the builder's surplus and bought two sidelight panels. They were also $10 each.

They are 6'10" by 9.5"

The length of the barn loft is 16 feet. By using the windows, Dan needed only two sheets of plywood instead of four.

Plywood sheets installed horizontally, leaving an opening for the windows.

Ready for the windows.

The opening above the plywood was 16.5 inches. The windows were 9.5 inches wide. 2x4s are 3.5 inches wide. So the window and two 2x4s were perfect to fill the opening.

One 2x4 is under the window and the second
 one is being slid in over the top from the left.

Window and 2x4s filled the space perfectly.

Hayloft posts are four feet apart, so each window had run in front of one post. After the 2x4s were screwed to the posts, however, there wasn't room to accommodate the vinyl window trim. Dan cut it so that the window could fit snuggly against the post.

Together, the windows cover 13 feet 8 inches of the 16-foot opening. That meant there were some gaps to cover.

Three gaps to fill, on each side and in the middle.

Dan had a few 3.5-inch thick scraps lying around to fill them in.

Now I have plenty of light in my new hayloft!

The amazing thing is that all of this worked out providentially. We couldn't have pre-planned it this well! Step by step we're getting closer to goat-moving-in day. 😊

$10 Windows for the Barn © May 2018 by

Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Solar Barn Light and Paint

With the sun rising later and it getting dark earlier, I was very happy to get this installed.

We didn't want to run electricity out to the barn, so I found a solar LED shed light at Amazon. The reviews on it were great and at the time I ordered it (about two weeks ago) the price was only about $50. It has since more than doubled! (I note that the one currently listed on Amazon is a different seller for the same product. I would definitely recommend it, but wait until MicroSolar, Inc. offers it again - better price.)

It turns on and off by pull chain and has three brightness levels.

This is on high

The only problem with the pull chain is that it hangs from the lamp so I can't turn the light on from the doorway. I reckon I'll have to leave a flashlight at the door in case we want to go in when it's pitch dark out.

The Little Barn is mostly shaded, but Dan chose a corner which gets both morning and afternoon sun on which to mount the solar panel.

It will still charge without full sunlight, just more slowly.

The panel is adjustable to get the best sun.

It's both hinged and swiveled. 

You can also see that I've started painting. Dan is working on the last door so I'll be able to show that to you soon. Windows will be after that.

Solar Barn Light and Paint © Sept 2016 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Kitchen Remodel: The Endless Little Things

It's hard to believe but we're finally entering the home stretch of our kitchen remodel. The big projects are complete. More and more things are getting crossed off the to-do list and we're down to the seemingly endless list of little things. These days, it's looking something like this:

buy tall stool for workstation
sink & peninsula lighting

These mini pendants, one over the peninsula and
one over the sink, match the one in the dining nook

install under-cabinet light

A fluorescent light really brightens up this work area

buy or make plate rack
install spice rack
hook for cutting board (straight kind)
hang cast iron

We hung the cast iron cookware on
those iron brackets for hanging plants

finish trimwork in pantry hallway
install telephone

Gave this to Dan for Christmas 2010. It was on sale
at Heartland America. With coupon & free shipping
total cost was $20. Cheaply made, but I still like it. 

make peninsula endsplash
finish baseboards & corner mouldings
door and window mouldings (1 of 2)

Back door & one window down, sink window to go

modify list - sink window - how to trim?
paint door and window mouldings
paint miscellaneous trimwork

Bought these decorative pine brackets at Lowes

make rack to hang cooking utensils
buy or make knife holder
decide what to do with uncovered blind corner: sliding door? curtain?

One of the potential problems of doing your own
customized design plans, is ending up with
something you don't know what to do with!

drawer divider for silverware
storage for cookie sheets & muffin pans. Vertical rack? Where?
hooks for dish towels
finish painting cabinets and shelves

add to list - re-glue wallpaper edges where painters tape pulled it loose
add to list - clean up primer that leaked under painters tape

Tried ScotchBlue multi surface painters tape instead of
Frog Tape. What a mistake. The multi surfaces do not
include wallpaper, unpainted wallboard, or wood floors.
What else is there????

hang goat key holder
hang Dan's key rack box
order faucet repair kit
fix faucet
vinyl tile squares in sink cabinet

How I did this in this post (click here)

new compost bucket & lid, stainless steel?
add to list - get soap dish
finish hanging cabinet doors

Dan made the insets from our leftover tin ceiling panels.

install pull out shelf in sink cabinet

Waste basket will go here with cleaning supplies

add to list - get new trash can to fit slide out shelf
cover or veneer for toe kick
install rack inside sink cabinet door

Hoping this will help relieve clutter around the sink

dining booth: table, bench, & chair
clean the kitchen thoroughly
hang curtains
throw rugs
chair & bench cushions

After that, I can finally find and unpack all my kitchen boxes, which are spread out into the pantry, back porch, spare room, dining room, and my studio. This in turn necessitates not only deciding what to keep and figuring out where to put it in the kitchen, but in these rooms as well. Seems the kitchen is key to organizing the entire house! Last but not least is clean the house, because there's construction dust, dust, and more dust absolutely everywhere.

Kitchen Remodel: The Endless Little Things © June 2012 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/

Waiting On The Kitchen Floor

The next step in our kitchen remodel is the floor. This is a big purchase, one we had to save up for. We discussed all the flooring possibilities, and ended up choosing 9 inch wide pine plank flooring. Dan thinks this is the best option, considering how uneven and dippy our kitchen floor is. He definitely did not want ceramic tiles, and if we chose a vinyl floor, we would have to rebuild the floor to correct the problem, like we did for the wood cookstove only more extensively. (He said leaving it as is was not an option.) With the planks, we hope to shim where it's dipped, and come out with a fairly even and level floor in the end. This will also give us a thicker, snugger, more sturdy floor. Our house was built without subflooring. I don't know if this was typical of 1920s construction, but the only floor is one layer of 3/4 inch oak. The boards are no longer air tight, so I'll be glad to put down a vapor barrier and another 3/4 inch on top of that. As a bonus, a plank floor will go with our country kitchen motif.

The floor isn't scheduled to come in until the end of January, so while we wait, we're doing a lot of little kitchen projects. The first was a jack for a kitchen wall phone (currently I have to run to another part of the house to answer the phone, on the rare occasions that it rings.)

Also completed the wiring (switch above) for the dining nook light....

This is one of the mini pendants I purchased awhile back.

Dan's also working on what will become some of our wall cabinets. These, we purchased awhile back as well. Since they were built to be floor cabinets, he needed the legs cut off,

and to stain and poly....

We got the pot rack installed....

Because my kitchen is small, I will have limited cupboard space. Consequently I have been looking at every alternative for storage that I can. This had been sitting around in a box for awhile, just waiting for the right moment to hang.

I've have painted the back door...

Dan also woodburned a new door inset for our key rack! The key rack was here when we bought the house.

Original key rack

It was attached to the wall, full of old keys, and turned out to be a handy place to keep them. I liked the old inset, but I really like the one Dan woodburned for me better....

New door inset for key rack

Most recently, we installed the ceiling fan I bought last summer.

What a difference this makes in pushing the warm, wood cookstove heated air out of the kitchen and into the back bathroom and dining room. I have to say that with the two woodstoves, our house is finally warm this winter. It's not that we have a lot of square footage to heat (about 1400 sq. ft), it's the placement of the stoves. The soapstone stove should be adequate to heat all that, but being in the front of the house with a maze of doors for the heat to pass through, and the back of the house was always cold. The wood cookstove takes care of that and the ceiling fans on low reverse do wonders to circulate the heat. On top of that, the kitchen retains heat for quite awhile, thanks to the new insulation.

As you can see, we haven't been idle. Buying smaller items along the way was a good idea. Not only because it spreads out the cost, but because Dan is a project person and when the weather doesn't cooperate for outdoor projects, he has something to do in the house.

Hopefully once we get the floor down we'll have mild weather for the staining and finishing. After that will come the cabinetry. We have some of it, but some of it will need to be purchased (another save-up-for item). Then comes plumbing (I have the fixture but not the sink), countertops (we bought these about a month ago), and the seemingly endless (right, Mama Pea?) list of finishing up jobs, mostly moulding and trimwork. With a little good providence, my new kitchen should be ready for business this spring!

Waiting On The Kitchen Floor © January 2012 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/