January 15, 2014 - Spring Prep Continues

For the past two years I've set up my seedling growing shelves in the bedroom, in front of the window.  This year I had to find another place for it.  My little Annie dog has not been well, and it is very difficult for her to jump onto her step stool and onto the bed, so Son John made her a carpet covered ramp.  It works great for her, and now I don't have to worry that she'll hurt herself by jumping, but it does take up a good amount of room.  That would normally not be a problem, but it would be a really tight fit to try to get the grow shelves set up there.  I don't think there would be room to squeeze through to make the bed.

This is where the shelves went before Annie's ramp was added to the left side of the bed.

Now Annie's ramp takes precedence.

There just wasn't another place in this house where I could set up those grow shelves.  Except.....the laundry room!  I had to get Mr. Granny to help me move the freezer out to the garage, and in its place I set up the shelves.

 And here they are!  

Boy, was that a job.  Empty the freezer, move the freezer out to the garage, carry all the frozen food out and put it back in the freezer, move all the butternut squash off of the shelves, move the shelves from the garage to the laundry room, clean the floor where the freezer had been sitting, take down the little wall shelf that was above the freezer, set up the shelves, spend an entire afternoon adjusting shelves to get them just right, pull the four shop lights out from under the bed where they'd been stored all summer and winter, wipe the dust from the shelves and the lights, run to Walmart for "S" hooks to hang lights because I couldn't find where I put the ones from last year, go to the shed and look for a chain to hang the lights because one was missing, go back to the shed for another chain because I can't count, hang the lights, start putting things on the shelves, zip tie a rope light to a shelf for keeping seeds warm, zip tie all the dangling cords together, find a power strip to plug them into, cut a piece of plastic to fit the bottom shelf so I can slide my breadmaker in easily (for storage, not baking).

 The top shelf now holds my seeds and seed starting thingies, along with egg shells that are drying.

 The next two shelves have the four shop lights and lots of room for seedling flats.

 The next shelf has the rope light for keeping seeds warm until they germinate.  It should have two rope lights to cover the entire shelf, but one of them was dead, so I'm going to try to get by with just one.  I also have an old heating pad I can use if needed.

 The bottom shelf is covered with a sheet of rigid plastic, the only place I have to keep my breadmaker stored when I'm not using it.  There's plenty of room for stacking the rest of the containers that I'll be needing for seed starting.

The seed starting shelves looked so neat and tidy, I thought I'd tackle the shelf over the washer and dryer, where I keep all the cleaning supplies and miscellaneous items.  Back to Walmart for three plastic containers to hold all the liquids.  That cleared up enough room for a box of light bulbs, the ice cream maker (that may get moved to the shelf with the breadmaker) and our family party supplies...paper plates, napkins, plastic cutlery and plastic cups.

 The shelves that hold the laundry supplies and cleaning rags had to be moved across the room, but  luckily it fit just perfect there.  This is where I did have my mop, broom and step stool hanging, so the mop and broom went into the hall closet with the vacuum cleaner, and the step stool was tucked away neatly behind the seed starting shelves.

Oh.......see what I spotted today!  I have a ripe Happy Yummy sweet pepper that I'll be picking to add to my salad tomorrow.  It will be my first harvest of 2014!