Boulder Table & Chairs

The past two weeks have been especially soggy, devastating since spring is the busiest time of the year and we are just getting geared up for mulching and annual flower installation. Our regular 400 odd man hours was reduced to just under 200 two weeks ago, this week we managed to get back up there with about 300 man hours, lets hope the skies quit leaking this next week.

Many of the jobs we work are on hills so it often becomes impossible to get down those hills with equipment when they start getting greasy. We are working a job on Clear Lake where we used plastic to cover up much of the lot to keep it dry, it helped but was not completely reliable. The customer found the slapping of the plastic rather annoying as the wind howled and lifted the sheet in rhythmic obnoxious beats.

Installing a patio and sidewalk with stones that weigh several hundred pounds each is difficult enough without adding wet, muddy, clay soils that cling to every surface but somehow Bill and Bruce Pardue managed to get it done. It looks awesome. I can't wait to plant the yard and get some green growing between the gaps in the walk, the patio will be infused with a variety of ground covers. They even took advantage of a warm and dry Saturday to get the yard roughed in and ready for irrigation. Our next challenge for this project will be a surprise retaining wall that is now needed, the result of excavation required for the installation of the concrete driveway and drains.

We wrapped up the flagstone patio for Charlene and Larry in Timber Bay having to wait almost a week before the rain stopped long enough to finish up with the "Gator Dust" we used to form a near solid grout between the flagstone gaps. When Larry and Charlene finish the planting, the grass seed comes up and they have their new patio ready to party I will snap some new photo's for the blog.

We average maybe one flagstone patio or walk per year and so far this year we have done two each with a different type of flagstone. Jo and Stan chose classic gray which goes really well with their new home on Lake Pleasant, which is only three or four miles from the shop (a nice break with the price of fuel). We installed the patio, built the beds, put in the big trees and Jo, Stan and their children are installing the plants, mulch and preen this week end.

One of the unique features of this patio is the large boulders that are used as tables, chairs and climbing rocks for the grand kids. The boulders are built into the edge of the patio and Jo thinks they will be well used, the certainly are low maintenance.