Our First Greenhouse

   My wife, Melissa, has been talking about her mother's greenhouse for years and now that we have our own place, I want one too. Since her birthday was yesterday, I figured it was the perfect time to fulfill her overdue wish to have one, so a few weeks ago I set about preparing for it.
   My original thought, and ultimate plan, is to build one right above the garden.  But after clearing the brush pile deposited there during construction of our home, I found much more to do for site preparation than I could accomplish before this growing season.
   During this time-frame we were walking around in our more-or-less local big construction store and we stopped to look at a little 4x6 plastic-covered job.  Even though it was indoors, and not in direct sunlight, it was a few degrees warmer inside it.  Melissa said something about it, and even though I can't remember anything close to the words she used, it planted a seed.
   Fast-forward to President's Day and I found the perfect excuse to be going in the opposite direction from the wife - she had made plans for a friend to accompany her to Altoona.  That left the neighbor and I free to go to the other big construction store in an even less local town under the guise of retrieving my trailer from my brother, which is more or less on the way.
   When we went I had intended to buy the materials to build the "Winter Optimum" Greenhouse I designed and posted in a previous post, but due to the time constraint, and stumbling upon a 6x8 model of a similar greenhouse to the one Melissa and I saw, I changed my mind.  For $199.95, an opportunity to use the greenhouse this year and a chance to make Melissa happy on her birthday, I bought it. 
   The neighbor and I hid it in his garage until this past weekend.  I had him call me Sunday morning when he got up and used the ruse that he needed my help laying out the stairs in his garage for about an hour or so.  I got "the look" as I headed out the door, but sometimes you just have to take it.
   It took us a little over an hour to put the metal framework together in his garage - no tools required.  Then we snuck it through the treeline between our houses out back.  We set it tight against the back porch and then went and got the cover from the garage and started putting it over the framework. We were nearly done when Melissa texted me, asking me how much longer we'd be.  I replied "10-15 mins". We were attaching the last strap that holds the cover to the frame about 5 minutes later when I heard the front door open and Melissa yelling at the dogs.  Mostly she was yelling at Whiskey who had heard us and came tearing around the back of the house, barking the whole way. I quickly thanked our neighbor for his help and headed around front to make sure Melissa didn't come around back.  Whiskey and I found her headed for the front steps from starting her SUV to warm up, and followed her inside.  She was getting ready for the two of us to go out and do some of the myriad things we had talked about doing on Saturday but didn't do because of the high winds.  Fearing that we wouldn't get back until after dark, I led her out onto the back deck to show her something.  She seems to be happy with her birthday present and now she wants to know what we're going to plant!  Sunday evening Luck and I went out and moved the greenhouse over the septic tank and ran pole-barn spikes through the feet to hold it down.
   I chose the location because of the heat from the septic tank.  It does get snow-covered in the winter but the snow is always shallower there and is the first place to melt-off in the spring. It was 42° on the ground inside the greenhouse at 8:40 this morning, 36° under the enclosed back deck, and 27° at 9:10am downtown.
   I will update the blog from time to time on the performance of the greenhouse.  I hope to have fresh salads all winter long this coming year.