Ash Tree Chainsaw Massacre

The heat continues, drought endures although we had an inch or two of rain during the past week.  We are losing hours and workers as we have been coming in early and barely are able to get in a scorching 40 hours per week.  Our freshman female worker sweet Jessica has been out for over a week with heat stroke and dehydration as the diagnosis, she has been to her family doctor, the local hospital and Urgent Care but continues with vomiting and fever.  All manner of tests and pills yet she feels no better.  It is on to the big city hospital in the morning for her.

What to do with dead ash trees killed by the emerald ash borer, the city of Fremont, IN has the solution turn them into wood sculpture?  Several of the trees were cleverly carved by a local chainsaw artist, bears, raccoons and squirrels are playing on the once ugly stumps.  Sweet.

Last week was cooler and we did get in a full week.  We were still short Jessica and Theresa was gone a couple of days, this week will be the last for Rick as he will be going back to college.  I hired a young man whose father is an excavator we know his name is Cody his dad says he had a bottle in one hand and a shovel in the other for as long as he can remember so I have high hopes for the kid.

We are wrapping up the odd commercial job a nursing home in Angola where Bruce has been in charge, he did manage to find a spot for one of our signature rock walls.  His biggest concern has been watering and for the last three week ends he has been going to town to water the new plants.  Soaker hose and timers have been installed and the maintenance men at the nursing home will be taking over the watering chores this week.

The landscaping around this small block wall belongs to Mike Stuckey at M & C Trenching, Mike and Cheryl's son is getting married and they are sprucing up their yard.  The wall was already there and they had a couple of deceased ash tree that were removed last year.  Mike reworked the wall and I designed the new look while he and his crew installed it with a little help from us. 

I traded Mike for the use of his mini excavator for a day and Bruce P dug a retention pond at our property to handle overflow rain water and pick up ground water and divert it from the retaining wall next to our house.  You can see the heavy clay soil that will hold the water, our soil is a mix of clay, sand, gravel spots and the rare loam all on 25 acres.

Sunsational

This is the first wall that Mike has built and he is quite proud of himself. It was another one of those tough to get at sites, I missed the fun when they were hauling the boulders up the hill, they were not a good fit with the new stacked glacial wall. The thing about rocks is getting the right sizes and it seems the ones the customers have are the ones they don't want and the ones they want we have to haul in. Up the hill, down the hill.

The ivy covered wall nestles this beautiful iron sun sculpture, think I might send this photo to CBS Sunday morning they feature peoples sun photos as their logo. That is my Sunday morning ritual and one of the few television shows I claim as one of my programs, a very comforting beginning to the day although I wish it started earlier.

At our end of year company breakfast this morning we began a discussion of the years favorite jobs and Bill mentioned a job on Coldwater Lake which Bruce designed and sold and one I had not even seen. I went there today and shot these pictures of the stone walls and snap cut staircases, it is a pretty job and very functional, crushed stone provides the walking surface between the stair treads.

Facelift After 40 Years

The task currently on my pallet is a job on Clear Lake, not that I am running it because my 80+ year old customer is undoubtedly in charge. With a masters degree in art she has specific ideas about form, shape, color and space. The old railroad tie walls that were torn out were from the 70's as were the majority of the junipers that flanked the top of the walls.
Patty first began discussing removing the ties a couple of years ago as the rot and failure were starting to become unsafe, slippery and ant infested but a slip this spring convinced her this was the year to take action. By waiting until fall she was able to enjoy the lake cottage with her family this year and not endure the construction. Plus she is able to spend more time on the project site without worrying about entertaining family and friends.



We were busy enough this fall to subcontract the removal of the old railroad ties to M & C Trenching, with their heavy but maneuverable equipment they made short work of the demolition. The ties ended up at our property and we burned them. M & C also dug out the foundation for repairs, did a road bore to assist the electrician in taking the power lines underground, reworked drainage and installed and compacted the first layers of limestone for our patio. In addition they did some of the excavation for our stone wall and pavers.

Bill, Ryan and Bruce Pardue have been working the job for two weeks now and the wall is nearly complete, the paver stoop well under way and the base for much of the patio is installed. Patty requested 6 to 6.6" snap cut steps five feet wide as her staircase to the main entrance on her lake home. Because she requested such a low rise the custom steps are behind in production and are slowing down our project, we are hopeful they will arrive early this week and relieve our bottleneck.

Part of the project includes a built in bench seat, paver walks, snap cut stairs and of course the glacial stone retaining wall. In the spring landscaping will add color and texture to complete the fresh new look Patty desires. This week a concrete staircase will be poured, we will face the cement with pavers and glacial stone.

Spiders and Rocks

Itsy, bitsy spider has beautiful markings and has spun a intricate web in a bed of hostas, Theresa pointed it out to me, she found it deadheading.

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the jobs I have designed and am installing that I do not always see the jobs that Bruce has designed and is working. I made a special effort to check out a couple of rock walls on two different lakes, one built by Dave and Matt and the other built by Ryan, they are artisan rock walls both functional and well crafted.

Dave and Matt built the walls and steps for this customers new home on Crooked Lake. The home owners are installing their landscaping with guidance from Bruce. The lake side of this home is almost complete and our crew is working toward the road side with two more free standing rock glacial stone walls.

One of the things that sets us apart from other guys attempting rocks walls is not only our technique but the shear skill level of our installers. The rocks fit tight and the slight set back means the rocks stay in place. Our installers also choose rocks to feature in prominent locations like this conglomerate pudding rock that Dave placed on the corner.

Chain saw art is all over the county and this otter with fish in hand I found at the neighbors next to our job site. Makes me wish I had a tree near my house that needed cut down.

These two long rock terraces were built by Ryan his attention to detail and construction skills are getting better and better. He is not only capable but fast at almost all the hard scape he installs. Ryan is just a natural landscaper, he is a pleasure to have around and another asset to the company.

This is my next large installation project with full landscaping, sod and irrigation I will be paying a visit to The Plant Center to pick out material over the week end. I plan to triangulate specimen Japanese maples on this side of the house that will look really sweet against the house color. We will be constructing a seating wall on the concrete patio, Weston block by Belgard.