I've recently been giving some thought to using Hoop houses to grow veggies year round and came across these pdf's that i thought i'd share... http://www.hightunnels.org/PDF/Hoop_House_Construction_for_New_Mexico.pdf http://www.hightunnels.org/PDF/How_to_Build_a_High_Tunnel_Ferguson_Univeristy_of_Kentucky.pdf http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/em015/em015.pdf http://www.kerrcenter.com/pdf/hoophouse-howto.pdf http://www.plamondon.com/hoophouse.pdf various building types from PVC to cattle panel fencing... enjoy and good luck
You might want to check out Elliot Coleman. He does this in Maine on a very successful level. He has multiple books out on the subject. The most well known is "Four Season Harvest".
They kind of look like mini Quonset huts, sans the corrugated iron. Looks like they would be a cheap and easy to erect construct that could be used as emergency accomodation.
I am in the process of putting up a 20'X24' hoop house. I am the third owner but it came at a decent price. I'll have to put a bit into it on hardware and new plastic. The plastic is only good for about five years. Check out Michigan State University hoop house information. They have quite a program including a downloadable crop rotation plan for year round. Don't forget to open you hoopty up for pollenators else you get squat.
A few more thoughts. There are volunteer groups putting up hoop houses for small local farmers in SE Michigan area. If you volunteer for the day you come away with enough practical knowledge to pursue the project yourself. Knowledge is power. Search on Selma Cafe and/or Tillians (if I remember correctly). Search around a bit. Anyway the program builds a hoopty or two each month of the Spring and Summer.
i seen a family once make a quanzo hut out of a trampoline or 2 and it looked great ... just take a trampoline or 2 and cut the circle in two stand them up on end and secure them some how brace them up and put a top on it !!!!
