I am so excited to share the progress of my underground greenhouse with you. I have worked little by little on this project for more than a year now, working on digging and building as I had time and as I found materials. In this blog post I will briefly show the process and some of the highlights of the digging and building. I won’t go into the details of how to build your own, but I hope the future builder will use my project for ideas. I will also be adding most of my info in the captions of the pictures I post. Feel free to browse the gallery.

The vision for this greenhouse was to create something that could be easier to heat and cool in my crazy Idaho climate. I really liked the idea of the walipini (google it) underground greenhouses that have become popular among modern homesteaders. I wanted room to build a medium size aquaponics system and I also wanted something big enough to house a small citrus tree (if I could keep the greenhouse warm enough). The greenhouse I built is the result. Now we have to see how well it works. ​

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Haymaking is definitely one of my favorite things to do on my little farm. I have enjoyed it since I was young and I enjoy it even more now that I am doing it all by hand. Haymaking has helped me build a closer connection with the world around me. I hope to share a taste of this joy with you as well as sharing the method I use to make hay. The second part of haymaking, (drying the hay) starts after cutting the hay and is just as important as any of the steps in the haymaking process. 

by Jared Neibaur

There are many joys in country living and among the ones at the top of the list are those that include struggle and dedication. Near the top of my list is haymaking. I love every aspect of haymaking from tending and irrigating the field to feeding the animals and everything in between. This is a joy that I have carried with me since my youth where I used heavy equipment to cut, bale, haul, and feed hay on our family ranch. I have since learned some old-time techniques to scale things down to work on my little homestead where the large machinery doesn't make sense (my field is 0.4 acres). Though the work is more hands on, I have found that I enjoy it so much more.