G&S Nursery Fall 2015 Newsletter

’S
Insider
WINTER 2015
A GROWING
BUSINESS
PREPARED ESPECIALLY FOR
WHAT’S INSIDE | THIS ISSUE
WWW.GSNURSERY.COM
386.754.0161
YOUTUBE STARS AND FANS
BILLY LOOKS UP
INTRODUCING SANTY LACEY

Message Saying to My Good-Bye Astronaut Dad to 2015
Greetings friends!
We stand once again at the crossroads of another year; the
inevitable moment when we look back and reflect on all
that has happened in the last 12 months, followed by a look
forward with every intention of charting an ambitious course
for the future. As I write, I feel a little sheepish because I realize
that this is the same thing everyone writes at this time of
year. But I think being original sometimes needs to take a
back seat to marking the passing of another year. These are
important milestones that nudge us to look up from all the
day-to-day tasks that occupy our thoughts and allow us to
see if we’re headed in the right direction.
G&S Nursery is now 21 years old. We
started with a $300 investment made by a young man named
Gabriel Curry, who had just gotten married while still in his
teens. He and his bride Betsy received some cash as a
wedding gift and Gabriel decided to devote a portion of that
money towards nursery supplies and some liriope, which
he divided and grew out for sale to landscapers. He kept
reinvesting his profits back into his plants, and before too
long he had earned the respect of his father-in-law Scott Stewart,
who pitched in some land and some capital, and the two became the G and the S of
G&S.
Curry
We’ve been through some boom times and some lean times. Four years ago, we
were holding on for dear life while the nursery business and the economy in general
was driving many good nurseries out of business. But we held on, by the grace of
God.
Things are better now. We’re very grateful for the return to normalcy that many of
our clients are enjoying as well as the new clients that have found us in the last year.
We’re also grateful for our great staff of hard-working people. Billy treated us to
Scenes from a cookout:
Clockwise from top: Grillmaster Billy at the Weber kettle; Gabriel
goes through the line; Felix, Moises, and the others enjoy their
lunch.
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his annual cookout on the day before Thanksgiving, grilling up hamburgers on his
Weber kettle for all the nursery workers and anyone else who lends their help to our
operation. Co-owner Gabriel Curry dropped by as did our accountant, retired driver
Charlie Morris, and a few others. Some even stayed after the meal for a soccer
game that was surprisingly athletic, considering the amount of food all the players
had just eaten!
To Your Success!
Zack Kirsch
General Manager
G&S Nursery
kout:
abriel
y their
lunch.
3

Meet the most unlikely
YouTube Star of the Year!
There are fans of YouTube and there
are stars of YouTube. This is the
story of a fan who is the star of its
own YouTube video.
Believe it or not, this box fan, which
was purchased for less than $10, is
the star of a series of videos which
have been viewed more than 2 million
times on YouTube!
The fan is captured spinning its
blades in an 8-hour video called
Sounds of a Box Fan 8hrs “Sleep
Sounds.” Its sequel, entitled Box
Fan at Low Speed 60mins “Sleep
Sounds” has yet to attain the cult
following of the original, but that
may be because the sequel really
is just a condensed version of the
original with no new plot twists or
even a change in the camera angle.
The 8-hour video is shot in highdefinition
quality, but what attracts
viewers from all over the world is
not the cinematography so much
as the soundtrack, which is essentially
a high-quality recording of the
unembroidered drone of a box fan.
If you have read this far waiting to
get to the punchline of the joke,
there is no punchline. This video
that has been viewed more than
two million times is exactly what it
advertises itself to be: 8 uninterrupted
hours of a box fan droning along.
The video has a very appreciative
audience that tends to fall into three
categories:
• People who have trouble sleeping
• People with a fussy infant
• People who need to tune out
noise to study or work
The creator of the the videos, Lindsay
O’Connor, is a high-school dropout
who spent many years in the home
remodeling business, doing well
financially but finding no passion in
his work.
After 35 years in a job he didn’t like,
he started to pursue his interests,
which were photography and Yoga.
With no experience in computers or
digital photography, he started out
very slowly around 2008 and through
much frustration, he finally got to
the point where he was able to post
a few yoga and relaxation videos
online.
One of his early efforts—a video of
rain from inside his parked car—elicited
a letter from a grateful mom who
wrote to tell him the video put her
difficult baby right to sleep.
“Something clicked,” O’Connor said.
“I started making more and more
sleep videos.”
The rest is YouTube history.
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!
O’Connor, whose user names are
YogaDuke and TexasHighDef, was
eventually tapped by Google developers
to sit on an “external experts”
group to improve YouTube. “I was
one of 12 they selected for that first
experts group,” O’Connor said.
“What are the crazy odd of that?”
He says he gets 50,000 hits a day on
his channel and the average retention
time is 30 minutes. The revenue he
gets from the views allows him to invest
in more equipment and improve
the quality of his videos.
The comments on his YouTube pages
are a mixture of grateful viewers and
comedic remarks. A typical example
is a commenter named Super Kyle,
who wrote, “I fell asleep to this in
5 min but next morning my papers
were scattered all over the room.”
YouTube Sensation
This story uses material from AAbaco Small Business article An Entrepeneur
Who Found Freedom, Fame, and Fortune on YouTube. You can see
the box fan video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WedvnI3L8dg.
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Featured Plant
VARIEGATED PITTOSPORUM
Pittosporum Tobira Variegata
An old standby that has stood the
test of time in Florida landscapes,
the variegated pittosporum is a versitile,
moderately slow growing plant
that is often used in hedges. It also
may be groomed as an ornamental
tree growing to a maximum height
of ten feet. It also can be grown in a
container.
The whitish-green color of the leaves
with cream colored leaf margins
stands in beautiful contrast to the
deeper green of many other landscape
plants and shrubs.
The plant bears flowers in the spring
with a pleasant citrus fragrance, but
the flowers are seldom seen by most
owners because regular trimming
of the plant will destroy the buds
before they have a chance to bloom.
Pittosporum has shown a moderate
Variegated Pittosporum prices
3 gal..........................$5.95 $4.25!
tolerance for salty coastal environments.
PRICES GOOD THROUGH FEBRUARY 29
Introducing: Santiago Lacey
Last issue, we talked about the life
event that had just happened to our
sales superstar Charlie Lacey. You
may remember it involved the birth
of his firstborn, which happened too
close to press time to publish a photo.
Charlie and wife Carolina proudly
present a photo of their little boy now,
whom they’re calling Santy.
What an adorable little guy!
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Tales from the Road
Battle of Wounded Knee
By Billy Clements
Throughout my life, I
have never had a serious
injury—never had
to have any organs
removed or broken
any bones—none of
my own, that is. So,
on a warm South
Carolina morning,
on my first delivery
of the day, you can
imagine my bewilderment when I
heard my knee crunch as I tumbled
backwards out of my semi-trailer.
Soon after this, I was staring at
the passing clouds while lying on
the pavement. A few of the men
present at this delivery helped me
stand up but after only a short
step, my right leg collapsed like a
boiled noodle. Once again, I was
embraced by Mother Earth. This
time, however, I was face down. It
didn’t take long for me to realize
that walking, let alone driving, was
going to be impossible. A phone
call or two later and Jorge, a salesman
at G&S graciously abandoned
his daily duties and came to the
rescue. Even though every bump
we hit on the way back home of-
fered a new experience in pain, later that
night I was finally able to kiss this hard
day goodnight.
The next few weeks involved a series
of X-rays and an MRI, all of which accompanied
me to a doctor’s office in
Jacksonville. Upon viewing my results,
he concluded that I had ruptured my
“quadriceps tendon” and he was going
to have to repair it surgically. In a few
days, I was going to be like Humpty
Dumpty... hoping for all the king’s horses
and all the king’s men (or in this case, a
skilled orthopedist and the good Lord’s
mercy) to put me back together again.
It was an early Tuesday morning when
I was checking into the hospital and
answering all of their questions. Name,
address, etc. When asked about my
marital status, I replied, “Good!” The
nurse then clarified her inquiry and I
stated, married. So on and on it went
until the hour came for me to roll into
the operating room; a room so clean
you could have operated on someone
in there! Girded simply in an open-back
gown, I was once more flat on my back
gazing skyward.
(To be continued)
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P.O. Box 215
Lake City FL 32056
www.gsnursery.com
RIDDLE OF THE MONTH
Name a seven letter word from which, if you take away
four letters, you will have one left. Hint: the word
means to allow or give permission to something that is
controversial or wrong.
Send in your answer to sales@gsnusery.com before
January 20. All correct answers will be entered into a
drawing to win one of three HANSON automatic locking
curved jaw pliers!
LAST MONTH’S RIDDLE:
A boy goes to a hardware store to buy something that almost
every house has. One of these costs $1.00. 500 costs $3.00.
The boy buys 68 and pays $2.00. What is it?
ANSWER: HOUSE NUMERALS
Last Month’s Winners:
Laura Bland
Steve Hansen
Billy Creech