Back together again

We finally got the vents to the greenhouse repaired and put back up into place. We were very lucky, only one of the four that had been blown apart was really damaged badly and needed repair. The rest just need to be put back together and the panels put back in. This time we made double sure that all the nuts were extremely tight and the we caulked all around the panel to make sure they were in place and hopefully attached enough to not blow apart again. Don got all the automatic openers repaired and I got all the vents and openers put back into place. This was not an easy task as I needed to use our 10' orchard ladder to do it.
I also got the heat mats put into place and built a makeshift cage out of 1/2" hardware cloth to fit into one of the beds. Last year we had mice eating the seeds and the new seedlings that were emerging before they had a chance to grow. So my thought was a cage and hopefully it will help. I don't want to have to replant over and over again like I did last year. I am getting a late start this year and not really liking that. With my mom having her stroke really set me back. She is on the mend and her and my dad may be moving in with us so I really need to concentrate on my gardens this year to produce lots of food for the four of us.
I sure do enjoy my gardens and greenhouse when they are in working order. Love to dig in the dirt, and can't wait to get started again. I think I got that from my dad.

REPAIRING THE GREENHOUSE

We got started repairing the greenhouse today. The reason for the damage was a storm in the recent past during which we got winds over 100 miles per hour. The damage included four polycarbonate panels blowing out, and four vents being torn up pretty badly. Oh, the white on the roof of the house is residual snow, a little dropped on us last night.

 As you can see from the pictures the vent frames were bent and pulled apart.

 This pic shows the one panel that was pulled out of the door

 I took several pictures showing the damage to the roof vents. Unfortunately we will need to build new replacements as the originals are too torn up to repair, although we saved the polycarbonate panels from the vents.

 The vent openers did not escape unscathed. Several will need to be either replaced or repaired.

 The corner pictured above and below had panels missing on both the front and end, as well as another panel in the center of the back.

 Janice replaced most of the panels today and I was helping with the caulking and moving the ladders. We now have the two sides and front of the greenhouse, as well as the roof panels caulked in place. We still need to caulk the rear panels and the vents as we re-build them.

 The caulking we are using, we really like. It stays flexible and is very clear, even if it gets wet.

We are getting this done in between storms so we can get the garden seeds started, time is running out.

UPDATE ON HOW TO MOVE MY TRAILOR

Well you remember a few days ago when I built a contraption to hook my trailer to my tractor, Well things didn't go exactly as expected.

 Firstly I attached the hitch to the bucket and the trailer, and it looked as though it would work great, then all of a sudden the hitch came off the tractor.

Now what, when I checked, I had to remove it from the trailer and saw that the flat bar on the bottom had bent, a lot!

So to the shop we go and straighten as good as I can in the vise. Now what can I do to prevent this from happening again? Blinding flash, I will use the Left over flat bar to weld on sideways to stop any bending, that will work for sure.

The picture now that it's repaired does not do it justice, it had to be at least 45 degrees!

After taking care of this I was back out at the trailer and things again looked great, then all of a sudden, SNAP, the contraption broke off the tractor bucket. When I got it off to look over, I found the entire bottom bar that I had just straightened and added a stiffener to broke at the welds, ARG! off to the shop again. I ground the edges all of the way around and mega welded the pieces back together.

Back to the trailer, I wish I had a picture of that, I had the trailer wheels off the ground and the trailer was sitting on the rear of the trailer up the neighbor's hillside, and on the tongue jack. Precarious at best. looking at it made the hair on my neck stand up, it was that ugly, tongue and tractor on the downhill end. I finally got everything back together again and succeeded in moving the trailer like I had intended, Just took a little longer to iron out the bugs, like most of the day.