Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Finishing Touches

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Today is Thanksgiving Eve and the only good smells to come out of my house would be if I lit pumkin scented candles, no cooking here.  We are going to eat at two homes and do lots of visiting.  On Friday I will fly to Florida and spend time with family and friends.

It has  gotten bitterly cold and working outdoors has lost some of the charm for me.  The show must go on.  We finished up for now on two bigger projects.  The ice is creeping up onto the shorelines and the boat lifts are on the beach.  I spotted some deer tracks on the beach as well.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Mid November Rocks, Tons and Tons

LEAF SUCKING TRAILER




This beauty makes fall clean up much easier and will save the customers a few bucks as we are more efficient removing leaves.  Oh giant leaf sucker truck where have you been all my life? Seriously this is just one more advantage of having sold our business, the mother ship has lots of groovy tools that make life easier.








LEAVES DUMP OUT
We are wrapping up leaves but will make one more pass over the properties we manage to collect any stragglers.  The weather today is supposed to be severe with high winds even possible tornadoes so if that does not drop the rest of the leaves I don't know what will.

The team of Ryan and Scott took a break from their difficult job on Coldwater Lake and installed some snap cuts and a rock wall for a job the boss sold on Lake Gage.  I think they were happy to be away from Coldwater Lake, Ryan says he moves 3 ton of dirt to install 4 snap cut stairs.  We should finish this week with the most of it.
SNAP CUT STAIRCASE

We concentrated on building new block walls, finishing the dry creek bed and installing snap cut stairs on the Snow Lake job this week. We replaced ugly red block with Versa Lock block, added to the old Versa Lock wall but had trouble matching block color, to eliminate the problem I decided to use the old block as a color band on both walls unifying the theme, looks great.

COLOR BAND ON BOTTOM & 4TH COURSE


The dry creek bed is an efficient, simple easy care choice for a hillside all you need to do is blow it out once in a while.  The creek looks like it terminates behind the new block wall.  In the spring the homeowner can decide if he wants to add some plant material, I think some ever greens would be stellar.  This installation was crazy hard because the entire hillside was back filled with 100% number 4 stone, as usual we were up to the challenge.
DRY CREEK BED FILLS STEEP HILL

As I have said before you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet and we made some dust and dirt running the wet saw and the concrete cut off saw on this job so blowing created a dust storm.  When I am on site at a job I try and do the lighter tasks these days and blowing is one, I was wishing for a breathing mask when I finished and I am certain that back pack blowers are getting heavier.
A TINA MADE DUST STORM
Bill and I went round a bit on the design and concept of the dry creek bed but it worked out just as I had envisioned.  There was nothing easy about the execution but you are not always sure what you're gonna get into when you open up the earth, especially if another human has been there before you.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Traveling Kitty


My husband Bruce left the shop Monday morning business as usual.  He drove about four or five miles to a job site on Lake Gage and returned to the shop for some materials.  Upon exiting his truck he thought he heard a slight mewing but could not locate the source.  He got his materials and headed to Lake James Estates another four or so mile trip.  This time when he got out of the truck the mewing was unmistakable and coming from the engine compartment.

Fearing the worst he and our worker Gary gingerly popped the hood.  Much to their relief and surprise a small orange kitty lay curled up on top of the air cleaner.  Gary reached for it and ended up chasing it through the engine and out over axle where he caught it for a brief moment before Mr. Lucky kitten scratched him and Gary dropped him.  They spent a few minutes trying to rescue the little dickens but had to eventually return to work empty handed.

Enter our Lake James customers who upon hearing the story vowed to attempt capture once all the commotion settled down.  A few hours later with coaxing from food the kitty was caught in a raccoon trap.  The kitty quickly became calm and turned on his motor when loving hands stroked him.  Because they already have pets they are unable to keep the kitten but have taken it to the vet who declared it perfectly healthy.

Coincidentally our book keeper Bonnie suddenly just lost one of her cats and may have room in her home and heart for this little doll, if not he may be up for adoption.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Easy Creek Bed



These past couple weeks we have been on fall clean up and working on a few projects around the
shop.  Spectacular best describes the display mother nature treated us to this autumn, the colors were stunning I  remiss as I did not photograph a single tree.   Leaves have hung on and in fact are still on many of the oaks and a few maples so we waiting to do our major leaf removal.
EASY DOES IT, DOUG BARELY HAD ROOM TO SPIN

Oddly enough we have been commissioned to build another dry creek bed the fourth of the year.  We are taking this one right up the property line.  We discovered this hill was completely backfilled with number 4 glacial stone, not just a few feet but as deep as 8 feet down and up to 15 feet from the foundation, it was not a welcome discovery.  We ended up hauling out a few loads of stone and tried to disturb it as little as possible.


This homeowner wanted a easy care hillside and this dry creek bed is just the ticket.  These shots are in progress and we should wrap up pretty quickly.  The red block wall is going to be replaced with a block wall that matches the other side of the house.  My original design called for boulders to replace the block.

HILLSIDE BEFORE


HILLSIDE DURING CREEK BED INSTALLATION