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@LavenderLori406 Populous! Dogs sure cleaned up around the house. Had some vole problems in the gardens for sure. Ate some potatoes and beets. You must have had an issue yourself. I don't like to use poison because affects birds and dogs. Any suggestion for eradication?

@Garandmasthumb You are correct. Welding galvanized metal can alter the rust proofing on the cage. You may want to consider applying a primer with a coating to areas where welding occurred. Cheers J&K

@ssteveoravetz6178 Thank you for you question. The answer is yes. We put another layer of that heavy duty impervious canvas that we also used as a layer of insulation. Cheers, J&K

@steveoravetz6178 Off the back slope or the back side of those tall columns will be another 4:12 pitch roof to a building. Cheers. J&K

@richdobbs6595 Thank you for your comment. There are a couple reasons we put in a heavy pond liner: help with condensation and controlling hydrostatic pressure along the depth of the wall and to help with heat loss. Before we actually started the build, I put two years into researching pit greenhouses and developing the plans. I read many books and went to a number of websites. I also submitted my plan to the USDA for architectural and structural assessment. (You apply for this review the same way you would a grant). My favorite book on the subject is Year-Round Solar Greenhouse by Lindsey Schiller with Marc Plinke. They reference other sources if you really want to get into the weeds. After 100s and 100s of hours researching, we put a plan together (and tweaked it as we built). So yes, the pond liner may be overkill in my climate and USDA zone, but better safe than sorry. It is much harder to put in a liner after you have the greenhouse built.;-)

@@montanalivinginthebigskyco8541 Thanks for getting back to me. I'm thinking that I'm going to have a quite sloped site in Northern Idaho, so I think that drainage will be less of an issue. I checked out The Year-Round Solar Greenhouse book and I'm starting to read it. In any case, I'm a couple of years away from that aspect of my homesteading, and I'm going to do a smaller project in phases. I'll probably gamble that I can low ball it, and fix problems that come up. Worse comes to worst, I'll just walk away from the first experiment and repurpose what I can on the second one.

@@richdobbs6595 You can't go wrong with that book. Also recommend Mark Oehler's "The Earth Sheltered Greenhouse Book". Mark was from your neck of the woods. His book is fun to read too. He was quite a character. The cold sink idea is his. Keep in touch. Would love to know how your project goes. Decentralized farming is the future!

@@richdobbs6595 Check out Mark Oehler's "The Earth-Sheltered Greenhouse Book". Great read from a guy in your neck of the woods. Besides, it's is a fun read. The cold sink is his idea. If you want to try and find a pond liner for free and you are starting "small", look at anyone getting rid of a dilapidated above-ground pool. You see these everywhere. Ask if anyone wants to get rid of them. People get these pools for their kids, find out that keeping water fresh is problematic, and toss them to the dump (the pools not the kids 😀) I see it all the time. For us "recyclers" that means free pond liner. Just a suggestion. If I was building small, that is where I would go. Please post as you progress. Would love to hear more. Decentralized farming is the future! J&K

@@montanalivinginthebigskyco8541 I don't have land yet, let alone a house. But I do want to plan the house so that I can eventually put in a green house near it. The land will be sloping with a southern exposure. With luck, I'll find land this winter and start construction next summer.

@richdobbs6595 Answered your question under Step 12a. Thanks.

Thank you! Cheers!

@vivalaleta That is what partners do :-)

It's a greenhouse

@@KreatureKeeper I see. I mean I knew that but have seen plastic opaque roofs also. Anyway you can't go with glass? Everything you've done so far is green.

@vivalaleta Thank you for your comment and question. The roof will have a Lexan double-wall polycarbonate roof, but there will be metal roofing off the pitch slanting back down to the north (or the roof over the ground level as opposed to the grow floor). We did a lot of research on roof material, then selected Lexan brand and polycarbonate. The poly roof has a higher insulation factor, is less heavy than glass, and is more resilient to hail. It has a 20 to 25 year life expectancy. We have seen smaller greenhouses - much smaller - that have been made out of glass, or recycled windows. We are all for that as we love to recycle and repurpose. However, that option was impractical for this build. Cheers J&K.

@@montanalivinginthebigskyco8541 What a beautiful reply. Your greenhouse is going to be outstanding. Please forgive my dumb comments. I've recently started medication that screws with my thinking. Metal roof, sheesh!

It's a greenhouse...sun can't come thru a metal roof

Thank you! Cheers!

@tedtolentino4955 Thank you for your kind words. If I may make a suggestion, try to keep your dimensions at a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio, so in your example, 32ft x16ft. This is recommended by the book I used to come up with my plans, "The Year-Round Solar Greenhouse" by Schiller and Plinke. Also, a tip from a lesson learned, keeping your measurements divisible by 4 means less waste in building materials. We thought of that after. Cheers and happy building. J&K

@SheilaWelter. You are welcome!

@cgparas thank you for your comment. I agree with the method you described especially if you live in an area with a lot of ground water at high levels and/or clay. We live in what is considered a semi-high desert. Our problem is never ground water. Our static water level is 90 feet down. Having said that, our concern is with water coming off a giant wedge of a roof. We plan to do gutters, but still need to divert that water when it rains/snows. Cheers, J&K

@@montanalivinginthebigskyco8541 You have an opportunity to add some big cisterns at the end of each drain field with a surface aces sable filter box and hand/solar pumps to pull from them or to feed a drip system, ect. Having some free rain water for plants is always a good thing to have, especially if your well pump dies or the power goes out in an arid region.

@bigmambahful You are exactly right, but if we go commercial greenhouse, which was our original purpose, we are prohibited in the US from using rainwater off a roof because of contaminants, like bird poop - unless we put in a purification system and the water sampling requirements are a pain. Having said that, we do divert our rainwater off our house roof into the trees around our home.

@outdoorztime2923 I just subscribed to your channel because I wanna see some pics on this project! Very cool and proud! Using cattle panels is excellent. We made our first couple walls out of cattle panels as a test, very strong. Stay tuned as we will be uploading soon. We did some outdoor gardens in June for our tubers and corn. Had to put a 6ft high deer fence around it to keep those critters out (not to mention the dogs burying their bones). We had a massive amount of dirt to get rid of from the dig, so we have been hauling that away on another project. We are about ready to stabilize the north wall with anchors. Also been buying excess building materials needed from Craigslist and Market Place, so we are ready and set to move forward. Cheers J&K

@@montanalivinginthebigskyco8541 Ha... after seeing yall's, I hate to show mine. Saturday I drove my last t-post and drove it right threw my internet cable - go figure. We're back up and going today. The internet company was fast to run us another wire.

@outdoorztime2923 I had to laugh. Jim is a Master Electrician by trade and we own our own Electrical Contracting Company that we have really scaled back as Jim is retiring from the big stuff. Having said that, I had to laugh at your comment about driving a post through your cable. You would be surprised how often that sort of thing happens. Jim gets called out all the time on that kind of stuff.

@Reziac Thank you for the comment. Yep, no soil where we dug, lol. There was a large river that ran, once upon a time, through this area. So in some areas, we have nice soil; in other areas, river rocks. I live smack dab in the middle of cattle country in SW Montana, not too far from Belgrade. Where is the forum for the permaculture guys in Missoula? I couldn't find it. I did find some TH-cam videos on Sepp Holzer done in Missoula about 13 years ago, but nothing recent. Cheers Billings, J&K.

@Sebastian-py7qo Thank you for your comment. Two reasons we didn't use concrete poles. We didn't want the concrete to leach, and these poles were given to us. Cheers, J&K

@beccafaust5776 Thank you for your comment. There are a number of suppliers out there but availability is the issue. Many of our kits were purchased before the supply shortages today. However, we did run into some issues with supply and canceled shipments for kits ordered in 2021, so we purchased from various suppliers. If you are in the US, there is more availability from Earth-Wall Products out of Smyrna, Georgia. This supplier provides twisted wire gabion baskets which I believe offer more flexibility with support over the tap wire welded cage kits we ordered. (Wish we had gone with twisted wire to save on all the additional tap welding we did ourselves to achieve more structural support). Another benefit to Earth-Wall Products is that they have a structural engineer on staff that can provide guidance for your design. Another tip for resources in your area is to talk to large landscapers or fencers. Gabion baskets are traditionally used in landscaping and fencing. These businesses should be able to give you some leads. If you buy from big box stores or big internet suppliers (ie. Amazon, Wayfair) , just make sure you are getting rust resistant, galvanized metal that is at least 9 or 11 gauge wire. If you wire cage is made of twisted wire, instead of tap welded, you will pay more. Cheers, J&K

@fireprobie591 Thank you for your comment. There are a number of suppliers out there but availability is the issue. Many of our kits were purchased before the supply shortages today. However, we did run into some issues with supply and canceled shipments for kits ordered in 2021, so we purchased from various suppliers. If you are in the US, there is more availability from Earth-Wall Products out of Smyrna, Georgia. This supplier provides twisted wire gabion baskets which I believe offer more flexibility with support over the tap wire welded cage kits we ordered. (Wish we had gone with twisted wire to save on all the additional tap welding we did ourselves to achieve more structural support). Another benefit to Earth-Wall Products is that they have a structural engineer on staff that can provide guidance for your design. Another tip for resources in your area and one specifically applicable to you since you are doing landscaping, is to talk to large landscapers or fencers. Gabion baskets are traditionally used in landscaping and fencing. These businesses should be able to give you some leads. If you buy from big box stores or big internet suppliers (ie. Amazon, Wayfair) , just make sure you are getting rust resistant, galvanized metal that is at least 9 or 11 gauge wire. If you wire cage is made of twisted wire, instead of tap welded, you will pay more. Cheers, J&K

@ToddLarsen It is a cold windy day (April 6, 2024) in SW Montana. Got a winter storm advisory. Working on greenhouse though. Got drain field buried and moving to finish air ducting along north wall (same as front that we covered in Step 13), then on to backfilling. Thanks for the comment about the new CSV pup. He is a corker. Like me, he hates the wind. Cheers, J&K

@karenspeer7378 Hello to you.

@ToddLarsen Forgive me. I just saw this post and I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. We purchased our 10mm double wall, Lexan polycarbonate from Duralight Plastics. Lexan is a very good brand, so we didn't scrimp here. We got Thermoclear with 2UV 72. Duralight has an engineer on site that will take your design and do a materials list to fit. Go to www.duralightplastics.com. Keep in mind, there is a balance when ordering your polycarbonate to provide heat and light. Too thick, you sacrifice light. Too thin, you sacrifice heat. Also, we went with clear. If I had to do this again, I probably would have gone with opaque for better light diffusion. Cheers, J&K

@darrylsmith9027 Excellent comment. We could not get 9 gauge, that is why we ended up tap welding (not as ideal as 9 gauge for sure). Thanks for commenting. J&K

@KarasCyborg. That is a good question. So basket bottoms are added because we dont want the cages to sink. The ground was compacted, then pea gravel added. A line was struck to keep all posts level then cages added. On top of cages affixed to poles, we added the headers because in part that supports the roof. If the walls sank it would detach from roof and that would be a nightmare. Cheers J&K

Thank you @jennyslade5860 for your comment. Not a day goes by that I don't think about my Czech V.

What a great and kind comment. Thank you @ToddLarsen. We still have a lot of snow here in Montana, but Jim being the master electrician and McGyver that he is has been working in our shop making a backup 3-phase heater for the Walipini just in case it gets way too cold like -30 or so. We will be posting a video showing that. He of course scrounged materials to make it.

The ground around here is so weird @ToddLarsen Our property in areas is very rocky, but you go a couple hundred feet over and the soil is nice and dark with little rock. We knew where we were to dig the Walipini was going to be rocky. We have our own backhoe, but we didn't use it to dig. Way to small. We hired an excavator, and boy am I glad we did. Btw, we subscribed to your channel. Collectively sharing our knowledge.

@@montanalivinginthebigskyco8541 Welcome to the channel, great minds build alike, looking forward to your new videos. We only got that snow stuff here for a day or two, lol

@ToddLarsen. Thank you for your comment and welcome to the channel. We are so ready to get this greenhouse functional. We have lots of snow here in SW Montana so hoping for an early spring...which means May in my neck of the woods. Cheers J&K

@ToddLarsen. Just joined your channel. We will be counter sharing our knowledge. We believe that decentralized farming is the answer to healthy living, conservation and food shortage.

@dfox334. Jim kept hoping to find a nugget. 100K rock and not one ounce of gold. 😢

@karenspeer7378 Thank you so much for your warm wishes. And howdy neighbor 😊

My pleasure

@dragonwarrior4589. Thank you for your kind words. I wish you success on your build.

@manueschwander6394 I don't know why I just saw this comment. I didn't know Wow Tech, but found the video you mentioned, subscribed and we are somewhat honored. Cheers J&K

Thank you for your comment. Good suggestion. So in answer to your question, foam is petroleum based, yes. So for us, we live where in winter we get -30F below or colder. Hemp and rockwool will not give the insulating properties like foam unless you go really thick on the hemp/rockwool - like hay bail size. Too, I believe hemp will deteriorate faster than foam, so if one were using these methods, perhaps a coating could be applied to keep the hemp from rotting. I didn't do any research on that, so I don't know. Have you used hemp or rockwool as an insulation? I would love to hear about the application. Cheers, J&K

Hi @moneybay Thank you for your comment. There are a number of suppliers out there but availability is the issue. Many of our kits were purchased before the supply shortages today. However, we did run into some issues with supply and canceled shipments for kits ordered in 2021, so we purchased from various suppliers. If you are in the US, there is more availability from Earth-Wall Products out of Smyrna, Georgia. This supplier provides twisted wire gabion baskets which I believe offer more flexibility with support over the tap wire welded cage kits we ordered. (Wish we had gone with twisted wire to save on all the additional tap welding we did ourselves to achieve more structural support). Another benefit to Earth-Wall Products is that they have a structural engineer on staff that can provide guidance for your design. Another tip for resources in your area is to talk to large landscapers or fencers. Gabion baskets are traditionally used in landscaping and fencing. These businesses should be able to give you some leads. If you buy from big box stores or big internet suppliers (ie. Amazon, Wayfair) , just make sure you are getting rust resistant, galvanized metal that is at least 9 or 11 gauge wire. If you wire cage is made of twisted wire, instead of tap welded, you will pay more. Cheers, J&K

Thank you for your comment. There are a number of suppliers out there but availability is the issue. Many of our kits were purchased before the supply shortages today. However, we did run into some issues with supply and canceled shipments for kits ordered in 2021, so we purchased from various suppliers. If you are in the US, there is more availability from Earth-Wall Products out of Smyrna, Georgia. This supplier provides twisted wire gabion baskets which I believe offer more flexibility with support over the tap wire welded cage kits we ordered. (Wish we had gone with twisted wire to save on all the additional tap welding we did ourselves to achieve more structural support). Another benefit to Earth-Wall Products is that they have a structural engineer on staff that can provide guidance for your design. Another tip for resources in your area is to talk to large landscapers or fencers. Gabion baskets are traditionally used in landscaping and fencing. These businesses should be able to give you some leads. If you buy from big box stores or big internet suppliers (ie. Amazon, Wayfair) , just make sure you are getting rust resistant, galvanized metal that is at least 9 or 11 gauge wire. If you wire cage is made of twisted wire, instead of tap welded, you will pay more.

@montanalivinginthebigskyco8541 thanks I just started talking with gabion1 in CA. I'll look at earth wall too.

😍@@smashdaworld5916

Thank you.