Mike, it got even worse (a record for Las Cruces.) El Paso Electric Co lost two generators early Wed so we're still having rolling brownouts. Fortunately for my greenhouse they didn't cut our power after 10PM last night. At 2:30AM the Wunderground website showed -6.4F for my neighborhood. By dawn my two 1500 watt heaters running full out were still able to hold my GH at 37F. I keep it at 45F so expected some damage. Was able to free the frozen-shut sliding doors this morning, no losses! I had loaded about 15 of my largest succulents into the living room the day before, thank goodness since some of them would not have taken 37F. When I calculated my heat need for this 10x12 polycarb GH I did not consider -6F degrees! Dodged a bullet as long as we don't lose major power tonight. They are predicting 4F for a low. That seems like a heat wave after last night. We only got 4" of snow with this, and are not pros at handling these temps like most of you. I slept with my sneakers, jeans, and long johns on last night, ready to leap into action to save what plants I could! Who knew having a greenhouse in southern NM could be so hair-raising. I hope you are all doing OK and staying safe and warm. Sheri

trigger: I'll be in/out of the GH no later than 8 am, and no earlier than 10 pm, many hours after the sun has gone down. Please understand, that what works in your climate doesn't, up here. When a strong Canadian front comes whipping down and across our flat Illinois cornfields, it can drop our temps from a balmy +40, to -10, in hours, then settle in for 0 to +10 deg. days that can linger. My first winter with my GH will be as much experimental as for intended use, and while I'll have tanks out there, it isn't won't be fish at first, just plants. If an aquatic plant dies down to it's roots, it will come back, but once a fish bellies up, it's premanently dead. Nevertheless, I have learned so much from communicating with so many different people here on the GH Forum, and as result, believe I've avoided many mistakes that would have been impossible to mitigate without tearing it all down and starting over; a dreadful thought. Which makes me wonder how many backyard GH's have been abandonded, simply because their owners didn't have access to so many different ideas and experiences, from so many others who have made their own mistakes, learned from them, and have come here, to share their knowledge. I really am, very, VERY grateful.

After looking at my situation I decided to just keep my pool cover on my green house all Summer. Here is why: The Green house temp was 120+ even with both exhaust fans going. Nothing can grow at that temp. I did figure out a way to role up one side of my green house to help cool it next summer. Plus I am thinking of adding a mist system to help cool it down. When it comes to Winter, I just purchase a pool cover that is 14x28 which is enough to cover both ends of the green house which was not covered last Winter. Since the Winters here in Ga. are mostly cloudy I will add some supplemental lighting so that the plants can grow in the winter. There are some HIGH Lumen CFL on the market at this time. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Hans

No landscaping yet, the only changes since the last pics in our photobucket album have been the finish added to the slide (no more blue slide) and the autocover installed. We went with the salt water chlorinator and within a week it was eating away at the leading edge bar of the autocover. Something about the bar being negatively charged and the salt water being positively charged (or the other way around). We took the bar off to get powder coated so we can't use the cover right now and I didn't get any good pics of it while it was working. When we get it back on next week I will get some new pics uploaded. I've been swamped with work (by choice, the new payments because of the pool have become reality) and I haven't had much time to read all the posts. Maybe this winter when work slows down and this forum isn't moving so fast I'll get somewhat caught up on reading threads. -AL P.S. Carol, I'm glad you're still around too. :)