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In terms of heating/cooling have you considered geothermal worth the underground tubing? Not sure if it was brought up yet and was curious

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Magic Mutt wrote:In terms of heating/cooling have you considered geothermal worth the underground tubing? Not sure if it was brought up yet and was curious

No I haven't. Do you have any information you could share so I could read more about it?

UPDATE
I have to give a huge shout-out and thank you to @ChefDean!!! The Chef came up from Clarksville, TN last week, making the 4 hour drive to the Miller farm just south of Festus, MO. He spent 4 solid days sweating with me in the Missouri humidity and we were able to assemble the sixteen 1/2 mid-rafters (2x2 galvanized steel trusses) for the greenhouse and have them ready to lift onto the 4x4 columns after they're mounted to the concrete piers. Dean worked super hard and we worked well together so it was "fun" (as fun as sweating in 80% humidity and heat can be) to get so much done already.

We've still not broken ground but the concrete guy did come over on Friday and laid out the footprint. I've been in contact with an electrician and a plumber as well and will file for the county permits tomorrow morning. I've heard permitting can take a while but I'm hoping that maybe they can push this one through since it is just a non-habitable structure with electricity and plumbing. We shall see.

I also have a work order in with the local electric company (Ameren UE) to replace the transformer on our property with one that will pull 400 volts. When they do that job, they'll also pull the wire underground so it won't be hanging above the steel greenhouse. Safety first!

There's really nothing to show photos of with regards to the greenhouse yet but I'll definitely add photos here as we make progress. If you want to see a few photos of what the new location of FTS looks like, see this thread:
a-few-photos-of-the-new-flytrapstore-lo ... 51399.html

Dang that looks like a lot of work! I'm sure it will be awesome once everything is settled. I think I'll miss the shorter delivery time when ordering as Missouri is farther from California compared to Oregon.

_-SphagnumFromHell-_ wrote:I think I'll miss the shorter delivery time when ordering as Missouri is farther from California compared to Oregon.

Yeah, it will likely take another day to get from Missouri to California compared to shipping from Oregon but the good news is that since we're more centrally located, most of our customers will see shorter shipping times.

I just read your post so, I'm a little late to the party but, if I can be of any assistance and you still need some help with greenhouse chores just send an email. I am retired with a flexible schedule and live just North of Festus.

Matt, we haven't seen any updates lately on the greenhouse "saga". How are things going? Were you able to get everything set up by now?

ChefDean wrote: ↑Mon Dec 06, 2021 1:59 am Last I talked to him, the county was throwing more red tape at him that they neglected to tell him about before. He was able to secure a smaller greenhouse from a neighbor, not nearly as grand as the one he has sitting in boxes around the pole barn, but one to hopefully get him through until the county quits screwing with him.

But Matt's in farm country - why would the county officious officials give a rat's butt that someone wants to put up a greenhouse on a farm?!

I'm glad that he was able to find space in a local greenhouse to get his plants through the winter.

flipping heck that sucks. typical gov sticking their nose into the average man's business... while not giving two hoots what the big corps do... Hopefully, he can get it worked out

MikeB wrote:Matt, we haven't seen any updates lately on the greenhouse "saga". How are things going? Were you able to get everything set up by now?

Wow! This was over 9 months ago now and we're just finally getting started on the big greenhouse build!!

I'm sorry for not posting more here, but there really weren't many updates to give other than frustration with red tape. We finally got it all sorted and had an inspection for pouring the concrete last week and we passed! We broke ground last week, drilling the holes for the concrete piers with a skidsteer that we rented.

I've hired a local handyguy, Jimmy, to help with the build and he's great. We got all the holes bored out last Tuesday (Sept. 13th) and poured the cement on Thursday (Sept. 15th). Everything went really well! So now we are waiting for the concrete to cure and then we can start construction for realz!!!

Jimmy thinks we can get it done in about a month, but perhaps as quickly as 3 weeks. We shall see -- it is a lot of material to assemble! Nothing seems particularly challenging but it will be laborious.

Below are a few photos of the process to this point. My dad is in the first photo holding the auger to steady it for drilling the first hole for where the concrete pier will go. Then we had to cut 24-inch Sonotubes (basically really thick cardboard tubes) to the right height to make the top of the piers level all the way down the 108-foot run of the greenhouse. Then, after stabilizing the tallest ones, we were ready to pour concrete!! As mentioned, we got the concrete done on Thursday, September 15th and it is now curing for a week or so before we can start bolting the column bases to the top of the concrete piers. So excited to actually start putting this beast together!!

Awesome!
My offer still stands if you and Jimmy could use an extra hand, can still turn a wrench, operate a scissor lift and have tools.

The site looks shady! Is that good?