House Looking like Home

What a difference a year makes!  Doug Hooley came back this spring to prune the overgrown and tame the wild.  I'm sure over the past 61 years the landscape of this front yard has seen many forms, but none as beautiful as this.

Doug, Brett, Clay, and John did wonders.  There are over twenty different desert plants, most in full bloom at this time.  Doug complemented me on keeping the weeds at bay, but I think my insistence of having a minimum of 2 inches of rock over the turf made the job fairly easy, not to mention Round-Up.

*     *     *

Last April, my Master Landscape Artist was placing frail little plants in the front yard.  The patchy grass littered with weeds had been removed.  The flat surface was dug up, shifted around, mounded up, and gullied out.  A sculptor and nature photographer had painstakingly laid a variety of river rock into the y-shaped (Lambda shaped?) 'river bed'.  Doug Hooley was the landscaper, Brett Orton was the river sculptor and Clay and John were the movers and shakers and diggers and builders.  It was hard but beautiful work!

     April 2011 saw the finished desert landscaping

The Recession is Ending! I have proof!!

So my rickety achy breaky back now requires me to do a little less standing and walking without assistance.  

To enhance my home's curb appeal and relax my back I bought one of those nice looking park benches.  I thank my friend Michael, who kindly fetched the "some assembly required" box of wrought iron ends, oak seat slats and the little bag of bolts, nuts, washers, and wood screws.  Oh yes, let's not forget the one-page of assembly instructions.  Big eye roll.

The top third of the page was an itemized list of the components allegedly contained in the box. Cast iron and wood back, pre-assembled....1 (check), cast iron bench frames....2 (check), wood slats....etc.  There were also 27 bitsy hardware pieces to put everything together.  I counted and there were more than 27.  Oh boy.

I would have to follow directions VERY carefully.  Too many widgets.  Not a good sign.

Step by step, piece by piece the assembly began and went on and on and on.  This was not the manufacturer's fault I must admit.  Only mine.  Now lets think this through, friends.  Bad back. DIY project.  Yeah.  'Nother big eye roll.  My methods were odd, but I got the job done slowly but surely.  

Twenty-one nuts, bolts, washers and wood screws were used.  Yep--21.  Leaving six miscellaneous leftovers.  Six:  2 wood screws, 1 washer, 2 bolts (1 long, 1 short), and 1 nut that would fit either.  

What was the manufacturer thinking?  Don't they know they can't afford to waste widgets?  I ask you....

The recession is over.  I have proof!