On a sunny day in winter, the greenhouse warms up to 80' with 110' up in the rafters.  It would be nice to take advantage of that "free" heat to warm the house.  The house is 100ft away from the greenhouse.

I removed the 1ft high shelf in the north greenhouse bay to allow access to the floor blocks at the north side.  After setting all the full size floor blocks last spring, I left these edge blocks for setting during the winter.  It's time.

I cut a couple floor blocks for the greenhouse and set them in place.  The ground was frozen, so I couldn't set them at the proper level.

I removed the center section of shelving from the south bay of the greenhouse.  This will be the walkway to the greenhouse addition.  I put down plastic sheeting to cover the ground for the addition.  Hopefully this will help it keep dry and allow it to thaw out quickly.

At the time most of the major religions were forming, the people of the day thought that the Gods were acting directly to cause many of the natural phenomenon - everything from the changing seasons, to lightning, earthquakes, and volcanoes.  In addition to earthly matters, the ancients wrote about what they saw in the sky.  The concept of a Heaven is reflected in our current use of the the term "the heavens" (in ancient times, it was believed each bright point of light seen at night was the soul of a dead person).  Today, we give a lighthearted view of Roman and Greek mythology, but the people of the day believed all those legends as much as we hold dear the major religions now.  Today, we understand astronomy and earth science far better than the folks back a couple thousand years, however, the religious texts have not been changed at all.  I think the people "in charge" of each religion are missing an opportunity here.

Probably, the easiest place to illustrate the problem is in the Bible.  It starts with Genesis which describes the 7 days of creation, Adam and Eve, etc.  The problem arises in that our young people are being taught about plate tectonics, evolution, and astronomy with our current understanding of science and technology (as our understanding changes - the training our young people get is changing in step).  They pick up a Bible and in the very first chapter, they read something they believe is untrue - or at least is outdated for what we know today.  Given that as a start, why read any further?

While we can debate at length what passages in a given religious text are accurate and which are not - I think a central issue is that each of the ancient religious texts as a whole encourages a way of life including all sorts of positive attributes  - sharing, caring, doing good things, etc.  The problem is that the young folks can't get beyond the first chapters - so they reject the whole work - and miss out on the valuable encouragement for a life of positive attributes.  I think we have transitioned from a generation who accepted religions at face value without question, to a generation who questioned what the major religions were preaching, to the current generation who rejects the major religions entirely.  Without SOMETHING to believe in, the current generation seems to be rather lost - without a source of guidance toward positive values or the importance to consider the "Big Picture" (ancestors, future generations, other people of today, our place in the history of our civilization).

I think every hundred years or so (maybe every 500 or even 1,000) the major religions should issue an addenda to their major texts that describes how to interpret their ancient words in the context of our current understanding of science and technology.   That way, an attempt could be made to explain Genesis in the context of the Big Bang theory, plate tectonics, and evolution.  Without regular updates, the ancient religious texts become more and more relics - more and more like the Greek and Roman mythologies - more and more rejected by the young people of the world.   Personally, I doubt that the major religions could undertake any form of updates - much like the ancient beliefs in an unchanging universe, the entrenched leadership will hold dearly to only what has been passed down through generations - suggesting there is anything inadequate in what their ancient texts say would be far too Copernican.

Perhaps the void of a religion which incorporates ancient values along with a modern understanding of science and technology will in itself be a catalyst to form a new "religion."   I think anything new would focus far more on interpersonal understanding and taking actions to make positive changes and far less on rituals.  The reasons we have the major religions we have today is that in their time, they filled a void which the people of the day seemed to need.  Maybe we're at that point again.