12:02 PM [31 Mar 2007 | Saturday] |
Time to Assemble the Greenhouse |
Today I have finally opened the box for my greenhouse. It is an 8’ X 8’ Geminator Collapsable Greenhouse my wife ordered from Johhny’s. The box weighed in at 54 lbs and has been sitting in my basement unopened for about two weeks with me tripping over it and moving it around. Every time I moved it the sound of hardware would cascade through the box so I just left it where it was until I had time to do something about it. Well the sun is shining, it’s in the low 50’s F and our seedlings are starting to pile up here in the basement and it’s getting very crowded, so I decided the monstrosity has to be assembled. My wife is also dropping subtle hints like, “When are you going to put that greenhouse together?”
This is a replacement for our former greenhouse, a smaller model (can't remember what kind) that we have been using since 1998. It was a collapsable model as well and did a hell of a job. Unfortunately mice got into it’s plastic coating about two years ago and it’s been downhill for it ever since. Duct tape filled in the holes but then the cloth around the zipper front door deteriorated and eventually you just couldn’t close it. Duct tape (the miracle worker) only can do so much. And when the door doesn’t close the whole thing fills with wasps and flies and at night a skunk can wander and spray, it can be a disaster. Also the duct tape isn’t exactly aesthetically pleasing. Maybe one or two patches but this thing was starting to look like piece of garbage.
“Want me to throw that piece of garbage away for you?”
“Oh no, that’s my greenhouse! Let me just tear off another foot of this battleship gray tape. Voila! Like magic.”
So I opened the box. Turns out the bags they put the screws, wing nuts etc. in are made of something with the structural integrity of a wonton skin and all that stuff was just rolling around in there helter skelter. I knew I had to bag and account for all the little precious pieces of hardware myself. I grabbed a box of food storage bags, got out the instructions and miracle of miracles all the hardware was present and accounted for.
Next I had to inventory the frame parts, 62 pieces in all (an estimate) which go in bundles of 2 to 6. I’m no carpenter so I’m an old hand at putting stuff like this together, part A goes to part B. I identified every piece and bundled them together with garden twine I bought about six years ago (you wouldn’t believe how much garden twine I have lying around). Now what I’ll do with the twine afterwards is stick it on my fence post and let the birds make nests with it. The cedar waxwings get a big kick out of that.
Now all parts and pieces sit on my basement floor neat, bundled, all accounted for and I for one am bushed. It's getting late so I think it's time to call it a day. I’ll have some refreshments and make the final ascent later. We still have to figure out where we’re going to put it.
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Mood: hopeful
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