Pond in the foothills

[sissy]

beer that lowers your body temp not raises it .I get a lot of wind being up over the tops of the trees and even in the high heat of summer I can hide in side .Cold you have to bundle up heat you just strip down .

 

[MitchM]

I guess you could jump in the pond too!
We have a fireplace and lots of wood to burn!

 

[sissy]

I have a fireplace too and lots of wood.horse trailer came in handy

 

[MitchM]

Is that hardwood? That's one thing we don't have in quantity up here. Hardwoods don't survive the winter very well.
We have poplar mostly. Spruce clogs up the spark arrester on the fireplace.

 

[sissy]

most is oak ,maple and wild apple and cherry wood from the other house in Pittsville VA .Cleared only about half the 12 acres there .Left the good trees but took out all the under brush and wild trees .

 

[MitchM]

Lucky!
My wife and I honeymooned in North Carolina. We loved seeing all the hardwood and touring around to some of the furniture shops.

 

[sissy]

I gave all my furniture away in NJ and bought all new here and the prices were amazing and found a lot of sample one of a kind furniture.I bought this sofa table and 3 end tables and a coffee table for 200 dollars and they are heavy and then bought the car table for just under a hundred dollars

 

[callingcolleen1]

very nice coffee table Sissy!

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, Mitch, looks like you have solar everything on your house, including a huge greenhouse that I have to believe helps with your heating bill as well, right? Sissy, you're looking at solar panels, maybe you should ask Mitch how his solar panels work, and what his opinion is as far as cost vs. savings.
Mitch, I did not know that aloe vera bloomed either. That's an amazing bloom, too, look somewhat like a yucca bloom. You also have some very nice looking succulents in there, too. After seeing Colleen's, you must both like that type of plants. Colleen, do you have to heat your greenhouse to supplement what the sun doesn't provide or is it self-sufficient?

 

[callingcolleen1]

I heat my greenhouse with a little fan heater and that keeps it nice and warm

 

[MitchM]

Thanks, CE.
The greenhouse does help with the heating, but only when the sun is shining, of course. In the winter at night, especially when it gets down to the -20's and -30's it takes a ton of heat to keep it above 13C/55F. To help with the heat in there, I put in a 90,000 BTU fireplace, infloor heating and a forced hot water fan. To help with cooling in the summer, I put in a misting system along with a temperature controlled exhaust fan.
My next add on for temperature control will probably be a large insulated tarp over the outside of the greenhouse for the winter.
I think succulents are popular here because of our dry climate plus they can easily be kept indoors during the winter. More tropical plants don't like our warm, dry house interiors. They like more humid conditions, which is bad for our homes.
I think I'm going to start a thread over on the gardening forum, plus maybe get some tips for greenhouse gardening.

 

[sissy]

how does your green house do in the summer heat .There are several around my area abandoned and all you see is weeds growing on the inside .With solar I am just trying to find out if we effect my appliances since they are all new .Not sure about that part .I don't want to be having them burn out because of fluctuating electric current .My biggest worry would be the new fridge ,it does have LED lights for the interior .Thinking of getting a new heat pump as I think the other one may be the cause of my energy use .It is 9 years old .The guys put it in when I was not down here and where do they put it right below the exhaust for my micro hood and the cold air blew right in .I had to build a roof over it to make the air coming out of it go sideways .I had to check before I built the roof clearance so I did not effect the heat pump .This one has the fan opening on top and the 20 10 winter I had to keep going out there to make sure it was cleared off .Then that spring I built the roof and no big snows since ,go figure .The new heat pumps have a solid top and openings on the side .Plus they are much more energy efficient than this one ,plus then I could move the inside unit to the basement and new ones are so much smaller

 

[sissy]

thank you colleen that was bought right away a thank you to ford motor company that gave me what I have today .I had to have it when i saw it .Heavy as heck but I love it .When I first got pee wee and he was tiny he got up in there and fell asleep ,scared me i could not find him any where and kept calling and he was just so tired he did not hear me .Was cute though He was asleep in the back seat .Wish I had thought to take a pick but i was so relieved to find him I just scooped him up and cuddled him .

 

[MitchM]

Sissy, it does pretty well in the heat. I have shade cloth suspended from the ceiling, plus 2 intake vents, and an exhaust fan. The best part is a misting system that cools the air down by about 20 degrees in about 10 minutes when needed.

 

[sissy]

I saw that the one green house nearby is being sold at auction and is what they call a large kit green house .They list the size at 30 ft wide by 40 ft long I just wonder how the buyer will get it apart with all those weeds growing inside .I guess the weeds will have to come down first .I am wondering if it will really sell and for what .It is at a garden center that has been closed for years .
'long before i even moved here .They just sold at auction a house not far from me for 10 thousand dollars with 4 acres of land .So sad the economy has come to this .House and land have been up for sale for 8 years now .Nice house too .