Growing plants in the Rockies Greenhouse gardening at 8500ft

We finally installed out weather station, you can see the whole weather scenerio here including a live webcam . The cam updates every 5 sec and the page updates every 15 minutes.

http://www.chrisandcin.com/index.htm

This was taken from the greenhouse looking down to the south and Brooks Forest

Last night, right at about the time we were to put the steak on the bbq a huge outflow of air from some storms sitting down at Denver send gusts of air up towards us, together with a shit load of pollen from the pine trees.

It was so bad it was stinging your eyes and actually making it kinda hard to breath.

Its time for the pollen release from the pine trees , if you want the worst hayfever and sneezing attacks here is the place to be!

The pollen comes off in bucket loads from the trees, you can see the yellow pollen in the air as you look across the valley …it looks like yellow smoke.

The pollen coats everything inside and outside the house… and its sticky

Close up its coming from the flowers which will of course turn into pine cones

Even the dogs hate it , its really bad when you get it in your eyes…just ask pumpkin, it even makes the dogs sneeze

Well we were warned that it could be snowing overnight, and how true they were. A good 6 inches overnight, temps at 5.30am ( pumpkin decided if she was up I should be up…plus she needed to pee) were a whopping 27 F outside, greenhouse with heater running and costing money was 59 F .

This is the view from the webcam at the moment:

This webcam is a IP camera, meaning that is connects and transmits without a computer connection, its directly connected to our network.  This is the best way to have a webcam, we got ours from ebay, for $40, its a cheapy, better ones are made by panasonic and linksys….here are some links in case you are interested in getting one:

The camera I have used in a previous job I had in florida, it was amazing for clarity and quality.

CNET CNTCIC-901L CAMERA Wired IP Camera w/Microphone

Some other choices I would recommend:

Wireless G Network Security IP Camera Webcam AIC250W

Linksys Wireless Internet Camera with Audio

Panasonic Wireless 802.11 b/g Network Camera and Pet Cam (BL-C30A)

TRENDnet Wireless Advanced Pan/Tilt Internet Camera Server

Well woke up to the as predicted snow this morning (its May 13!) Luckily we already had rigged up a heater in there, its a ceramic heater with a fan and built in thermostat. Its been good keeping the temperature at 60 degrees for the last couple of nights as the temps dropped to around 30 degrees. With no insulation the heater is turning on and off getting the temp up and then turning off for up to 20 minutes before it starts hits reheat.

Today though we also awoke to a power outage. But luckily the greenhouse was still warm with 50 degree on the thermometers inside it.

Here is what it looks like in the snow:

Just found that we are in Zone 5a, this was from the USDA website, meaning our annual minimum temperature is from -15F to -20F .

Usda Plant Hardiness Zone Map

8 Months of Color for USDA hardiness zones 4, 5, 6 & 7