Thanksgiving

Whew! Thanksgiving was quite a holiday this year! We hosted about 26 people at the house and had PLENTY to eat. We deeply missed Brooke, Emily, and Kyle this year! However, what made this Thanksgiving unique was the work done outside of the kitchen. Laurie's cousin, Shane, is a gifted landscape designer working as a tree salesman at Fannin Tree Farm in the DFW metroplex. He was gracious enough to design the layout for our front landscaping. Not only that, but he rented a U-Haul, purchased the plants needed (including 3 big trees) and brought the plants down to us.

Wednesday, I had to work at my paying job so he and Laurie spent much of the day doing last minute stuff and working their tails off outlining the beds. Shane is a pro at running a Bobcat!

Thursday, Shane enlisted the help of long-time friend and fellow landscaper, Paul Wilson. It was COLD, COLD, COLD on Thursday, but Shane, Paul, my father-in-law, and I all layered up in clothes and spent most of the day doing bed preparation tilling in compost with top-soil, and other stuff like that. The landscaping day ended by planting the two big trees at the north and south ends of our beds. At this point it was actually snowing and neighbors would slow down and stare as they drove by watching the crazy people plant a tree in the snow.

Friday, that same group of folks spent Friday planting the plants, spreading mulch, and picking out flagstones (not in that order). It was cold, but not snowing at this time.

Saturday we were going to get concrete rock and spread it out in the neccessary places and place the flagstones. However, it was raining and it prevented us from doing so.

The majority of the labor was done and below is a slideshow which captures the nearly completed masterpiece designed by Shane and assembled by him, Paul, and a couple of rookies. It was a blast!





Create Your Own