Thursday, December 14, 2006

Moving a greenhouse

I spent Monday and Tuesday dismantling the annual house, piece by piece--60 six foot rails, 48 side pieces to hold the 48 sliding plexiglass panels (each panel required removing 6 wing-nuts), and endless chunks of re-usable serpentine wire that holds the plastic on to the frame....but DAMN, a structure like that is a marvel of engineering! You can tell every piece was thought out and improved over and over to make it work just right. There's hope for humanity after all...lol

And, YES, I did it by myself because the guys were preparing the space it was going, out front...a small matter of taking a tree down, removing old mulch and landscaping fabric, leveling and hauling in loads of class II and tamping it flat and solid...and THEN laying fresh landscaping fabric for the floor of the greenhouse. We moved three of the struts last night, and assembled the WHOLE rest of it today. Amazing what three people can do.

Here's something really cool:

Yesterday, I was at the point of loosening the last of the plastic covering. I had 99% free and was working on the far end, standing on a ladder...and thinking that I'd have to get one of the guys to help me pull the roof off (we're talking 1600 square feet of heavy-duty poly)--when a gust of wind came along and--slow-mo--lifted it into the air and nicely curled it off to the side! It was sooo beautiful to watch from above... a flurry of snow and ice chips popped off the plastic with the wind, so it seemed even more like a miracle...lol...and it sparkled in the sun, just like GLITTER!






See? The poly's gone--and it's ready to be moved strut by strut....


...to the front of the store. All that's left now is to put new poly on top, stake it down, landscape around it....and it's ready for spring!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Catching up here...

So, I just read somewhere that 18% of blog posts start with the word "So"...(they probably counted one or two of those posts right here on EF, hmm?)
What's been happening in my little Assistant Managers' life lately, you ask?

Lots! We "put away" the trees and plants for the winter last week--which involves taking all the perennials and covering them with straw and plastic:





LOL...what looks like a HUGE pile isn't really...compare it to the size of those cement blocks. It took us all day, and it was a fascinating process. Besides, it'll be like Christmas when we open it again in the spring.

Now that the grounds' more or less frozen, we're officially into our "off" season. Does this mean we'll spend our days in the Studio planning and thinking? Not so far...we have a greenhouse to move first.

Starting tomorrow.

It's the house with all the pots and fountains in it right now...(we'll start by moving 'em all to the perennial house for the rest of the winter)...but the IDEA of changing whole buildings around tickles me no end! The sibs will remember my joy in switching the furniture around at home when we were kids--somehow, it all seems new again--and moving the greenhouse will change the traffic pattern in the store and present WILD new opportunities for merchandising. I can hardly wait!

(But I have to say: Thank Gawd for flannel lined work pants!)

Oh, I suppose you want an update on the grandaughter, too, huh?

Her mom and dad had a party on the 2nd of December, and KQ was the centerpiece as far as I was concerned...lol She spent time gazing at all the people and glitter from the safety of J or B's arms, and sometimes my lap. Those huge brown eyes and tiny fingers seemed to prefer the sparkly button on my dress...lol

(HOORAY!! SHE LOVES GLITTER!!!)

Eventually, B asked me to take her to her room so she could safely crawl around for awhile (and frankly, I needed the quiet, too, by then...) Before long, Mog and E joined us, and KQ began to empty her sock drawer and the bookcase. Of COURSE we let her!

"Here, Sweetie, how 'bout these tights? They'll be FUN to throw!"

Can you believe she's 9 months old already? She's working on walking, and if she's anything like her dad, she'll find that walking's WAY too slow when she could be running...lol

We adults exchanged names for Christmas, but I have a feeling there'll be a small mountain of stuff for KQ to open....especially if it comes in boxes that look like drawers...

Sunday, December 03, 2006

If you like jigsaw puzzles...

This is cool: try to finish a puzzle with who ever else happens to be on the site right now...click JIGSAW and join the game!