Saturday, January 30, 2021

Zooming and Grow Lights

 Yesterday I delivered my first ever presentation via zoom, for the Thornbury Library.  It was on the waterfalls of the Beaver Valley and Owen Sound area.  We have one of the best collections of waterfalls in the whole province around here.  My talk was recorded by the only other participant, the technician at the library, and will eventually be made available on YouTube, once she's done all the editing.  It went well so I'm thinking of more things like that that I can do.

In the meantime, Mrs. F.G. ordered a set of shelves and some grow lights to go on them, so she can start some seeds.  She used to do this, and I made the original set of grow light shelves, a work of art at the time.  But technology has changed so these shelves will have fancy new LED lights.  Today I put them together with a bit of her help.  I was already half-way done when she took the first picture.

It took a little bit of figuring to decide which post and which clip fitted where, but in the end it went together remarkably well.

Of course that doesn't mean I got the shelves level on the first try.  I had to redo each level at least once!  And doing it in a wheelchair was just a little awkward at times.  Thank goodness I had my seatbelt on!

The little black clips looked fiddly and flimsy, but once they were pushed onto the poles they were secure, and once all levels were on the whole thing was secure.

Then we tried out the wiring to make sure Mrs. F.G. knew how to put it together when she got the whole thing downstairs.

It worked well, but with a really bright weird pink light which is presumably good for plants.

Mrs. F.G. took it downstairs easily (it was quite light and on casters so it could roll around) and got it set up with the lights and seed trays on the first two shelves - looks good.  We're having a rare and very cold sunny day outside.


15 comments:

  1. Well done! That pink light is not what I would have expected to stimulate plant growth, but whatever it takes. And I too am glad you had your seat belt on!

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  2. I've put a couple of units like that together as well. They are fiddly as #*&^. Now you have inspired me to try a rig like that for my garden starts.

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  3. Shelf together and ready for the seeds. Great idea, looking forward to the next steps ...
    I read all your posts and have enjoyed seeing the lakes from your lens over the past and present plus the wonderful back garden that overlooks the golf course and the drives you both share. Snow and wonderful ice scenes too
    Joy

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  4. Can't wait to see your Zoom presentation since I love waterfalls and have enjoyed your photos and blog posts about some of the waterfalls. Glad you got the shelves put together, usually the directions for things like that are terrible -- but H just bought a stationary bike and the directions and parts bags were the best I've ever seen. The color of those lights is rather garish,but plants apparently do very well in that color.

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  5. What a great thing to have. I don't understand pink lights but if it makes things grow fantastic.

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  6. Well I don't know who looks better, you or the shelf but that pink light really does set both of you off quite nicely. You have a lot more patience with that fiddly assembly stuff than I would have. And I think this is almost one of the firsts time we have seen the Furry Gnome all assembled as well:))

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  7. Great job! That is a wonderful germination/grow unit. I found that the closer the lights were to the seed tray the better germination I had and I also covered the seed trays with saran wrap. I just used mine for starting difficult to germinate seeds like Impatiens,,,they like it real cozy warm. Best of luck with your starts!!

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  8. What a great way to get seeds started, and Zoom, the new way to connect on the internet. Hope we get to see the You Tube video.

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  9. Great job at putting together those shelves, also nice to see your smiling face.

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  10. You have lots of plants according to the size of those shelves. Great job!

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  11. You have accumulated so much knowledge of the local area over the years it would be as shame not to record as much of that as possible so that others may enjoy it in the future. Now that the technology to do that is readily available, all it takes is time and the dedication to do that, and I believe you possess both of those.

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  12. Forgot to add: When the current project is complete and up on You Tube, please post a link so we can all access and enjoy it.

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  13. Keeping yourself busy with You-Tube videos and assembling Shelves for Mrs. FG. helps pass the time during your weather bound days.
    Never knew that about the Pink Lights.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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  14. It's great that you are doing videos for the library and by all means, post the YouTube link for us.
    I love the pictures of you working on the shelf unit. We don't see you often enough.
    Nice job with the lighting, Mrs. FG will be pleased to start with the seedlings. It's almost February!!

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  15. Well done! Both the presentation and the shelving. I did a presentation at the library prior to COVID. It was about publishing a book. One participant and the librarian! sigh.
    I must admit to be smiling at the end of this project shows you did pretty well! Good work!

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