whitebear's greenhouse saga back at it

thanks msrobin

My sentiments too, Whitebear. He obviously lived a long and full life. Time for him to join your Granny.

yeah i'm sure she has a few words for him lol he might of been a mean old cuss
but that little women keep him in his place. they were a scrappy pair.lol
whitebear

Hi all, just got online momentarily to check a few threads... Whitebear... so sorry to hear of the loss, and my condolences as well. Take whatever time you need and I look forward to your return.

thanks rockgardner

hay guys i'm back and good new and bad. my dad didn't want to wait for my friend to get back so he went and bought a heat gun, on the way to the emergency room. "he's about as stubborn as me." well they put him in for 5 days, his blood cell count was so low they said he had no immune system at all right now so they put him in quarantine. so he's stuck in there till Monday at least. so he told me he would like his tubes done by Monday, so here goes.

here i'm heating the pipe "hint" keep the gun moving.

here i'm bending the pipe to shape. didn't have my crowbar handy like was suggested so i used my braker bar

here it is bent out

here are a few holes done

then i had an epiphany "i think thats a brain fart but backwards" i heated the pipe then shoved in the funnel in an it held the shape till it cooled. work like a charm

and the finished tube. now i just need to decide on a stand and fix up the watering system.
tomorrow i'm going up to the hospital to see pops and on the way back i'm stopping at this little store in this little town. that sells strawberries plant for 7.00 dollars for 25 plants. the plants they sale are green topped and very healthy. so as soon as i get them i will plant the tube up and let you see.
whitebear

great brain fart to use the funnel...

I love the tube and when your dad gets out and sees all the plants that will bring a lot of joy to him.

Love the tube.

Just be careful using the heat gun as they are very dangerous...just ask me how I know... 8 ~ (

Janet

ok meadowyck i'll bit what did you do?

just about burned my hand off with the darn thing, it was the first time and really had no idea they got that hot....

so don't go getting yourself burnt.


Janet

Did the new one still carry the warning "not to be used as a hairdryer"? :)

Looks great, Whitebear. I'm wondering....could you maybe drill 3 or 4 holes around the top for rope or something, cap the bottom and fix it to hang?

dang that sounds painful. don't worry i'll be careful i have used one a couple times before so not new to me and i keep my hand quite aways away from it.
whitebear

yeah you could. i'm going to put a cap on the bottom for sure and probable hang it like you said but was thinking of sinking the bottom into a big pot so that it would be movable, and i might be able to sell preplanted tubes with lettuce or strawberries at the farmers market.
whitebear

Yeah, that would give it plenty of stability.

i'll probable cut it in half though to about 2 1/2 feet to 3 foot

Gotcha, so it doesn't have to hang.

yep but i do want to hang mine in the greenhouse. was thinking of hanging the above the fish tanks and running the water from the fish take up to the top of the tube and then the plants will filter the water and the fish water will fertilizer the plants "aquaponics"
whitebear

Aw, Whitebear, you come up with the coolest ideas!

Hi Whitebear, those pipes look happy, kinda of smiley mouth opening... looks great, good job.

I am curious (I know very little of hydroponics), the water in the fish tank, will it be fertilized with something? And since it will be recycled repeatedly through the system, and I assume there will be periods when the water in the tank is stagnant (I may be wrong there), is there any concern with it forming algae or some bad bacteria, or will you freshen it up periodically? Hope I don't sound too stupid, just want to learn how this works cause I'm thinking of trying something similar.

hay rackgardner you don't sound stupid at all. how would you ever learn if you never ask.
the tank water has plenty of plant food already so there will not be anything added and it is a continues flow never stops. the algae will form in the tank and at the edges of the pipe where the sun hits the planting medium the algae in the tank acts as food for my fish "i raise tilapia" "vegetarian fish". as for the algae on the tube don't think it will be enough to worry about. and i just have to add water when it evaporate. this kind of hydroponics is called aquaponics. any more questions let me know.
whitebear

Oh! I remember you mentioned you raised the fish, I didn't realize the you'd be using the same tank with the fish... ingenious. Will you have to periodically cleanse the tank? I would also think there is some kind of filtering system to maintain right? And coud this be done without the fish?

you can go a long time with out cleaning the tank but i would usually clean the bottom of the tank once in a while, mainly so i can see the fish better agents the white bottom of the tanks
as for the filtering system, the plants will filter out anything that is bad for the fish and send back pur water, it's a complete closed system. and if you don't use the fish then it's called hydroponics and you will need to add fertilizer to the water.
whitebear

Thanks whitebear, another day of DG, and another day brighter. When my wife begins to bug me when I'm spending a lot of time on DG, I tell her to think of it as my being in class...

Goodnight whitebear, it's a couple of hrs later here than where you are (I think).

night rockgardner class dismissed. lol

hay guys started anew project today. i'm the worlds worst at waiting for my compost to compost down small enough to use. so i'm making a compost separator to separate the large pieces from the the small ones so that i can use them sooner. i use to use a square frame of 2x4's with welded wire tacked on, so and hard working.
this new one is like the worm harvesters but with a 1/4 inch screen, later i will make one with a 1/8 screen for really fine stuff.ok lets get going.
whitebear

here is the first end cutting out

and heres the other end being cut out

both ends cut out

here are the two halves

cutting the wire to make it fit around the barrels.

here is what it will look like when i reside how to connect it to each other.

a little closed look.
well thats all right now till i figure how to connect them and design the stand and the mounts for the motor and the belt system for making it turn.
wjitebear

Wow, sounds good. I am, however, still putting holes in my tubes for my strawberries! You move at the speed of light!

Hi whitebear... at it again huh? I thought I'd show you something I picked up many years ago. At the time, I had been working on an assortment of ideas on how to make a large compost screener when I came across this old composter someone was selling. Since I don't like to compost in a tumbler and rather just let things pile up in a fenced-in heap, I thought it would make a great compost screener. It works like a charm. Don't know if it can help you with your project, but I thought I'd show it off anyway. Obviously it's not motorized. On the opposite end there's a 3 pronged handle to turn the tumbler. Five of the tumblers six sides have the 1" screen holes and the solid panel is a hinged door which fastens when closed. Behind it is my compost pile.

hay Imagesoart yeah i've always thought if it stood still i would grow moss on my north side. lol
hay rockgardner cool looking tumbler, it looks like you could start the compost in there
and when you needed some small compost just turn a few times "self serve compost"