St. Lucian Christmas Music

We had a special treat after our Christmas feast as Marcy's relatives and friends gathered at her sisters house to make some music. All variety of instrument were used to create a lovely sort of percussion that filled the early evening air. An uncle played a banjo, a Heineken bottle hit with a can opener s gave a tinny ping, from shak-shak trees seeds inside cans made gentle rhythms.

I am sure the evening grew more animated as a wide variety of libations began to control the chanting and song.

Week One

Merry Christmas everyone. We are just passing our first week in paradise and things are wonderful if you don't count the little wreck I had on Tuesday. I was driving along minding my own business when a pot hole jumped in front of me and swallowed the left front tire and ground effects, (can't imagine why we had a low rider to begin with) the result was a wrecker.

Soufreire is just like a small town back home and after coming here half a dozen times I have gotten to know some people. Tony from Cool Breeze towed the car into their lot and within 24 hours Ursula from Budget had another car delivered to our guest house. This one is a Mitsubishi and sits a lot higher. Thanks Tony and Ursula.

Leo and Marcy arrived last Monday and spent two days with Marcy's family then two days with us and we are going up north for brunch with her clan today. Should be swell, lots of good food and cheer.

We have been in the mother once, found a terrific new waterfall in Anse LaRaye, (one that Marcy had never even seen), had a great soak in the mineral baths at Diamond Botanical, visited The Still, Jalousie and Hummingbird Resorts, not bad for one week. Some sad news to report, my friend and talented woodcarver Robert aka Fargo passed away from pneumonia about 5 months ago, RIP Fargo.

Christmas in the Caribbean

Once again the gods of good fortune have found their way into my life and I am off to St. Lucia in the morning. Bruce and I will be spending a couple of weeks together along with our nephew Leo, his wife Marcy, my sister Cass, our pal Carol and an old college buddy and his sister but not all at once. My dance card will be full as friends and family fly in and out for the next month and we all set out to have a grand time on the island.

After everyone clears out I will be returning to Ladera Resort spending a few weeks working with the staff to landscape some newly constructed areas and see what else the boss has in mind for me. This will be my fourth working trip and I am anxious to see what challenges lay ahead. So for the next couple of months I will be blogging from the Caribbean.

We leave in the morning, driving to Indy, flying to Miami and on to St. Lucia the next day. Can't wait to see Leo and Marcy, she is four months pregnant with their first child. Marcy is from St. Lucia, she and Leo met when he was there in the Peace Corps.

Let's Grill

The weather forced us inside to finish the construction of the pergola over the grill surround on the Crooked Lake job. Ryan was able to complete all the building and adhesion of the block before the snow struck. Moving indoors to cut, sand and stain the cedar was always my plan and actually we were right on schedule.








We started in the shop after going to the job site with a couple of mock up boards to get accurate feel for the length and style of the pergola. I had Gary and Ryan make lots of different templates for the design on the end of the boards but we ended up using the clean, classical standard seen in the photo's. The stain color is called Chestnut and is semi-transparent which allows the natural beauty of the cedar grain to show through.








With precision teamwork the 2 x 10" and 2 x 12" cedar began to take shape Ryan using a jigsaw cutting each board and Gary sanding them, rounding the edges and working them smooth. We moved the operation down to the garage for the staining process since it is more economical to heat and we needed to keep the temperatures even for effective drying.

I had not intended to fit the grill into the surround until spring but our clients wanted to use it over winter so we put gas to it and have it temporarily mounted in the surround as we were unable to install the counter top. Looking at the grill surround from the patio doors you would see that it is perfectly symmetrical, well balanced as well as beautiful and functional.

This was Ryan's first really big project he handled from start to finish (except tear out) and he did a stellar job. Ryan just completed paver school were he passed with flying colors. During the construction of this patio, fire pit and grill surround he demonstrated excellent planning, decent speed and stellar construction techniques, good job Ryan. He and Gary worked swell together, Gary handled the mechanical and electrical and was on site from beginning to end.

This landscape renovation is prime example of a wonderful transformation that took a worn out cracked concrete patio and transformed it into a work of art that blends perfectly in its environment. Springtime planting a couple of seating walls will bring it to life.

Goodbye 1974, Hello 2011

Finishing up the landscaping at Patty's will wait until spring but the hardscape is definitely nearing the finish line. These photo's were taken before Thanksgiving and we have since installed a second short glacial stone wall above the large wall between the erosion control trench we dug. The trench is temporary and meant to handle any over flow water it was put to the test recently as twice we had over two inches of rain in the last two weeks.

I installed canned foam in between the cracks in the snap cut stairs, I used black pond foam since it is easier to conceal. Squirting foam where water once flowed helps prevent washouts behind the stairs and along the sides of the treads.

The Tennessee sandstone bench was cut from one piece of stone and is supported with reinforcing rod with insulation foam beneath and around the edges. We used Gator Dust to form a solid grout line where the bench meets the round glacial stone wall.

This transformation is anything but subtle. Removing the heavy junipers and dark railroad tie
retaining walls opened up this space, pushing out the wall means no more crowding and a whole new entertainment area. Patty had a lovely Thanksgiving meal on her new patio with her family just last week.

Some strategically placed sod provides a short term sidewalk so Patty and her pooches won't have to walk in mud this winter. Patty will have her plant list and first thing in the Spring she will be ready to install the shrubs. Terry and son are about half finished with the irrigation system which will provide much needed automatic watering to Patty's many landscape beds and lawn. She has been dragging hoses around for years so irrigation will not only make a huge cultural difference for the flora but save Patty's back as well.