Hoop-houses (Cumberland Saga)

“Holy smokes!” Gregor exclaimed as he exited the van-body he had picked to spend the night. “I am going to need to do something differently if I am going to survive the winter” he said as he clapped his hands together and stomped his feet.

Then, Gregor went over to his parent’s house to eat breakfast while Blain went into Sarah’s.

Gregor was back before Blain had finished.

“So, Aunt Sarah, Papa said that the best place to unload the stuff from the back of my truck might be into one of your hoop houses. What do you think?”

Sarah put her on hand on her hip and brought her other hand up to her lips where she absent-mindedly nibbled on her knuckle, deep in thought. 

Partially constructed hoop-house

“Well, I suppose you could unload into the biggest one. All I have left in that one are some trays of green-onions and I was getting ready to shut it down for the winter. Mind that you shut the doors when you are done” Sarah said.

“Blain, do you mind helping?” Gregor asked.

“No problem” Blain said as he swallowed the last of his luke-warm tea.

Gregor started his truck and backed it up to one end of the hoop house.

Gregor was clearly familiar with Sarah’s hoop-houses. Blain had never spent time near them because it was Sarah’s domain and she had never assigned him any work that took him inside of them. Besides, the daylight hours were short and by the time he had free-time, it was dark.

Gregor opened up the storm-door and beckoned Blain to enter the greenhouse.

Walking through the door, Blain was struck by the twenty degree difference between the inside and the outside temperatures. Not only was the air much warmer than the outside air but it was still.

“Why is it so warm?” he asked Gregor.

Gregor shrugged. “Sarah rolls up the thermal blankets every morning to let the sun in and lowers them every evening to keep in the heat. I suppose that between that and the water barrels…” Gregor said, pointing to the barrels that the growing trays were supported by “...that hold the heat…” and then Gregor’s voice trailed off.

“Well, I know where I am parking my van tonight” he concluded.

Blain looked around in disbelief. “No way in hell are you going to be able to fit it through THAT door” he said, pointing to the storm-door.

“The sides roll up” Gregor said. “Not going to be a problem. We just have to move enough of these barrels and stack the trays Aunt Sarah isn’t using and there will be plenty of room.

Blain looked the space over with new awareness.

“How many vans do you think we can fit in here?” Blain asked.

“If Sarah lets us move a few barrels out of the house, maybe two of them” Gregor responded as his practiced eye estimated distances and the curvature of the sides.

Knowing that he would be evicted from the CONEX as soon as a family showed up, it was a pretty easy decision for Blain. “I’ll help you get moved in as long as we make room up-front for the second van. I’d rather be in here from the get-go than to get the worst van and not have a good place to park it.”

It was almost noon before they had the interior of the hoop-house rearranged, the cargo from Gregor's truck moved and stowed and one side of the hoop-house rolled up. It took an hour to get the first van in. The longest part of that time was spent spinning the van around so it was oriented to make room for the second van.

The second van they didn’t even try to roll in on its own wheels.

Gregor popped two of the arched supports out on the closest side and held them up at the middle of the span with some long studs. Then he put a dolly under each end of the van and used the tractor to push it in sideways, already oriented the long way.

By then, the daylight hours were shot but Gregor’s truck was unloaded and both Gregor and Blain had “apartments” in Sarah’s big hoop-house.

 ***

Tip of the hat to "W" for technical advice.