We now have a polytunnel. There is a story behind this. We were at a farm auction when I realised that the pile of metal tube I was standing next to was a dismembered polytunnel frame. I don't think I was the only one to realise this and they are as a rule quite popular. The problem was that this one had the air of being bigger than usual. Still, no-one was bidding so i got stuck in and won it for £40, which is a bargain. I drove home and returned with our trailer. Which is a handy size because it's light enough to move around and yet has a double axle so it sits level, however, it's only 8 foot long, and each one of the curved frame sections I had just bought - 12 of them, was twice this length and each one of them was just one piece of the four sections needed to form each hoop. In the end we had to strap them on their backs pointing into the air and 'guyed' down, to keep them rigid. We drove home very slowly. In this way we got everything back in just two trips.  That must have been four years ago now. So it was a great feeling to get the frame up and coved with plastic sheeting. I made wooden door frames for it out of our ubiquitous fence rails and fixed them with builders band from screwfix. We, that is; Emma, me, Dan and Judith (our intrepid Woofers), covered the frames with hot spot tape, and then pulled the plastic sheet over the whole thing and buried it paying particular attention to pulling it very tight as this 'extends the life of the plastic' sadly it is now flapping about in the breeze. So whilst I am happy to have the polytunnel up the gentle swish of plastic is ameliorating my joy.  Me and Dan made the doors out of baton and strenghened the corners with triangles cut from plywood off cuts. We then stapled scaffolding netting on to these (from the internet) in order to allow a breeze through the tunnel whilst keeping the chickens out. Jon |