What? Was it Boxing Day?

It was time to make a change.  We've been using florescent bulbs for a very long time in our plant starting area and, as most of you probably know, those bulbs dim and burn out over time.  In addition to that, some of the fixtures we have been using are showing their age and are less reliable than they once were.  So, we needed to secure new lighting for the 2023 growing season if we want to start some plants for the farm this year.

Well, after Tammy went about seeking information and recommendations, we decided to make the move to some LED lighting.  Our friends at Blue Gate Farm mentioned some LED tube lighting that would not require new fixtures and could be "daisy-chained" for the power connections - perfect for situations where the number of plugins could be at a premium. 

And, here is the top of one of the long (four foot) boxes we received when our order arrived.

Now, let me make this as clear as I can.  This is the top of the long, thin box (about 4' x 1') that says "fixture" on it in the first photo of this blog.  Inside of that box are TWO boxes.  Inside each of those boxes are SIX LED fixtures.  So, each long box has twelve "integrated fixtures" for our use.

See... here's the end of one of the boxes that was inside of the long box so you can see the ends of six fixtures.

So, you might ask (and rightly so) why this is worthy of a blog - unless I were to now give a review of the product?  

Well, this blog has nothing to do with the product and more to do with the packaging.

Do you remember I said the long box had two boxes in it?  And, there were twelve fixtures total in one long box?  Well we ordered 48 fixtures, so you might expect that these might come in four long boxes, right?

Wrong!

One of the long boxes came all by itself.  A single 1 foot by 4 foot by about 9 inch package delivered as you see it by UPS. Each of the other boxes of that size were placed in a much BIGGER and WIDER box (about 4' x 3' x 1').  Now, that might make sense, I suppose if the three long boxes were packed together into one of those wider boxes, right?

Wrong again!

In this case, each long box was packed into a single, wider box all by itself. That means we got three REALLY BIG, long and wide boxes.  Inside each of those was ONE long box.  Inside of each long box were two more boxes and inside of each of those boxes were six LED fixtures.

It all reminded me of this:

And, oh yeah, there was some crumpled up paper kind of tossed into the really big boxes in a sad, and likely ineffective if there were a problem, attempt to provide extra padding.

We're just still trying to figure out exactly why it was packaged this way?  Maybe someone heard we were looking for more space to grow plants and they shipped it along with the lights?