We have been in Maruia now for a little over two months and it has been hard work without a doubt. With little in the way of capital to try and make a living from selling produce and serena’s Bonsai we have been utilizing what ever we have had at hand or that we could get for Free. We made a greenhouse from plastic left here by the previous owner and the frames we used reinforcing steel bent into a bow and sleeved onto this some polythene pipe we had dug up from the rear of the property. The result was a makeshift tunnel house 4 meters long and 2 meter’s wide.
This has worked out fine for us up till now but it has now.become to small for out growing seed collection.
So it has become time to build something more permanent and alot bigger if we want to get serious about growing. Not only that but it’s now halfway through November and it snowed in the hills around us and locals have said that sometimes it has snowed in Christmas day.
So this time, since our budget is still pretty much zero ‘we are going to use kanuka poles which I cut down for the purpose. I have to be careful not to overdo it with felling our trees because even though they are some crooked tree’s and have little use in regards to building anything,they do offer some wind protection and are great nursery tree’s untill other types of trees can get established.
So day one is peeling off the bark.
The trick at this point is finding enough straight poles as this will determine how long we can make it. Were hoping for ten meters long and 5 meters wide.
I had earmarked some timber for building in the barn but have used some of it for making trusses for the roof. i did want to use kanuka but it’s just not strait enough and i would struggle getting the plastic tight enough .
Then before you know it i have the main structure built and Charlie seems quite content to just lay back in the sunshine whilst the work continues around him. I’m not looking forward to the plastic stage and haven’t figured out how I’m going to secure it to the pols as yet. the size of the new greenhouse is 6×6. Not having money to do things creates an environment where you think outside the box in regards to how to do things and look at what free resources are round about that may be of use but it can also be a little despairing when you start to run out of usable items and have to start compromising on the projects you want to get done. I have been pushing myself pretty hard these last couple of months and sometimes I start feeling dizzy. If I close one eye for a bit it seems to come right though. The push these days has almost all been about how to generate some cashflow to meet bills needing to be paid as well as a Christmas for the kids and my wife’s birthday in a couple of days. Its times like these that I think perhaps truck life was better but I’m aware that traveling also had it’s downsides.
It rained last night and we added another 100mm to our dwindling water reserves. it’s amazing how much water we are going through now that we have all these plants to water.