Moving into an old greenhouse!

Slippertalk Orchid Forum

Help Support Slippertalk Orchid Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Chris,
I really enjoy your report, learning by doing and feeling alive,
well done, Gina
 
Well, yesterday was another very busy day with ladder, long pole roller, greenhouse whitewash, struggles with impeding objects underfoot on one side where a nursery of someone else's is located. I had a fall that initially made me decide to swear off ladders but that today I think can simply be instructive...live and learn. Only surface abrasions, thank goodness.
Glad of that, Chris.

I feel very unsteady on ladders. I had to use a 3-step ladder today, and it felt like I was 20 feet high with no support! :eek:
 
Thanks, all! Got big bruises by today and my right wrist and hand look a bit odd, but I feel pretty good. I've hired my nurseryman neighbor to finish the job with me on Monday. Should work out well. He's getting to be a good friend, and his 7, 11, and 13 yr. old kids are really delightful (I'm engaging the little boy when I can to inspect things with me in the greenhouse. He's very quiet, intelligent, and his father reports that he says "there are so many beautiful flowers in there!" He also is learning about insects with me. Fun to have kids around periodically. My own son is long since an adult!
 
I'm fine! The bruises don't signal any serious issues. They are simple bruises. My mobility isn't impaired at all. I'm really lucky! Today I'm back to whitewashing, but with Ruben, the neighbor nurseryman to do the ladder work.
I'm just mixing and directing him. Now I'm thinking of getting a sprayer - that seems a safer way to do this. Any suggestions from anyone? I understand it can be done with a simple pump sprayer, but that seems like a lot of pumping for a greenhouse this size. Maybe a small home electric paint sprayer?
 
Glad to hear you're on the mend, Chris! Maybe one of those Wagner power sprayers would be the way to go. I dunno. I've never used one. I use a good ol' fashioned paint roller and extension pole to periodically put whitewash onto the roof of my greenhouse. Reminds me, I need to do that again.
 
These projects leave lots of battle wounds. I've been working on g.h. #2 and you should see all the bumps and bruises I'm carrying around with me. Glad it's nothing serious.
 
Glad to here your Okay Chris. Ive seen some bad things happen when people fall off ladders.
 
Yeah! I was really fortunate. My own Dad many years ago shattered both his legs badly and was hospitalized and in traction when he was sent home. He limped for the rest of his life. He had tried to jump off a falling ladder and landed straight- legged, jamming all his bones. Terrible. I've had a healthy respect for the mix of ladders with inexpertise all my life, and simply got too hurried over this project. It won't happen again!!!
Today the job got completed and I took most of the shadecloth down. Gotta be there really early tomorrow to keep track of the babies and their needs!
 
Thanks! I'm feeling pretty good at this point, though the aches and pains are still a bit with me. However, yesterday I hauled an entire collection of plants with their wonderful donor from his Oakland small greenhouse to mine in Daly City. Two trips in my Honda hatchback. I do need a van! We managed to bring over around a hundred varied plants, about half of which are mounted, so I now need to rig mounting structures in
several areas of my greenhouse. How worried to I need to be about viral contamination? I never have had a large number of mounts like this, so I've always been able to keep the mounted plants from dripping on any other plants. Help!
 
Incidentally, the greenhouse is now practically full! I can't believe it. 1500 sq ft! And it looked so big! And the collection is far more varied than I ever really expected, too, since this new collection is the brainchild of a different individual. Lots of rarities, cool stuff, from various nurseries and individual collectors he knows. He's going back to school and sold some plants but gave me most. What an incredible gift! He's a friend of several years but I never would have expected anything like this. We had just talked a few weeks ago about my being an emergency home for the plants if he suddenly had to move and couldn't move the greenhouse....
 
Chris,

Why don't you ask Marni Turkel about mounted orchids? She grows quite a few of them as I understand it. She's up in Santa Rosa.

Best Regards,
Nik
 
Back
Top