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!


10 comments:

  1. I just never take my plant shelves down. In fact the room they are in is called the nursery. It freaked my MIL out the first time we called it that. Joel and I got a good laugh but we finally told her it was a PLANT nursery.

    I hope Annie gets better.

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    1. Daphne, I think this might end up being the permanent place for the shelves, although I did kind of like having them out on the patio last spring/summer. Maybe I'll just buy another one to leave out there, too. One can't have too many plant shelves, LOL!

      Annie is fine as long as we have her on Rimadyl, but her vet doesn't want her on it long term. If she suffers like she did for two weeks before he put her on it, I'd rather take my chances of having her life shortened but happy and pain free. We love her too much to see her suffer like that. Even my kids were coming over or calling daily to check on her, she was that bad.

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    2. She is only six and has arthritis? Ouch. I had one of my dogs on some glucosamine supplement from my vet too when he had arthritis (and liver flavored so it was easy to feed him). It did seem to help a lot. Though we did have to put him on pain pills too when he got bad enough.

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    3. We had to put Annie on those liver flavored glucosamine tabs when she was a year old. She began having episodes of limping very young. Right after Christmas she began holding her head down and tipped slightly to the side and actually dragged her face on the ground as she walked. She walked really slow and couldn't even go down the two patio steps. She refused to eat or drink. That first day, she tried to get to the door to go outside and couldn't make it. She just laid down in front of the door and peed all over herself. It was that bad. We got her to the vet and he gave her an injection for inflammation, did bloodwork and a checkup. An hour after the injection she was almost normal. Two days later she was dragging again, so I started her on the Rimadyl. Tomorrow I'm cutting her back to 1/2 dose for a few days and we'll see how it goes from there.

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  2. wow you sure got a lot done!! I hope you are taking a nice rest today :)

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    1. Oh, no Mrs. P.! I have to keep working while the "engine" is hot! Actually, I can't think of anything that needs to get done today, so I guess I'll just do nothing. Oh, maybe clean the bathrooms or something :-)

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  3. Replies
    1. She sure is, John! It makes it so much easier for her, we're thinking of making a couple of smaller ramps. One for the two steps up/down on the patio and one to keep in the garage so she can get into the back seat of the car. We took her to town with us yesterday, but Mr. Granny made her yelp when he lifted her out of the car, so I said "no more rides" unless she gets a ramp.

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  4. Poor Annie! Miss Banana passed away suddenly a few days before Christmas. But, Nunzio sure is giving us lots of love! He is 10 lbs now and is only 9 months old.

    I've got my seed orders placed, new spreadsheet for the year complete and will have to get the basement straightened out soon! If you get bored, you can always come out here and help me out a bit! luv u

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    1. Robin, I know you must miss Miss Banana terribly. I'd be devastated if I lost Annie. She's only 6 years old.......today!

      I wish I could come help you. I miss you!

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