Living with Rottweilers: We're almost back to normal.

Friday, May 4, 2012

We're almost back to normal.

Well, I finished making the cap stone slabs for the new wall and because they came in to weigh 110 lbs each I hired the same crew who rebuilt the wall to come in next week and lay them on the wall with mortar. It took me six weeks to make them and everyone thinks they look pretty good. I used two kinds of Portland cement, the common gray and two 100 lb bags of white along with some brown cement dye to give them a tint. The idea I had was to simulate cut sandstone which was way too expensive. The caps I made are 14" x 3" x 34" and it would have been more than $200 each from a quarry. I spent about $20 each for my material and made 16 of them. Here are two pictures.

During the time I was working on this project we did manage to take the happy crew out for a few runs in the back yard. The weather here has been really strange with daytime temperatures running as high as 88 degrees (which would be normal for August) and many night-time temperatures dropping below freezing. In fact, I managed to propagate seven Montauk Daisies last year from seeds that came from a plant I brought down to Kentucky 20 years ago and this year have had to cover them at night to several times to protect them from the cold. The early Spring has has them growing like crazy along with everything else. In fact I did get some frost damage on the top leaves of our Japanese Maples.

Any way, here are a few pictures of the three Rottweilers enjoying the nice weather. In spite of the warm temperatures my wife was still wearing her hat and coat, but that is a different matter.