Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 7 · column 2 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
liked the idea. Slowly, with a lot of help from Mrs. Antony’s dad, the conversion took place. Where the tractor bay had been, a living room appeared. Windows become doors and doors became windows. At about that time the Antonys got the real break they needed: Mr. Antony got a job about 35 miles from the nursery. The family sold their house in Maryland in 1985 and moved into their renovated “three-stall barn.”
They next focused on reducing the labor required each spring to mix their growing media, fill the containers and plant the rooted cuttings. Although soil mixing and potting machines were available, they were quite expensive and well beyond the reach of this fledgling business.
Mr. Antony’s youngest sister, Annette, recommended that what they needed was a real “production line.” Mr. Antony immediately developed a multi-year plan to build such a production line.
A 40-year-old grain elevator was purchased nearby for $100. Mr. Antony’s 88-year-old grandfather constructed a four-foot diameter mixing drum to add to the line.
Slowly, year-by-year, Mr. Antony, a Rube Goldberg devotee, put together a production line made up of old furnace blower motors, used washing machine and sewing machine parts, a second used grain elevator and even a few new parts.
The production line now consists of four basic positions. Mr. Antony became “dirt man” and works the soil making part of the line during his annual “vacation” in May.
At the second position (the dibble positon), an operator places a plastic pot below a chute, presses a foot
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