Longscape - Cargo Jettison

We have had a rough couple weeks at Longscape in terms of us breaking things. The victim list so far includes:

• Sprinkler head - failure of it to recede back to the ground, resulted in its head being chopped off by the mower
• Two Shovels - snapped at the connection of the shovel head to the handle while removing some azaleas
• Mailbox - Queen would be proud of Giselle's large backside. The safety radius required while mowing is often underestimated. This mailbox suffered a weld-breaking blow off its post as it was knocked to the ground.
• Satellite Cable - coax cable always loses when it goes up against an auger. An attempted splice repair was unsuccessful so the satellite repair man had to be called out. 

The culmination and hopefully the last of all the mishaps happened first thing one morning. We were pulling out of the neighborhood ready to get the day started when I heard a noise outside the truck. I looked in the mirror and noticed one of our orange jack stands rolling across the pavement. We have the jack stands on the trailer to put underneath the back end when we take heavy things, namely Giselle, on and off the trailer. Since it weighs so much this alleviates some of the pressure put on the rear end, hopefully prolonging the life of the trailer. They are rated to hold 3500lbs a piece. I have had them on the trailer for nearly two years and never had any trouble with them. I'm still not sure how it came off. The Billy Goat must have knocked it off in the turn, but I tried to reenact the even when we got home and was unsuccessful.

I told Matt the jack stand has come off and to pull over. I wasn't too worried about it because it was bright orange and thought people could avoid it. I got out of the truck and ran along the side of the road back to the jettison spot. As I was running I noticed cars were not avoiding it as readily as I thought they would. Before I could reach it a Ford Escape ran right into it. There was a terrible noise and I immediately knew there was some damage to the car. The jack came apart into two pieces. I got the first in a break in traffic. Before I could get the second piece it got hit several more times. After gathering up the pieces I looked back towards the truck and noticed the Ford Escape parked in the center lane with the front right tire sitting on the rim. Debating if we should just leave or fess up to the cause of the damage, I knew we had to take responsibility. We always live under the fear of a lawsuit, but I couldn't just leave with this lady stranded.

I walked up to the car amidst all the traffic and saw the woman driver and her daughter in the car. I asked if she was okay and she said yes as she proceeded to tell me what happened to her week old tire not realizing I was with the party responsible. I told her yes I know, I saw the whole thing and it was my "thing" in the road that she hit. Like anyone during rush hour she needed to be somewhere. She was never mad at us but a slight panic set in since her day was being disrupted. I asked if we could change her tire for her. Her spare is located under the back end of her car, but you need the wrench and jack which were in the back cargo area. She then informed me she was moving a bunch of stuff so her car was packed full, blocking the tools. Understandably unsure about letting some random guys who just broke her car try to fix it, she insisted to just call a tow truck. Knowing this would cost lots more money and not save any time, I convinced her we could get it changed. I asked her to give us 5 minutes. This was a bold statement, but it worked. We got to work. We had to unload some stuff to access the tools. Remember, we are still in the center lane in rush hour traffic. We got the spare tire lowered, but we had trouble getting the car jacked up. It was a scissor jack and the arm to turn the lifting screw was not long enough to reach outside the underneath of the car so you couldn't get any torque to turn it. A trip back to the truck's toolbox to get the vise grips took care of the problem. We proceeded to get the tire changed with no more further trouble. It ended up being about a 20 minute process.  Still not too bad given the circumstances. I got the checkbook and settled up with her for buying a new tire. Tough check to write since I knew I would not really make any money the rest of the day. She was very appreciative of us helping and we all went on our way.

Our two jack stands portraying a before and after.

It could have been much worse so it ended up being a good reminder to always check and make sure your equipment is secure before you travel. It was also nice to see that we as humans can still settle a problem on our own without the government, insurance agents, or lawyers. Accidents do happen and since we were honest about our responsibility she did not try to take advantage of us.

Longscape - Front Yard Makeover

We had the privilege of getting to replace some shrubs at a customers house recently. Her main complaint about her existing landscape was it wasn't attractive, except to the deer. The primary existing plants were azaleas that were near the end of their lifespan. I'm not much of a plant suggester, but I was happy with what Matt and I came up with. We added an assortment of gardenias, banana shrubs, yellow anise, camellias, and 'Otto Luykens' laurel. We also took down a large red maple that was in decline and replaced it with a Japanese Maple. Taylor was along for the day and was a big help in removing the existing plants.

Before:

 

After:

There's a large amount of sawdust from the grinding of the stump.

Summer Crew

Just shy of two months without posting. Its not from lack of topics, just a lack of setting aside time. I sure hope to get back in a groove soon.

Summer, aka "the growing season" is winding down for us. After a blistering hot and dry end of June and beginning of July, lately we've been getting plenty of rain. August has also been unseasonably cool, which has been awesome.

Things have been going very well at Longscape. Since Matt has joined the team upon his graduation, it has really made things smoother. Aside from not getting bored being by myself all day, having a partner has also allowed me to relinquish some responsibilities to him. I'm also not nearly as tired at the end of each day. We also had Sam help us some days this summer. He helped me last summer too, so it was nice to have someone who already knew how to handle things.  

I'm looking forward to fall and winter to get a little break, cooler temperatures, and a slight change of pace allowing us to get some other projects done.

Sod Party - Time Lapse

One of my favorite non-maintenance landscape jobs, is putting in sod. I love transforming a space and I love turf, so combining the two makes my day. I schedule this job to coordinate when Matt would be home for Easter. The shady backyard needed to be replaced with Zoysiagrass and came out to about 6 pallets. It also needed some topsoil, so we brought in 10 cubic yards. The backyard had limited access so that meant everything had to be carried by wheelbarrow into place. Since it was also on a pretty steep slope we had to staple a good portion of the sod so it would stay in place. We had a two hour rain delay on Thursday and also made things pretty muddy. Dad came out for a couple hours that afternoon to help out. The rest of the project took all Friday and an hour on Saturday to finish up. It all went really well and glad we got to be a part of it.

Mr. No Shoulders

Mr. No Shoulders with no head.

I set up the camera to do a time lapse of the project. Since its Rebecca's gear I had to be extra careful with it and so I put a ziplock bag over the camera and lens to protect it from dust and rain. That's why its a little hazy and has trouble focusing in some. The third guy in some of the pictures is the homeowner who was working on his back patio. The camera battery died in the afternoon on the first day so that is the reason for the big jump in progress.

DIY - Raised Beds

A project on Mom's to-do list for a while has been some raised beds for her to expand her new found gardening habit. I like to build things and since Mom has to put up with housing my business, she gets what she wants. I also realized I might be able to offer them to some of my clients and this would be a good test run. With the winter being slow and Matt & Dad available to help, this time of year was the perfect opportunity.

Before we could install the beds we had to cut down a couple maple trees in their backyard. This also had been on the to-do list because they were getting quite large and competing with the turf a little too much. So we got the two trees down and chipped up right before it started pouring rain.

We then got started on the bed frames. We had to work in the garage since it was still raining. It took the rest of the day to build the first one. We did the second one in half the the time the following day since we knew what we were doing. Cook also stopped by and offered a hand. 

The raised beds are constructed out of landscape timbers with the final dimensions of the beds being 8' x 4' x 1'. They are held together with 1/2" rebar. A closed loop of 1/2" drip irrigation lines the inside of the bed with eight 1/4" lines extending from the main line to the middle of the bed with 2 GPH emitters at the end of each line. 

I was very pleased with how they turned out. We may add some more if she gets a large vegetable operation going.

Matt and Dad cutting up the tree. Dad is a little more safety conscious than us.

Chipping up the limbs.

Makeshift work station.

The first layer.

Getting it square.

Future home of the beds. The white in the background is the wood chips for the fresh cut maples.

Drilling the holes for the rebar.

Hammering down the rebar for stability.

Putting on the drip irrigation's main line that goes around the top of the bed and will attach to the hose.

Moving the beds into place.

Leveling up the beds. We put each one over the new stumps so they'll now be hidden.

Adding in the drip lines with emitters. Each emitter is rated for 2 GPH.

Installed.

July 4th Weekend

The long weekend started out kind of rough for Rebecca and I. She got a cold somewhere between here and Utah and in turn passed it on to me. The worst of my symptoms hit on Friday. Dad had planned a big work weekend at a Tornado house, owned by Cornelius. I attempted to go work, but had to tap out early. I came home, took a long nap, and felt much better. I returned to the house on Saturday and helped with repairs. A massive oak tree fell on the middle of his house so the goal for the weekend was to build a new roof.

Rebecca's parents came in town for the weekend. So after church on Sunday we all went to Cornelius' house. About mid afternoon Dad gets a call from Matt. He and Loren were on their way to Memphis on I-22 when his back left tire popped. The civic spun off the road and slid into an embankment. Fortunately they went off the road at the perfect spot and only received damage to one additional tire. Much like Rebecca and my wreck several years ago, they were very fortunate. Playing the "what-if" game can get quite scary. Mr. Chip and I went as the rescue team and pulled them out of the ditch. The donut tire got them to Wal-Mart as we caught the tire guys right before closing time.

On Monday we took Rebecca's parents on a drive around town showing them some of our different photo venues. About the time they headed out, the rain settled in and stayed through the evening. It stopped just in time for Thunder on the Mountain. The wet weather kept the early crowds away so we were able to get a fairly good spot without getting there real early. The rain cooled the air off just enough to make it quite pleasant outside.