Red-built greenhouse

[Beekissed]

Don't know....folks always used to call it "thin blood" but I'm sure it has something more to do with just inactivity and the resulting poor circulation to distal areas of the body. The more you move, the better your circulation into the areas that grow chilled...that's true of any age.

As homehealth and later as a hospice nurse, I've visited homes where the patient was no more than 6 in. from a wood stove~still heating the home in early summer~and they even had blankets on their laps. All winter long I'd visit homes that were heated to around 80-90* and I couldn't wear my winter coat, even in between visits. I'm hot natured anyway so walking into those airless hot boxes was like sheer torture. All those old folks would exclaim over my being coatless, saying I'd "catch my death" out there if not wearing a coat. If coming out of those homes drenched in sweat and hitting the cold air outside didn't have me "catching my death", then nothing will.

Right now my mother spends her time near the wood stove in the cabin and I can't go in there for very long at all before it runs me right out....and she's all dressed up warmly, sitting there like it's the most comfortable thing ever.

Red, my mother couldn't seem to stop expecting Dad to be like he used to be....she would keep saying, "Remember? It goes like this...." and then he'd just get angry and refuse to do anything. I think she wanted him to be like he was so badly that she couldn't remember that he can't "remember" how it is supposed to work.

What's worse is that I kept reminding her that he just can't remember, so encouraged her to stop trying to get him to remember, as it just caused tension...but she just couldn't stop feeling like he would just get it if she told him to remember.

Even worse than that, now Mom is losing her short term memory and is forgetting how to do certain things she's always done and I find myself saying, "Remember, Mom, etc." I think it's just ingrained in us to try and help them in that manner, as it's so very alarming to us that they can't remember such simple things. I have to stop myself many times a day, biting my tongue on sentences that start out with words that implore her to remember things or reminding her that she has already told me that several times today. I'm a nurse and used to all of this and even I can't "remember" to let it be and not be so hurt when they can't remember. It's different when it's your own loved one and you've seen them in their normal state of mind all those years, then you get to see that mind just disappear, slowly but surely.

It will be my turn soon enough...I'm already not remembering things I should and my own kids start many sentences with, "You already told me that...".

 

[Nyboy]

Yesterdays phone call with my dad, I said you told me all this when we talked Sun. He laughed and said I am old we replete our selves a lot.

 

[Smart Red]

Yes, Bee. I have removed "Remember?" from my vocabulary. He doesn't remember, and asking him to remember is frustrating.

I just try to concentrate on today and tomorrow. I do need to learn that the way he's always done things isn't the only way he can things can get done now.

 

[Smart Red]

Nyboy, DH is getting more and more like that. I used to keep the temp at 66 during the time we're up at home and had an automatic thermostat that dropped back to 60 when we were at work or asleep. Never had any complaints. Now I have it set (for him) at 73 degrees (F) and he still checks the thermostat to see if the furnace is working. In addition, he wears his outside coat all day long.

 

[Smart Red]

Thanks to that wonderful, @Nifty, the greenhouse photos are showing up. Go to the first post on this thread to see what I had done before the big snow.

The weather was fantastic today. After we finished up some needed work at Tenth Street and got through the City inspection I finally had time for myself. I finished screwing together the supports and added pipe insulation to the edges of the cattle panel for protecting the plastic covering.

Looking good to me! Too breezy today for me to attempt the plastic.

 

[Nyboy]

Nice job Red !!!!

 

[Smart Red]

More work on the greenhouse today! It was such a great day to be working outside.
Despite the wind today, I managed to get the plastic on the North end. I used Gorilla Tape to hold the plastic to the cattle panels.
Then I screwed pieces of wood over the top and down sides of the bracing to hold the plastic against the panels.

Then I moved to the South end of the structure. I had to cut another cattle panel into three pieces -- for the door (not shown yet) and on each side of the door. In order to hold the metal to the wood framing, I tied it with heavy duty twine. That held the panel against the wood and seemed to be very strong. I still need to tie the South end before I can put the plastic on.
I am so close to being finished although I am unsure
how the door will be built. I have my ideas, but I will probably need DS to rout a channel in the wood sides -- much like putting a paneled door together with the last piece of cattle panel (seen at the bottom). One piece of plastic, 25 feet long will cover the roof and center sides.

I am so happy with how the project has been going and pleased that the end result will not be all that much of an eyesore.

 

[thistlebloom]

It looks real good Red. Very well built and should last you for many years of gardening.

 

[Devonviolet]

Your greenhouse is looking good Red. We have a hoophouse, that we originally built to be a kennel to separate our LGDs when our Violet went into heat. When the time finally came, we put Deo in it, and they both went crazy being separated like that. We ended up putting Deo in the chicken yard (right next to the goat yard) with 2 of the goats, and they handled it fine.

Since we aren't using the hoop house now, we are going to take it out of the goat yard & are thinking of putting plastic over it & store hay in it, although it could be used as a greenhouse as well. We just don't need one right now.

After DH & I bought the cattle panel & built the 2x4 base for it, Baymule & I were talking about it, and it turns out her chicken hoop coop is almost identical. I guess great minds think alike, right???

Here it is:

We used left over 2x4 woven wire horse fencing to fill in the ends & left over welded wire for the door. The back end is set up so if we want to use it like a greenhouse, we can put a window in, for cross ventilation.

 

[Smart Red]

That looks good. Not a big difference from mine although it's probably better made. With DS working in the woodshop, everything I do has to be with my portable tools.

The curved top over your door (and at the other end) I left open. I will cover it with plastic that I can raise for ventilation. Yours has a much simpler door. I might need to go with something like that except my door won't be inset like yours. Mine will be set against the outside of the doorway frame.

Oh my, I feel right at home here! Your talk of memory loss hits so close to home! Sometimes find myself losing patience. That's the last thing we need! I have asked him not to use the chainsaw or skills as unless I am there, and he is okay with that.

I try to let him help -- to feel useful. He just doesn't remember how to safely use power tools anymore. I let he try using the saws-all to cut some cattle panel parts. Scared me. He would have his fingers right below the wire he was cutting. As soon as he cut through the wire, those fingers would have been laying on the ground. I kept reminding him to keep wire between his fingers and the saw, but often had to grab the saw until his fingers were in a safe place.