Vonnie's Shade  May 2010

After wacken down our two big trees ( another project still in progress ) we needed some shade in the back yard so we got a gazebo.  Nutten to it except we had to run all over town to find the one we wanted, getting it loaded in the car, unloaded from the car and I thought setting it up would be a day maybe two being I don't work as long or hard as I use to. 

But you know I can't do it the easy way like just put it together and sit under it sippen my ice tea and being proud of a job well done.  AND ALL of my projects make projects of their own and this was not an exception to the rule.  We had two locations in mind for this critter and the first being where the pool use to be, yes another project and another story.  The 2nd location was where our sitting area use to be when we had shade from the trees.  Good location being it was by the fish pond and you can always hear the running water. 

So we buys the thing and drags it home ~

 
 

Instructions ? who reads instructions ?  And just look at this pile of scrap paper, all that to put this critter together and that will be the easy part.  Yep decided to put it by the pond and also decided the small 'mini mountain' had to go.  It would just take up to much room under the gazebo and even tho we liked it when we put it up 20 or so years ago the bigger mini mountain is more then enough. 

And I couldn't load as many as I wanted at one time being my 'dump truck' done' dump like it use to . 

Then all almost went well, seems the mower deck scraped on the top of the ramp so I took it off. More better. 

For sure this is going to be a pain in the everything.  Not that I over built this thing cuz for once I didn't, but the rocks are a lot heavier then they was 20 years ago.  The only place to get the tractor and triler in was between the laundry room and the pond which was not convient. 

After three loads I got smarter and built a ramp over the stream that almost worked.  Had to clear some ground to get the tractor close to the ramps. 

Finally I got back to tearing out the mountain which only took me three day's.  Hey it was hot and I was slow.

Only had this thing for three years and still had the break oil in it so I tooks the time to change it, the oil that is.  At least it was something I could do in the shade and there do seem to be a lack of same around here. 
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So back to the project, this mini mountain was a habitat for small critters like toads and lizards.  I had tunnels and caves all thru it and as I was tearing it down I seen a lot of lizards head for the bigger rock pile. 
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FINALLY I got close to the finish of the tear down and did have a few challanges like the BIG chunkes of rock. 

But I got it handled and then tried to handle the mess on the wall.  I put tar paper between the rocks and the wall to protect the wall,  Should have used something else cuz it stuck to the wall and I spent 6 hours getting it off.  Also left behind some stians.

Finally it was time to cement in where the rocks was at so like Monte I calls in the cement truck. 

It sure hurt to do it but had to chunk off a good part of this tree.  The lower branch gave some good shade but just did 
not need it inside the gazebo.  So trying not to drop it on my fish house I climbs up and chunks off some of the top. 

Saturday on the 5th of June I finally got the bottom part of the frame up.  Had to set it up so I could build landing pads for 
the legs with a bolt in the cement to hold this thing down.  At least I hope it does.  This leg wasn't bad being it came just 
to the edge of the stream that comes off the fish pond.  I had to chunk off the top of the rock that was a duzie of a job. 

This end sit inside the stream so I had to make a box for it to sit on.  A whole lot went into finishing 
this thing like the missing parts I had to fight to get but finally it was time to put the top on. 

One would thunk that that woule be that but one would not know me iffen they thunked that.  Firestes thing to notice would be the 'dirt' area on the right by the stream.  Once again I calls in a cement truck and fixed it. 

So after coffee with Big Al, Monte and family was trying to get lost in Carles Bad Caverns, I stops at Lowe's and 
got some cement.  By noon this job was done and it was so hot the cement dried as fast as I got it on the ground. 

What ever do you mean "STILL NOT DONE" !  I got to checking behind the siding where the mini mountain was and all the wood was rotted out.  As it would happen while Monte and family was trying to fall in the Grand Canyon the guys that put my windows    in was next door and when ask they gave me a price to do the job with new siding that was cheaper then doing it my own self. 

Good job guy's, NOW it's a done deal ~