A Cut In Time Saves Nine

I learned something new this week. To avoid unwanted cracks in the new patio and sidewalk, the concrete specialist returned to cut the dried creations. He made two cuts in the patio, dividing the space into four equal parts. The front sidewalk has cuts every six feet. This process prevents the concrete from cracking in the winter when the ground freezes and thaws.

A life analogy really. Introduce a few cracks into your persona and when life throws you a curve ball, it doesn't surprise you quite as much as it would if your life were perfect.

Can You Dig It?

We continued working on the front yard through the Easter long weekend. The large holes left by the vacated stumps were filled in with the dirt that was excavated earlier on in the tree removal process. It felt like a make-work project. Dig a hole, then fill it again.

Digging and filling holes in one's front yard is good fodder for neighbourly conversations. Anyone walking by slowed their gait, and some even stopped to look at the progress. When asked where their shovels were, the lookie-loos feigned hearing loss. Our good neighbour, Glen, actually showed up on Saturday with a shovel in hand. He spent the better part of the morning helping Al.

Stumped

Hawleyscape Tree Service arrived at 8:30 a.m. and began the day-long task of grinding four large stumps in our front yard. The one-man operation grew to two later in the day. At 5:30 p.m. the grinding machine was rolled back onto its trailer. (Later that same week, Hawleyscape returned and removed two truckloads of sawdust chips.)

Mid-afternoon, Harri's Concrete Company showed up and resumed work on the front sidewalk. They jack-hammered the existing front stoop to oblivion, excavated the old path that runs in front of the house, and packed the entire two areas with crushed gravel. When drier weather returns to the Lower Mainland, new concrete will be poured and stamped. It will match the backyard patio.

People who remove tree stumps and pour concrete for a living don't need gym memberships.

Keeping Up With The Stelmachs

The Woodland Acres' neighbourhood is spiffing up its curb appeal. It's a wonderful coincidence that at the same time as the Stelmach-Grant house is undergoing an exterior transformation, neighbours have also taken to transforming their property.

Ana and Marin live on the northside. We visited in our front yards last weekend and discussed the merits of removing the tall, mangled fir trees. Talk then turned to the gangly set of cedars running along our adjoining property lines. Ana and Marin planted the trees in 1994 and what started off as a manageable, even nice looking hedge, gradually grew into an unattractive clump of trees. Last night, when the "Stelmach" part of the "Stelmach-Grant" household was outside working, he noticed that the "hedge" had been significantly trimmed to a more manageable height of 20 feet. Our neighbours had the trees topped shortly after our conversation on the weekend. Privacy retained, beauty restored.

And then there's Don, who lives on the southside. Don's antiquated swimming pool is in the part of his yard that runs next to ours. His equally antiquated cedar fence has seen better days. Don talked with Mr. Stelmach last night and informed him that he was removing the pool this year and replacing it with a 23' x 23' garage. And it doesn't stop there -- he's also replacing the fence.

Good fences and trimmed hedges make good neighbours.

True Grid

The interior of our house completed its two-year facelift in February 2010. Now for the exterior. I will use this space to document the outside transformation of our 1979 two-storey dwelling. And now, on to the great outdoors.

First, the backyard patio. Initially, we thought our only options were wood or brick. Until we learned about "stamped" concrete. Here's the process:

- Excavate the patio area (remove sod, roots and ancient artifacts circa 1970)

- Level the area with a power compactor

- Fill the area with 4" of crushed gravel

- Flatten with power compactor

- Arrange iron rods in 18" squares

- Pour tinted concrete

- Apply "skin" (pattern) and tamp down on wet concrete

- Remove skins

- Seal, let dry, then seal again



Our contractor, Harri, has completed the first five steps. Now we wait for a stretch of dry weather so he can pour concrete. Harri doesn't have a website, but if you're interested in what the finished product looks like, click here.

Minute's the Limit

Dr. Jamie Timmons, an exercise biologist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, was interviewed by CBC's Bob McDonald on Saturday. Before he started the interview, Bob asked his listeners, "Are you tired of being out-of-shape? Want all the health benefits of being an athlete, but can't commit to all those grueling hours in the gym? Well, now you can work out in as little as six minutes a week! Yes, it sounds like another one of those fly-by-night fitness fads, but there's some pretty solid evidence that short, intense bursts of exercise do have some pretty impressive effects."

Here's a link to the interview. It's worth a listen.

Elephant Society: How Civilized

A familiar scene at most doctors' offices is a waiting room with vinyl-covered chairs and a low-rise coffee table strewn with current, and not-so-current, magazines and newspapers. On one particular visit, I was drawn to a copy of the National Geographic magazine. As a kid, I remember that my older brother had a subscription to the National Geographic. Every month, without fail, a copy of the glossy periodical would arrive in our tall green mailbox on the corner of Hammond and Bonson in Pitt Meadows. That was a long time ago. Now, almost 50 years later, the magazine still looks the same: a thin yellow border surrounding a spectacular photo, be it of man or beast.

On the doctor’s office copy, there was a close up picture of two elephants -- a baby and his mother. The baby seemed to have as many wrinkles as his mother -- he was just smaller. Anyway, whether it was nostalgia or an interest in the elephant article, I picked up the magazine and flipped to the section that told the story of the elephant society.

Two words in the article struck me -- security and learning. Studies show that an elephants’ society is based primarily on security for its members and life-long learning. The old teach the young. Elephant calves are encouraged to play fight in their safe environment, because it teaches self-defence -- something that's needed if an elephant is to survive in the grown-up world.

It occurred to me that, like adult elephants, human elders spend a good part of their lives nurturing the younger generation. Since human families are the cornerstone of any civilization we'd be wise to heed the simple ways of elephants, though we may want to keep that skin cream handy to ward off the wrinkles.