The UPS Guy Should Wear a Santa Hat.

I have thought this for a long time.  I've even told him so, since it always feels like Christmas when he brings me stuff.  He has been especially generous recently. 

 

 

I came home on Friday afternoon and found this.  It's my rose order from Pickering Nursery in Canada. 

 

 

They're very well packaged.  (For some reason, I always unpack things in the kitchen.) 

The roses are nice and green and healthy looking, ready to go into the garden ... as soon as it stops raining. For now, they're soaking in a bucket in the garage.

Today, my daughter comes in and says, "Mom, there's a huge box on the front porch for you."

 

 

This one is even better than Friday's box of roses!!  I've been searching for one of these since last year.  I drag my prize into the house, and to the kitchen to unpack it.

Daniel said, "Is there anything in that box for me, Mom?"

Can you tell what it is yet?

It's a Mantis Spray Mate sprayer!!

This wonderful contraption will make maintaining the roses so much less time-consuming from now on. One of the biggest chores of spray day for me has been continually refilling my 3-gallon sprayer, to get all 700+ roses sprayed.  This new sprayer will hold up to 12 gallons ... which will seriously reduce the amount of time it takes to spray.

Here it is all assembled!!

Mantis doesn't make this sprayer anymore, so I had to search the second-hand market to find it.  One afternoon a couple of weeks ago, I found the ad for this sprayer on Craig's List in Maine.  I emailed the seller ... and the rest is history.  I'm so excited!!!