The Twelve Birches

How selling birch trees turned into a greenhouse . . .

It all started 2 years ago when an employee on his way to work at Evergreen Farms in Swanville noticed the really *white birch trees sprouting up in our field. 

The field was sadly filling in from lack of use after the farmer who had been renting it became ill. I tried removing saplings as they sprouted each spring but eventually they overtook my efforts. 

So I started pruning the orderly rows of birches that were determined to take root along the last plowed lines from when the farmer left it.

Last year the nursery owner stopped in and asked to buy 6 of the birch trees to put on a ferry and haul across to an island where the landowner wished them.

This year he showed up with a crew and asked how would I like to sell 12 - 15 more? Umm. Sure. Things went much faster this year and within a couple of weeks the semi backed in for the first half. They chose 12 in the end.

Last year I used the extra money for kayak supplies. A roof rack and a new life jacket suitable for kayaking.

This year I decided to use up the lumber and windows we seemed to be stockpiling for "something" and build a greenhouse with this "extra" money.

It's coming along! I designed all the walls around the windows we had, I found for free on trash day. A few came from the Restore. My brother and his boys helped us get walls standing. The walls were finished with stronger headers and the center ridge beam went up last weekend. 
Hopefully rafters this weekend!

*Actually they are the whitest grey birch trees the nursery owner said he had ever seen and they are more resistant to problems, so talked the rich landowner into this excellent deal. I may need to sell a few more if this project costs much more!

There was a rainbow yesterday while Tom was staining the (very high) center beam and supports for me.