This is me pouring footings for the ONE HUNDRED FOOT greenhouse! Who knew 100 feet was SO LONG! I started lying down a LOT. My husband said I was being a trooper, but see, he did take a photo of me lying down a lot, so...just sayin'.  If it wasn't for our dear friends who live onsite, whom I shall not name until I know whether or not they wish to remain nameless, I would be dead.

The cement truck arrived and I was already tired -  from shoring up, placing rebar, packing rocks, moving stuff.... Then the truck arrives and there's cement pouring out of this huge wide chute into this tiny little form. A man must have thought that system up - cement going everywhere, us trying to direct it into that skinny space. Then the jabbing and the pounding and the scraping and the leveling and the...well, you get the picture! I told Jeff he'd better never overestimate my usefulness like this again!

But the footings are now in, though rather homely, thanks to me, and you will soon get to see a photo of the greenhouse and its insides. Everyone has been wanting to see the workings - believe me, so do I. I wish I was gently tying up tomato vines right now.
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Notice I keep talking about the tomatoes and not the tilapia. I'm hoping Jeff will take care of the tilapia - I think fish are kind of slimy. Speaking of tilapia, see those big wire wrapped white boxes in the photo? They are the tilapia's homes - the tops will be cut off. Several of them are under downspouts right now, collecting rainwater. We had a worried day when we were struck with the thought that the plastic could be the bad kind, the kind that releases BPA and messes with our hormones. But yeah! It's not! We called the company to make sure it wasn't any of the evil, leeching varieties of plastic.

We're also presently testing the pH on the gravel from two different pits - Miles Sand and Gravel, and Corliss Resources. If their gravel doesn't have too much limestone, we might be able to use it for a grow medium instead of the expanded shale and save ourselves about $1200.

ASAP to-do list:
Put up house
Cut tanks and top off with tap water so they can start de-chlorinating
Start plumbing
Find best source for tilapia babies and organic fish food
Make a date with the Fish and Game inspector
Learn how to grow duck weed and worms (fish food)
Plant tomato and pepper seeds
make a timeline for the cycling of the tanks so I know when to plant the rest of the seeds
Learn how to clone

But first, must collapse!

We've Only Just Begun

My husband and I are 54 and starting a brand new adventure - AQUAPONICS! Well, look at that, aquaponics is so new it's not in the spellchecker!  Now I really feel... brave? Oh well, we have nothing to lose, so here we go anyway - aquaponics or bust! We've been talking about it for a year or so now, ever since we were first introduced to the concept and immediately saw it was genius. Then last week Jeff found a greenhouse on Craig's list - not a cute little one to fit in our back yard - no of course not! A ginormous 20 by 100 foot hoophouse that we are fitting in our friend's back yard! Nice friends, I'll tell you! So our proof of concept aquaponics model is actually going to have to bring us PROFIT!

Just so you will be impressed by our "bravery," I'll tell you that we actually will have to cash out to do this. But our dreams are big - buy a piece of land, build a big barn with a living area on top, set up greenhouses and run aquaponics year round, offering tours and seminars and tastings, perhaps meals, internships, and of course sell lots and lots of tomatoes and tilapia! And basil and greens and zuchinni and peppers. All locally grown and organic. The genius part is, the fish will feed the plants and the plants will filter the fish water in a circular, symbiotic cycle of growth. Also genius - it's a self sufficient lifestyle we can support ourselves with in our old age without working for somebody else.

Back to the immediate reality though, we are trying this all out right now in the 20 by 100 hoophouse in our friend's back yard! Items are beginning to pile up on the ground beside the hoophouse, which is also still laying on the ground. Items on ground:

• A wood boiler, to heat the water for the tilapia - they're going to like about 72 degree water all the time, and so will the tomatoes
• A back-up propane heater 
• 8- 4 by 4' tote thingies, whose first life was to transport some kind of soap - soon to be tilapia homes!
• Soon to arrive - 14 plastic containers who also had a previous life as liners for something, and will soon be 5 by 6' grow beds, 12 " deep. The depth is very important, as I will explain later. Also very important is the ratio of fish tank volume to grow bed volume, which I will also explain later.
• Soon to arrive - coarse expanded shale, the cheapest grow medium we can find that won't mess up our pH
• Wood for tables - grow beds must be higher than fish tanks to gravity drain into fish tanks
• Plumbing stuff of all kinds - sorry, only Jeff knows what exactly he is going to do here, but I'm sure he'd be happy to fill us in if we asked
• Three pumps - just in case, says Jeff, because we'll probably only need one; it only has to pump water up into the grow beds for 15 minutes every 45 minutes.
• Test kit, pH controller and ammonia, for "cycling" the fish tanks

Okay, those last two we probably won't pile on the ground. 

And coming to my front door, according to my confirmation email, is $180. worth of seeds, and millions of little rockwool blocks to plant them in. I ordered cucumber, lettuce, basil, peppers, zucchini, and you guessed it, TOMATO seeds! I love tomatoes! I'm going to grow all colors and sizes! 

Aquaponics or Bust! 

I'll keep you posted!