Poodle Crazy

This week was scolding hot on Monday (Memorial Day) and Tuesday, over 90 degrees the high yesterday barely reached 50 with steady wind and drizzle.  Walking the dogs I spied this red wing blackbird singing  despite the crummy weather.

Our customer on Jimmerson Lake was happy to see the delivery of the green material after being in the house for a few weeks with no yard or landscaping.  We nearly have all the hard scape finished;  snap cut stairs, natural stone steppers, tiling the downspouts out the lake and building the seating wall and beach.  I think the beach will be a big hit.

Jamie and home owner Renee first clean then plant a mugo pine.

Theresa is lost in the foliage of a Japanese Maple while unloading the box truck.


Two sisters share the responsibility for choosing the plant material with my guidance.  The man of the house enjoys trimming so this installation has more specimen plants than we normally use.  We have not put in three ball poodles since we did Caruso's restaurant a few years ago, I like them.  It is a win win situation providing the  minimal look they want with clean simplicity.

A couple of the other jobs we recently finished are looking fine.  The lawn is filling in between the flagstone pieces of the walk on Crooked Lake, they have mowed the grass several times.

Another job on Crooked Lake got a new look when Colby Claus installed the new fire pit top and grill top.  We all love the new look.

Tons of Fun

We are back working at the log cabin on five acres where we worked last year. I hired three new people this week and the open acreage is excellent training ground to learn equipment operation and learn a variety of new skills. As I have often said we love the repeat customers and work just as happily on a three year plan as we do on a full blown installation. It is fun to watch the hardscape fill in and to help the client visualize their dreams.

One of this years projects is a vegetable garden since the clients are now living there full time and will be able to benefit from the fresh produce. I patterned the garden from my own which is circular with a paver walk dissecting it, the shape and walk location make it easier to maintain with excellent reach from the walk.

To build this garden we excavated down 6" in a 22' diameter and leveled the soil. Next we built the sidewalk frame from 2x12"x12' treated lumber and fed a 3" corrugated tile into the center for power to the fountain which will be the center feature. We brought in Uncle Floyd's soil blend and tilled in an additional 60 bags of cow manure. The walk was filled partially with soil then a layer of weed barrier and finished with 5" of crushed granite that was compacted. I can't wait to sample the tomatoes from this patch of heaven.

We are building a sidewalk that connects the barn car park, a set of steps leading from the garage and the potting shed, a 24' diameter seating ring with a interior 8' fire pit will provide a welcome spot for warmth on chilly fall nights. Again we excavated 6" down, fine tuned the edges by hand, laid down weed barrier, installed 3" of crushed granite, lined the edges with 8-10" glacial stone collected on site then added another 3" of granite before compacting the entire area.

To complete the fire pit we will mortar hand fit stone into the larger gaps of the boulders and install a 8' steel fire ring. Eventually benches will be built to complete the seating area. A great place for a marshmallow roast or burning large limbs and debris.

Another large project at this site is lining all the driveway areas with custom made tan block, the block functions to separate the stone driveway from the lawn providing a neat, crisp edge. The block is manufactured by Slater Concrete in Kendallville, IN, Jeff Slater makes all types of block in his small family run factory, he is also our distributor for Paverlock. These block are 8x8x16" and weigh 72# each, there is approximately 1750 linear feet of block to lay for a total of 50 ton or over 98,500 pounds. The young new guy I hired this week is really sleeping well at night since he is humping a lot of the block.

This block is set on a six inch limestone base that is compacted with soil stabilization fabric underneath. I am hope I bid this one right because it is a very labor intensive task and rather difficult to work with the sloping lay of land.

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.

Sandhill Cranes, What's blooming, Circular Paver Patio

Sandhill cranes made their first appearance in these parts about 10 years ago and they are a delight. A cacophony of wild vocalizations from screech's to clucks to a near cooing, which is what this pair were doing upon my approach. They even do a pretty fair imitation of a tree frog. They are big birds, when I first saw one in our field I thought it was a deer or perhaps the neighbors emu had escaped. Chasing the cranes I spotted a tree mirrored in a low wet spot in the field.

These daffodils were waving at me and I picked up a really sweet scent, I followed my nose to the patio peach that had these glorious pink blooms. There is always something blooming as I walk from my home up to the office. The Juddi viburnums will open next week with their rush of fragrance so spicy sweet it fogs the air.I have two crews working for me most of the time, at this time of year one crew of three is doing spring clean up, my other crew has been installing a circular paver patio at a residence on Lake James. The work has progressed well and we are done with the hardscape on the lakeside and have begun the hardscape on the roadside. Local glacial boulders have been used to form a natural looking retaining wall. The fire ring will keep things cozy on cool summer nights. Bill complained that this design required a tremendous amount of cutting, but think it was well worth the effort . In about a week we will install the soils, plants, trees, flowers and mulch.

The boulder fire rock is a recent addition from one of our suppliers. I think it is pretty cool with the exception of the lava rock. A simple idea the gas rock is definitely a low maintenance fire feature that would add casual elegance to any surrounding. What a fun way to roast some marshmallows.