Proverbial Monkies

You may remember I had a tree die last year.  I vowed to honor that tree because it was my favorite on the property.  After much thought, I decided an old proverb would be suitable for the 110+ year old oak.  In spirit of my decision, I kept the outcome a secret from the neighbors.  I even told the carver not to say anything to them if they ask.  It was quite the talk of the street.

In the Chinese Zodiac, I'm the sign of the Monkey.  It's in my nature to be a little mischievous.

I left about 12 feet of tree left for carving.  Much of it had to be removed to create the sculpture.  You start to see the figures take shape.

Say hello to my monkey trio - Mizaru, Kikazaru, and Iwazaru.  You'll notice there's a crack forming.  My thought was it should be on the other side and it would fit in better.  Nature doesn't always do what we want.  Monkey crack - there I said it!

I made the call to go ahead with the finishing and staining.  We'll revisit and see about fixing the crack once the tree has fully dried.  By the way, the dark coloring on the base came from nails in the trunk.

I'm loving it and so are the neighbors.  People stop on the road to look and take pictures.  The kids on the school bus get very excited when driving by.  I think I made the right choice.  The 10 foot tall naked woman might not have gone over as well.  Not to worry, I have other trees...

April Fools

It seems Mother Nature has a sense of humor.  She decided we needed snow on April 1st.

Or did it really happen?

By lunch you couldn't tell anything had been on the ground.

I'm so stoned

It's only a figurative statement.  The reality is that my property contains quite a bit of field stone.  And oak trees.  Thus I decided to name the place Stoned Oak.  You only have to go down a few inches into the soil to hit a rock and this time of year, you are quite likely to be hit by falling acorns.  Nature is dangerous - stay inside.

So the question I've been asking myself is... why bring in more stone?  The property yields enough for doing borders but last year I wanted to do a three level terrace.  I hired a landscape guy to take care of that for me.  A beast has to know his limitations.  I liked the stone he used so much that I bought more from him.  I used this to replace the rotting railroad ties bordering the flower beds.  It turned out very nice and everything matches.

However, the big project for this year though went well beyond the amateur level.  I had to call in some big guns.  I say I had to but really - I wanted to.  And I'm so glad I did.  There was a retaining wall which was falling down at the side of the house.  It wasn't really an eyesore to the casual viewer but to me it was terrible.  The idea was to rebuild the wall and perhaps add some stairs to make a pathway around that side.   Enter Devin Devine the wizard of stone.  Ok, he doesn't call himself a wizard but it sounds good to me.  I met him at a local home show and was convinced he was the guy for the job after consulting with him.  Below you'll see what he did to make an eyesore into a focal point.  Yes, I had to buy more stone.

There is a small stone wall in there but with the ivy it's similar to finding Waldo.

 

The pictures barely do it justice.  This is a sweet piece of stonework.  I'd even call it artwork.  Realize that all the stone is dry stacked.  No mortar was hurt or killed during it's production.  Devin is definitely coming back to do more art like this at the Lair.