{"id":28900,"date":"2025-01-22T00:01:34","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T08:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=28900"},"modified":"2025-01-19T08:17:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T16:17:02","slug":"the-big-dig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/01\/22\/the-big-dig\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Dig"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Gresh<\/h6>\n

One of the reasons we got such a good deal on The Ranch\u00a9\ufe0f in New Mexico is its location. Perched on the side of the Sacramento Mountains, the land is steep. Any flat areas are man-made so when you want to build a greenhouse, you’ve got to move some earth.<\/p>\n

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I’m filling the area beyond the wall. It was a steep rocky place and now you can walk around without stumbling like an old man…which I am.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Terracing is much easier than removing the mountain so that’s what we’ve been doing. The little cabin we live in is on a terraced spot down by the arroyo. The shed is higher up on another terraced spot.<\/p>\n

There’s a great location for a greenhouse behind our shack and down closer to the arroyo. The spot gets plenty of winter sun and it’s protected in most directions from wind. It’s so low I suspect it may flood in heavy rains.<\/p>\n

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It’s a little hard to get to but the location will be better when the high winds kick up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfortunately, the location is hard to get to. A while back I made a set of stairs to access the location but there’s no way to get the Kubota tractor down the stairs. I actually could get it in position via another route but it would require cutting a bunch of trees. I don’t want to cut trees.<\/p>\n

That leaves hand digging. The ground is not too bad to dig. It’s much easier than the front of the house where I put a driveway. Down in the arroyo the ground is a combination of hard topsoil, mid-sized rocks and some whitish, proto-rock stuff that crumbles with a sharp blow from a 2-pound sledgehammer.<\/p>\n

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The land tapers from level. At the highest about three feet must be removed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The process is: I break up the top layer with an electric, 35-pound jackhammer (powered by the Harbor Freight Tailgator generator), then I use a round point shovel to move the loosened soil into a wheel-buggy. A little work with a pick dislodges the larger rocks. Aside from a few tree roots, it’s the best digging I’ve encountered on the property.<\/p>\n

Since the area is so steep I’m bulkheading off lower regions with some old roll-up garage doors and using the removed earth to level a larger pad. It’s like getting free land. I plan to fill about two feet deep of as large an area as I have dirt for.<\/p>\n

This sounds like a lot of work and it is. I take it slow and steady. It’s really no worse than going to a gym to work out and you get the added benefit of a flat spot on your ranch.<\/p>\n

The greenhouse is a cheap Vevor 10-foot x 20-foot hoop style. The hoops are 1-inch tubing that are assembled like tent posts. A through bolt holds the pieces together. The cover is a greenish plastic material reinforced with what looks like thread. I think the cover will last a couple years if we don’t get a hailstorm. It’s not a heavy-duty unit.<\/p>\n

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It’s a happy worksite. I take frequent breaks and enjoy the smell of freshly turned earth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The foundation will be heavy duty. I’m building a two-block high pony wall to set the greenhouse on. The blocks are dry stacked, poured solid, and they sit on a 4-inch-thick footer. The footer has rebar to keep it together when it cracks. I’ve set some 1\/2-inch j-bolts into the block cavities to secure the wood sill that I will screw the greenhouse tubing into.<\/p>\n

The foundation is overkill because I’m assuming the Vevor won’t last long and I’ll be scratch building anothergreen house one day. In the meantime, I’ll practice my green thumb.<\/p>\n

As the project progresses, I’ll post updates. There will be solar power and a water catchment system making the greenhouse off-grid. For those of you wanting to build your own greenhouse my advice is to start with level ground.<\/p>\n

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