Below are 2 views inside the greenhouse before the tomatoes are brought in for the fall. We start our plants here earlier in the year. I installed a 15cm steel tube and the south end, close to the floor, out into the dirt away from the hoeenhouse (on the west side), ending under the stairwell. With a small fan I canbring insomeground heat when it's cold outside, and coolair when it's hot outside. I have a number of black 205 litre barrels of water inside, which warm up during the day and give off heat during the night..... the tomatoes like this.
Below are 2 views inside the greenhouse before the tomatoes are brought in for the fall. We start our plants here earlier in the year. I installed a 15cm steel tube and the south end, close to the floor, out into the dirt away from the hoeenhouse (on the west side), ending under the stairwell. With a small fan I canbring insomeground heat when it's cold outside, and coolair when it's hot outside. I have a number of black 205 litre barrels of water inside, which warm up during the day and give off heat during the night..... the tomatoes like this.
Below are 2 views inside the greenhouse before the tomatoes are brought in for the fall. We start our plants here earlier in the year. I installed a 15cm steel tube and the south end, close to the floor, out into the dirt away from the hoeenhouse (on the west side), ending under the stairwell. With a small fan I canbring insomeground heat when it's cold outside, and coolair when it's hot outside. I have a number of black 205 litre barrels of water inside, which warm up during the day and give off heat during the night..... the tomatoes like this.
Directly south of our home is a greenhouse, sunk into the ground 1 metre, with electricity (and water during the summer). It has heavy UV resistant plastic on the ouside of the steel square tube frame, with double insulated plastic (coroplast) on the inside. It has an automatic opening window on the south end, controlled by inside air temperature, and when it gets hotter inside a large fan on the north end pulls huge amounts of air through the greenhouse for cooling.
We have a small heater that keeps it warm enough in the fall to eat the last of our tomatoes, usually by about Dec 1st. I am currently working on an automatic mister to control the humidity. On the left you can see the utility room on the back side of the house, behind the greenhouse. To the right are 3 raised garden beds where we grow our herbs and some vegetables. We like to set some large pots along the south side of the house to grow tomatoes during the summer, bringing them inside the greenhouse before it starts to freeze at night. The stairwell leading down into the greenhouse, below, has a cover that swings open and shut to keep out rain or snow. Here's the stairwell shown open and closed.
Below are 2 views inside the greenhouse before the tomatoes are brought in for the fall. We start our plants here earlier in the year. I installed a 15cm steel tube at the south end, close to the floor, out into the dirt away from the hoeenhouse (on the west side), ending under the stairwell. With a small fan I can bring in some ground heat when it's cold outside, and cool air when it's hot outside. I have a number of black 205 litre barrels of water inside, which warm up during the day and give off heat during the night..... the tomatoes like this.
The left side has a suspended screen to support our cucumber vines. I run a small fan all the time, just to move the air around. The wood shelves get moved out to center of the room when the tomatoes arrive.
From the house, east across the driveway and a bit south is a well insulated newer (60's vintage) CPR maintenance shed, that I moved here about 15 years ago. It's 16'x65' (about 5m x 20m), In 2018 I replaced the siding to follow the look of the house, including a cover over the walk-in door supported by knee braces. just like the house has. This is the day after completing the siding. In-floor heating is powered by a 135 litre natural gas hot water tank. It has 1.5" (about 4cm) of high density rigid foam insulation under the slab, and with the 30cm fiberglass ceiling insulation and fiberglass plus styrofoam wall insulation it's an efficient building to run. It is set up as a hobby machine shop with a 100A 120/240v electrical panel and a large diameter natural gas line in case I ever wanted to run a forge or casting furnace. Partly separate area to the north for grinding and welding. There is one walk-in door on the west side, one roll-up door in the middle of the same side, and one roll-up door at the north end. There's a gravel ramp at the north end that is flat along the top, long enough to park a vehicle level in front of the door. Antique lights by both garage doors.
South of the machine shop is a small wood garden shed "cabin" where we keep our tools and supplies. We currently have sweet peas growing up the wire trellis on the west side, and shade loving hostas and violas on the north side. South side has various types of roses (not my department).
South of the house is an unheated, uninsulated garage. It was originally a 3-baycarport, open on the east side from the roof peak going west. We converted it into a closed 2-bay garage with one electric powered door and a walk-in door; both facing north. We call it "the carport" so as not to mix it up with the garage in the north end of the house. There is a LOT of storage room inside, and a huge overhang on the east side that houses 3 x 1000 litre plastic cisterns on stands, for collection of rainwater off the large roof. They sit high enough to set a 20 litre pail under the valves, or you can hook up a garden hose to the valves. We store our garden hoses, etc. my steel rack, and too many other things that I've collected over the years. We keep our Case skidsteer (bobcat) under the overhang as well. There is electricity to the garage (60A 120/240v) and it's well lit inside. We are currently running a refrigerator, a chest deep freezer and an upright deep freezer; all on separate circuits. We have landscaped the area out front with an apple tree, a beautiful peony, and a couple of Nanking cherry bushes, which make great jam. There's a retaining wall on the west side of the curved driveway into the carport, supported by vertical railway ties. There are some other shrubs up against the wall of the garage as well.
On the far right is the original driveway coming downhill into the property from the west, stopping at the yard area south of the house. It ended up being a bit steep if there was snow on it, so the access is now from the north, coming down the hill to the valley floor level.
Our water is from a shallow well out of view in the front yard, which gives us about 18-22 litres per minute, depending on the slightly varying water table. We have a reverse osmosis filter system under our kitchen sink, where we get our drinking water.
Directly east of the carport is the transformer pole, with incoming power lines from the west. Power from here to the carport, machine shop and the house is all buried. We have a hops vine growing up the support wire for the hydro pole -- maybe beer one day.
South of the carport is an older fenced pig pen with small wood house for them. We have experimented with keeping domestic and wild pigs in the pen, some cows and sheep in the pasture, and now we have bees. The previous owner built a chicken coop building that is now run down and needs to be converted into fire wood.
South of the carport is an older fenced pig pen with small wood house for them. We have experimented with keeping domestic and wild pigs in the pen, some cows and sheep in the pasture, and now we have bees. The previous owner built a chicken coop building that is now run down and needs to be converted into fire wood.
This area of the country gets a LOT of sunshine. Because we are east of the mountains we are usually low in humidity, so not too much rain or snow. Even it it's cold you can put on some warm clothes and be comfortable spending time outside. With the dry air the summers don't seem all that hot either. There are many solar power farms starting up here, and many new "grow-op" solar greenhouses for growing medical marijuana (now legal in Canada). With our proximity to the mountains to the west of us we are treated to ongoing CLEAN air. All the time. The house is protected from any westerly winds because it's at the base of the hill. From the top of our hill it's easy to see over 200 wind turbine electricity generators east of the mountain pass about 20km south of us. The house is heated by a natural gas forced air furnace in the north half of the building, and there is another smaller forced air furnace in the garage at the very north end of the building. The house furnace includes an air conditioning unit, but I've never used it and after 25 years it probably needs a recharge by now.
Here's a screen shot from Google Earth, showing all of our property, Willow Creek to the east, and the property inbetween. The west edge of our property follows the gravel road going south off the pavement and curving around to the south. The east edge starts at the paved road to the north, going south along he N/S tree line) the line under the letter "n" from the CPR Station pin). The fence continues straight south until it reaches the gravel road again. Easily seen on this screen shot is the house, the tin roof of the large carport/garage south of the house, the machine shop to the east of that, and south of the carport is the circular 'bee shack' and south of that is the tin roof of the barn. Immediately west of the house is the hillside, with flat pasture on top of the hill. South of the barn is flat pasture land, the hillside heading west, and flat pasture land on top of the hill.
The wildlife around our property can get interesting. We keep a bird book and binoculars handy to identify the birds that are migrating north and south, like ducks and Canada geese, but also snow geese, pelicans, hummingbirds and lots of other smaller birds like blue jays, nuthatches, redpoles, robins, goldfinches, red wing blackbirds, gulls, terns meadowlarks, orioles, chickadees and of course sparrows.
A family of foxes dug a den directly behind our house at the top of the hill, and have been raising familites there for the last 3 years. Through the second floor bedroom window it's easy to watch the young ones playing, just like puppies. Our large trees bring lots of different types of birds at various times of the year. We have had hawks nest in the tall poplars to the east of the house, and also owls, but never during the same year. We like hearing the owls hooting at night, and the collared doves make a similar kind of hooting sound. We occasionally see a colourful male pheasant hanging around here, and enjoy it's very distinctive call. There are lots of deer in the area. We are in the middle of an agricultural community, so all around us are farms and ranches. There is a shallow creek about 200m to the east of us, which we often use for cross country skiing in the winter, and a great place to take the dogs for a swim or a walk along the banks in summer.
The wildlife around our property can get interesting. We keep a bird book and binoculars handy to identify the birds that are migrating north and south, like ducks and Canada geese, but also snow geese, pelicans, hummingbirds and lots of other smaller birds like blue jays, nuthatches, redpoles, robins, goldfinches, red wing blackbirds, gulls, terns meadowlarks, orioles, chickadees and of course sparrows.
A family of foxes dug a den directly behind our house at the top of the hill, and have been raising familites there for the last 3 years. Through the second floor bedroom window it's easy to watch the young ones playing, just like puppies. Our large trees bring lots of different types of birds at various times of the year. We have had hawks nest in the tall poplars to the east of the house, and also owls, but never during the same year. We like hearing the owls hooting at night, and the collared doves make a similar kind of hooting sound. We occasionally see a colourful male pheasant hanging around here, and enjoy it's very distinctive call. There are lots of deer in the area. We are in the middle of an agricultural community, so all around us are farms and ranches. There is a shallow creek about 200m to the east of us, which we often use for cross country skiing in the winter, and a great place to take the dogs for a swim or a walk along the banks in summer.
