Day one on Dukan

Never & I repeat NEVER have I been on a diet..so this should be quite a shock to this system. I chose this Plan due to it offers foods that I like and feel that I can stick to easily and one more thing...I get to drink Milk...
Started the day with coffee did a 30 Min brisk walk, about to have some broiled fresh frozen salmon. About to go buy a scale hahahaha.

Storing Plumeria's

This winter the Plumerias will be stored bare rooted. By this I mean we are up rooting them shaking off any soil and removing all the leaves. The stems are being dipped in neem. We bought some large tubs and drilled holes in the bottom and added some peralite. Placed the rooted cains in and covered with more peralite and added river rocks on top to weight them down. This will allow the cains to still receive moisture during the winter and hopefully develop their roots.

Remember I'm banned from any more large indoor tanks......The Husband errrrrr.

Yesterday I bought for 15$ the perfect greenhouse tank. Not an indoor planted but perfect for this setting. It is a tall tank 30in long, 12.5 wide, 22.75 deep. Really have learned a lot just with the 10G. What has amazed me the most is the water temps. I have not had the GH shaded this summer so it gets really hot in there. Did that on purpose to see what the "worse" possible situation/scenario is heat wise. The water has only risen to 85!!! What we have learned, with a shade cloth in summer we will be able to control the situation heat wise.

Here the plan.

Lighting~~This tank will have natural overhead & side lighting. If needed will provide AC lighting. The small tank is doing well down there, things are growing like crazy. This is not to be a perfect tank more of an overflow (critters) and grow out tank. Here are some issues that need addressing. Stand~~~What type of racking system would you trust to hold an aquarium of this weight? The water, soil and tank should weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 330-350lbs. I use the metal ones for plants now. But I want something really strong. Also something worth mentioning. This tanks bottom needs to be at least 3' off the floor of the GH. It's a heat thing..The first 2' of a greenhouse bottom is known as the cold zone.

Heating this tank in the winter~~~ I am a big fan of cool greenhouses. I let the night temps drop into the mid-to-upper 40's and day temps rise. So I need good aquarium heating. Thought about black foam board insulation on the back and sides, that would create natural heat absorption. Any suggestions on heating this guy?? The greenhouses are heated, after 35+ years of enjoying & owning greenhouses, for insect control the cool nights keep the plant critters down. Filtration~~~Bought another Eheim 2215 20$ to filter it with. Concerns with the Eheim are will it function in temperature swings??? I could do a home made box type (trickle) filter down there. I built one for the pond and it works like a champ.

Soil~~~Eco-complete with some Aquasoil Powersand lateral layer underneath.

Water~~The plan is to use tap, allow it to sit down there for a day to dechlorinate will have to heat the water in the winter~~~maybe?? Our water here has so much junk in it. I'm the one with the pipes issue, old neighborhood broken pipes and lots of chemicals when we have line breaks in the area.

Algae~~~We have glass algae. No critters in the 10G so will have to take that one step at a time and see how we progress. These are the basic things to get it started.....Any words of wisdom to add....speak freely need all the comments and suggestion you can throw my way.

Greenhouse Shrink Wrap Construction

Many have asked for pictures of how this is constructed and what the material looks like and how it performs. We are currently taking down the greenhouse for the summer. Will attempt to capture as detailed pictures as possible.

This picture to the left defines how clear this material is.

This greenhouse has morphed from many years of trial and error. The frame is steal, your basic carport frame from a big box store. The skin of this little jewel has been the issue. Finally in the fall of '08 another member of Plumeria Pals casually mentioned shrink wrap. This sparked my curiosity. After many hours of reading and asking questions I took the leap and ordered a roll.

Skeptic, Oh yes after as many skins as we have tried the true test would have to be surviving a winter in N. Texas. We have temperature spikes ranging from 80+ to 20. The skin's and attachment means find this stressful. For some reason the past 2 years we are have these winds. Have taped a million miles of plastic in freezing rain to hold previous version together.

The winter of '09 was a season of happiness. Not once was there a repair in need of mending. This by all that follow me locally was a success in every aspect. No more worry of an area of tape coming apart and frigid air entering the house and doing damage. Through the use of digital thermometers our temperature this year was stable.

I am editing this as time allows so bear with me.

Around the entire house we have use insulation board. This is the east wall which allows the most sun of all the walls. This is a pony wall that is 2' of insuation. The west wall will have the board turned end to end there is a 4' wall on it. The N. & S. walls have full coverage. The south really is not necessary I have just found that this really stabilizes the GH is our winter winds.
This is an example of with the heat gun I went around the support post. The gun is so easy to operate. I used a piece of 2x4 made into a small "T" That I could press from one side and heat from the other to secure the top seam lap over. To attach the side walls I simply pulled the plastic up and on to the roof about 6' and started melting.

This is a splice seam that I did on the driveway prior to lofting the cover.