Second winter

Winter… dark and cold, long time since last update. Now we are on our second winter of construction. I’ve had several long colds with bad cough that stopped a lot of work during November and December. Now in January I have finally been able to get things going again. Sadly I missed warmer weather during December when it was easier/possible to build with LECA blocks and mortar.

We’ve had several weeks with temperatures below -10, hard to work with many layers of clothes. Last week has been warmer so I have been able to work with the LECA blocks below the greenhouse walls. The snow we had for some weeks has melted now. Currently very windy.

It’s obvious that I don’t have as much energy now as during the summer. Everything seems very daunting currently, too many things to do. Trying to focus on one task at the time, any progress is good progress. If anyone want’s the help out and learn a bit about the nature house concept at the same time, let me know! 🙂

Some pictures!

The snow made it possible to do some skiiing. Just enough snow, some gravel sticking up which provides surprise falls.

Snow vs greenhouse for the first time. Two more windows has broken, four in total. Not sure why but it could be stress on the glass when the support under the walls are not complete.

Quite cozy inside with the snow on the roof. Just 1-2 degrees warmer inside since there are still big openings under the greenhouse. The snow has slowly been sliding down the roof. When the warm weather hit it melted quite fast.

The frame of the house is mostly complete now, only balconys and pergola missing. They are still to be delivered from Estonia. Two more loads to go. Doors, windows, floors, roof material etc. Storms in December stopped delivery over the Baltic sea before Christmas. Now they have some problems with sick managers at the factory. Aiming for next delivery in february of windows, doors and roof materials.

New views from up on the roof. That is one of the cooles things about the house I think, all the different views from all the storeys. The joists are cut with an angle so any water drains of. Good space on the roof, the glass is ca 1 m above the roof at the edges, so most of the roof is standing height.

Currently trying to finish the mortaring where the east growing/water cleaning beds will be, it would be nice to be able to start growing this spring but there is lots of work before that. All LECA blocks to finish in this part, fix any bad morar joints, seal the leca block with cement mixture. After that level the ground, cover with rubber sheat, collection pipes, gravel, spreader pipes, more gravel. Also drill for water, get power to the water pump. Actually I should finish the whole tech house below.

Here I’m building a permanent opening to be able to access pipe connections. Three large pipes are below the surface and acts as culverts to the tech house below. In those large pipes I’ll run other pipes later. Sewer pipe is already in, later I’ll put electricity, water, heating etc in there. The LECA blocks will also act as divider between the two planned growing beds on this side of the house. The wood OSB boards were temporary and will be removed.

GO!