Sunshine Greenhouse
Recycling an Old Foundation to Make a Solar Heated Greenhouse & Compost Shed

The original Neal family home (abandoned at the time) was destroyed by a tornado in the late 1970's and was a repository for all manner of junk fence posts, old corrugated roofing and rusty barbed wire stacked about 6 feet deep.  One of the things often pondered when you buy an old farm is what to do with what was left behind by the other folks?

We hauled away the refuse and the foundation sits to the side of the property edged by weeds and covered in the rotting remains of old wood and a few of the original foundation stones used to support the perimeter of the old house.

Pardon the slightly blurry photo, this was taken too early in the morning in low light.

You might be encouraged to see what a little sweat equity can do.  The foundation is in good shape considering its age and exposure to the elements and will make a dandy foundation for a greenhouse and composting shed.

Just off the bottom left corner of this photo was a large pile of rocks overgrown with elm saplings and multi flora roses.  I didn't get a shot of the before view but here is what we relocated from the middle of the pasture to the barn.

Some of the stones are well over 200 pounds and will make good foundation stones for some other project not yet dreamed up by the boss.  You can see the old foundation location at the top center of this photo.

Amidst the stones we also recovered about 140 antique hand made bricks which were probably used as the structure of the chimney in the old house.  When we cleaned off the foundation and surrounding ground (without taking on the rock pile) we found another 140 or so antique bricks so we have enough to do ANOTHER project not yet dreamed up by the boss.

The bald spot created from the removal of the rock pile and leveling and filling of the holes left behind has been temporarily seeded with sunflowers, Shasta daisies, California poppies and purple cone flowers.  These will make something pretty to look at until we get the bald spot over-seeded with rye before winter sets in.

More about the solar heated greenhouse plans will follow shortly.  The wheels of invention are turning and may need a little axle grease.