Monthly Archive: April 2014

friends

The Cutting of the Sod

Work continues out front.  Up early and over to Cresco rents to pick up a sod remover. Spent the next few hours cutting  the 1250 square feet of sod. In case you don’t know, thats a lot of sod! Very heavy sod. Thankfully I had some help today. Mando and Vandy were both on hand to help out.   The global landscaping crew.  The Irishman, a Mexican and a Belgian.  Glad to have friends like this.

Even though we had the sod removing machine, it was still hard work!  Just holding that monster still and keeping it going straight was a chore.  Plus we had to move the sod once it was cut so that the machine could make a good cut on the next pass.  After we cut the sod we had to figure out how to get it the hell out of here. We discussed it over turkey sandwiches that Barb made.  Do it yourself was a no go. Too much work.   We made the trip to Home Depot and hired some day labor to help us out. Two guys with a truck. Mando did the talking and we settled on the deal. It took them 4 hours and three dump runs  to clear the lawn of all  the sod, plus take away all the old wooden borders and plastic paper that was under all that pea gravel I moved earlier in the week. 

So at the end of the day today we have a nice flat patch of dirt out front.Onward to tomorrow!! Looking good Bruno!

hike

Saturday Night at the Tank

Fun night! Ever since Barb gave me a Shark’s jersey for my birthday, I had been itching to go to a game and show it off.  Last night was the night.  Sharks against the Predators from Nashville.   Barb’s sis Sarah was coming with us and we were meeting up with team Lobert for pregame warmups at Britiania Arms.

I always say the nice thing about living in Fremont is that you are 30 minutes or less from EVERYTHING! Well, only 25 minutes from our driveway we found a sweet parking place on the street that only cost us $1 on the meter!  It was a windy evening in downtown San Jose. We made the short walk to  Britainia Arms and met up with Tim, Linda and Matt. Had a nice dinner and couple of drinks and a chance to catch up on everything before we made our way back to the Shark Tank for the game.

We had great seats. Section 208 – Row 15 seats 1-3. On the aisle baby! Plus we were in the end where the Sharks Shoot twice! Only problem last night was the Sharks didn’t do much shooting. Not much shooting at all.  The hike up to Row 15 was a ball buster! We ended up doing that hike three times because we always went down to chat it up with the Loberst in between periods. Anyway, the Sharks lost a yawner 3-0. Over the years we’ve been to more than a few games and we can’t remember ever going to a game where they lost this bad. The boys usually win when we go!

sports

Mom, Baseball, and Apple Pie

Everytime baseball season rolls around I think about mom.  Mom was a Giants fan.  She loved baseball.  In her later years she really looked forward to baseball season starting.  As mom grew older yet and hit her nineties,  I was happy when another baseball season rolled around and mom was still here to enjoy it. 

Mom’s birthday was a couple of days ago. Happy birthday Hurley Girl!

Giants start the 2014 season with a win over Arizona last night.

I think I’ll have a piece of apple pie!

bike

Lunch Time Sprint

What better way to spend an hour than to head to the bus stop and back? Twelve miles today and a great picture of the flag.

animals

Let the Fun Begin – Front Yard landscape project

Its getting real this week.  After months of planning and preparation, I started work on the front yard.  The plan is to move all the pea gravel, remove the lawn, then use a combination of stepping stones, slate, rocks, plants and ground cover to transform our front yard from a 1800 square foot water waster into a drought tolerant, water efficient yard. 

So I started this week by moving all the large rocks, slate and bird bath to the driveway, then started hauling pea gravel, wheelbarrow load by wheelbarrow load to the back corner of the yard. Its a slow process but I am making progress.  Need to have all the pea gravel moved by thursday so we can come in and remove the sod on Friday.  Good to see little Mali enjoying the lawn while she can. Next week she will be laying on a stepping stone because the grass will be GONE!

friends

Heavy Lifting

The front yard project continues. Part of the plan is to use re-purposed stones and rocks and pavers and retaining wall stones through out the yard. Since the yard is so big, that means many many MANY stones.  To provide an example, I give you what I did yesterday.

Saw a Craigslist ad for free retaining wall stones in Palo Alto. Got on the phone with the guy to get the address and off I go. Get to this place in Palo Alto where the owner is removing retaining wall stones and bamboo (lots of bamboo) to eventually get access to and replace a common fence with the neighbor. Anyway, there were a TON of stones there. So many that I had to make two trips because the loads were so heavy that my truck was going to scrape bottom if I tried to fit it all in there at once.

So there were 72 “small” concrete retaining wall stones, each weighing in at 27lbs each. 72×27=1944 pounds. Throw in the 9 “LARGE” concrete retaining wall stones, each weighing in at 57lbs each! 9×57=513 pounds. 1944+513=2457 pounds. Or just over a TON of stone. I won’t even include the 20 step stones and one huge round stone in the calculation.

Now take into account that for each stone I had to lift it…

Once to pick it up and put it on the dolly – one ton

Once to pick up from dolly and put in truck – one ton!

Once to move from truck to driveway – one ton!!

2457 x 3 = 7371 pounds = 3+ TONS!!

and at least once more to put it in the yard.

 I need a hot tub soak!!