Michael Johnson is stepping into the world of high tunnel construction but remains a long way away from high tunnel production.
I'm experiencing muscle pains I've not felt in a long time due to my latest weekend project. I spent several hours performing a balancing act on the loader bucket and arms of my Farmall M in an effort to add bracing to a high tunnel. It was a workout, but doing it in temperatures so warm that I didn't need gloves was a blessing.
While snow removal has not been much of a need so far this season, I'm still finding reasons to go "put-put around," as my wife, Kelly, says. The tractor was parked under the half-moon rings of a rehabbed high tunnel we picked up from my wife's aunt Patty. The high tunnel took a hard hit from storms on her property, and rather than get scrapped, we picked up the parts to see if we could make it work as our first greenhouse.
Trying to get bent piping to remember it's original shape is about like getting the Israelites of the Bible to remember miraculous works of their past. Apparently, I have some stiff-necked hoops.
Prior to the snowfall, I was able to pound all the foundation pipes into the ground, and I've been working on adding the hoops and support bracing on any of the warmer days since then. It's not perfect, but it's looking more like it should work than when I first started looking everything over in November.
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