BruceC, you were wondering about a durable gloss white paint that could be used on treated lumber. I would like to suggest you try my trick. Buy a five gallon bucket of oil based white gloss barn and fence paint (available at most farm stores) and add a gallon of boiled linseed oil. The linseed oil will thin down the paint, and give you a good primer coat. Put on a couple of them if you have time, and then finish with a coat of Latex. The Latex will last a lot longer and will not peel off of the lumber. Too often folks put latex directly onto unprimed lumber and it fails. (I've even had it fail on "pre-primed" materials that I bought as "pre-primed".) Just remember the rule that Latex can go over Latex or oil base, but oil base can never go over Latex, and oil base must always coat raw wood before the Latex. There was also a question about lumber cupping and warping. The best suggestions I can give you on that are air circulation and moisture prevention. Birdwidow recommended setting your stack up off the floor on spacers (4x4's, or concrete blocks with 2x's across them) which will help you cut down on the lumber wicking moisture up from the bottom, also when you stack your lumber place "splinters" or "stickers" in between each layer of lumber. (Splinters or stickers are just one bys layed across each layer to help aid in air circulation). If you do this your lumber, stacked inside a weather tight building, will dry out a lot quicker. In fact down in Florida you ought to be able to dry out green (fresh cut) lumber within a year or two using this method, and have it test almost as dry as kiln dried. I am sure my advice might have those who disagree with me, but it comes from having a Father, a Grandfather, Uncles and god knows how many other relatives in the carpentry and lumbering industries. Plus the other good old fashioned way, try and fail on my own.

Just in case your tomatoes don't ripen, all is not lost. Here's a delicious recipe for your green tomatoes that made my mouth start to water just by writing it down. Green Tomato Salsa Recipe This would be just as good with sixteen tomatillos in place of the eight green tomatoes. This salsa has a rich, roasted flavor. Prep:30m Cook:60m Servings:6 Ingredients 1 Large Onion 3 Cloves Garlic 8 Green Tomatoes Olive Oil 2 Jalapenos Handful of Fresh Cilantro Sprigs Juice of 1 Lime Salt and pepper to taste Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put a little olive oil in two baking dishes. Leave the skin of the onion on. Slice it in half and put the onion in one baking dish, cut side down. Leave the peels on the garlic, but slice off the top quarter-inch of each clove. Put the garlic in aluminum foil, pour a little Olive oil over the cloves, and close the foil. Put it in the baking dish with the onions. Bake for an hour, until the cut edges of the onions are brown and carmelized, and the garlic is softened. Place the jalapenos and green tomatoes in the second dish, and bake for twenty minutes, until slightly softened. Remove from the oven and cool for about 20-30 minutes. When vegetables are cool enough to handle, remove the skins from the onions and garlic. Mince onions very fine. Dice the tomatoes into quarter-inch pieces. Remove stems from jalapenos, slice lengthwise, and remove the gills and most of the seeds. (More will make the salsa hotter). Coarsly chop about half the cilantro, reserving some for garnish. Combine all vegetable ingredients, squeezing the garlic from their skins. Gently fold salsa ingredients and lime juice together. Turn salsa into a pretty serving dish and add salt, pepper and lime juice to taste. Garnish with fresh cilantro.

I'm in zone 6 TN with even colder winters than you Texans. My house looks similar to the illustration except that below grade mine is good ol' Tennessee red clay rather than concrete, and the rafters are anchored directly to the ground. It was originally built as an experiment and considered temporary. I am in the process of making it permanent. Current dimensions are 14'x26', 9' at the ridge and 4' at the sides. The ground it sets on slopes, so the back end is 5' below grade and the front is 3.5' below grade. I am in the process of deepening and berming, and eventually it will be 6-8' below grade with a slightly sloping flat roof 6-8' above grade with headroom of 12-14'. I use it to overwinter a collection of palms and camellias and a few other plants that will not live outside over a TN winter without protection. Since having the greenhouse, our temps have been zone 7, most years falling to around 5F a few times. Most nights are in the 20'sF. I heat with a home type kero heater only when I think temps inside will drop below freezing. This has been 6-8 times per winter and costs per winter have been less than $100 with kero at $3.50 per gallon. Generally I think about heat when the temps fall to 15F. Depending on the weather, inside temps are usually 10-20F above outside. It has not been tested at negative numbers, and I will probably get another heater as a help when the inevitable happens. Our record low here has been -28F in '85, but I have seen temps in the negative teens several times since I have lived here (26 years) and expect to see temps like that again. I remove all plants around the end of April. I probably could do it earlier, but I am subject to late spring freezes and most stuff is in soft growth so I wait. Fall is usually friendlier and most stuff comes in by mid Nov. I use a residential type attic fan for ventilation, and that works well in all but summer. In summer with the fan going, temps stay about 15F above outside. The highest inside I've seen is 115F, generally 105-110F most sunny summer days. Water is a problem, and I will install a sump pump this fall. This past winter the greenhouse flooded at least 4 times. I am able to syphon the water so no harm done but it's a PITA. Dampness is rampant, especially with low inside temps and cloudy winter days. It does not affect my woody stuff, but I am unable to grow anything herbaceous like pansies. They melt from Botrytis. I keep a box fan mounted up high going 24/7. Currently I have electric run on the ground from my house which is 50' away, and drag a hose in for water. Eventually I will install 4" Schedule 40 from my basement and run electric, water, and hopefully gas to the greenhouse. I hope this info helps. I have no experience in zone 8a. I think my main concern would be winter wet. Ken

Hmmm.........does she live there? Well, she's there a lot. She's about 6 foot long, a baby..lol. The only problem with her was a while ago .....she drug a dead pig (wild bore) up there ......and ........well, the smell went away after a while LOL. The United States Gov. owns the river swamp (thank God), it's working alive with Game Wardens and they don't play. They haul you straight to jail for "harassing" those animals. That's why I don't even be back in there moving dead pigs around...LOL.............. Would she eat pets? You BETYA!!! In a New York minute! We have very strong fences here with very small mesh (keeps them out, my little dogs in) and I am double fenced from the swamp. I've had very tiny turtles hatch back there, get confused and crawl into my Koi pond on my patio. I have a net to dip them out and haul them down to the river. You look a little panicked there MH...LOL. I was born here, lived right here most of my life and it's part of life really. You learn about the danger, what to do, not to do, how , why, when and where. You grow a healthy RESPECT for - Mother Nature. I'm glad she's there, her and all of her swamp mates . ......I don't know, the swamp is a wonderful, beautiful, magical place. Being here, there ........maybe all is not well with the world, but at least for this river swamp things are still ...OK........ Have you figured out??? Pat got a new camera.......lol.........to many buttons........I'm confused.........refuse to read instructions.....