Welcome to the Our Yard!
We are now in
a home with a very small yard. Gone are the days when we would spend every
Saturday and Sunday keeping the yard looking beautiful. The majority of yard
decorations seen in the Thurlow Street yard below were given to our girls or
left in the yard as part of the house sale. So - I get to make a whole new batch
for the new house. The front yard will have seasonally appropriate decorations
added - like this "Countdown to Christmas." It will be exciting to
decorate the house.
Here in "The Plantation at Leesburg", there are 19 "Villages." Each if these Villages has a large entry sign on a brick wall like this one. The residents of each village decorate this area for all of the major holidays. Some are very creative.
I've already made some figures to be used in the Waterbridge Thanksgiving and Christmas decorating schemes.
The Thanksgiving figures are near life-size.
The penguins will be strung with lights as though trimming a tree. They stand about 5' tall.
This Easter Bunny stands about 4' high and will look good greeting visitors to Waterbridge Court.
Since we are in Florida, many of the decorations I had to put away for the winter will now be able to stay out all year round. The yard is a place for large birds. They are very popular yard decorations here in Florida. This is a Great Blue Heron. He sits out near the pool for now.
These cranes came out pretty good and they've been noticed and complimented by many people. I think I'm done making birds for now,
The following describes the yard and decorations of our previous home - in Georgetown, Massachusetts. I leave it here for you to see.
We have a yard that includes about 3/4 acre of lawn. The house was built in an ancient apple orchard. The Thurlow Farm's apple orchard. In the New England style, the ground is full of rocks and ledge. So - having a garden and decorating can be a challenge. Over the years - we've made many yard ornamentals. Some were done with regular pine and didn't last very long. Now we are trying to use more suitable materials.
Christmas
is a time of decoration in earnest. I've made a set of reindeer and a sleigh as
the centerpiece in the front yard. This was one of the first I ever did of these
reindeer. We like them and they look great on the front lawn. Since
"Woodolph", I've made five others of this size, and a matching sleigh.
I liked these so much that I made a group that are one half this size -
including a sleigh. That set is on loan to Dawn and Dave. The large ones are
made of 2" stock that is cut to the various basic forms. Then The SawDust
starts. Most of the pieces are heavily contoured. Lots of sanding. Then they are
assembled, stained and finished. The little elf is one of several. They are cut
out like a jig saw puzzle, contoured, painted and then glued to a backer board.
They look great. All of the reindeer, sleighs and elves are the design of Ken
and Diane Williams from Bear Lake, PA. They have many great designs.
Ingenious.....
This is a terrible picture - but the best this amateur photographer seems to be able to get with my little Kodak. You can see - if you look real close - the reindeer, elves and sleigh. I'm very pleased with them. The first few years we would put them out in the morning and take them in at night. We've stopped doing that. I put them out Thanksgiving week and take them in when I get a chance after Christmas. They spend the rest of the year in the cellar.
The latest
large creation for the yard is this octagonal Purple Martin House. It has eight
individual "apartments" and is easily disassembled for cleaning. When
it's installed in the yard in early May, it will be 10' above the ground. Then
we'll cross our fingers and hope some purple martins move in.
The preceding paragraph was written in the
spring of 99. That impressive, expensive, birdhouse was successfully mounted on
a 12', 4x4, that I had trimmed to be octagonal, in a corner of the garden. After
a while, the 4x4 bowed so bad that the birdhouse was now at a terrible angle.
What to do. One day, I noticed a couple pieces of trim on the ground and I was
soon on a ladder to survey the situation. Well - the darned thing fell apart as
I handled it. Apparently the yellow weatherproof glue didn't take very well in
that close-grained poplar. It's now in a hundred pieces - in a bag - in a corner
of The SawDust Shop. Perhaps I'll put it back together again -- some day.
The
picture on the right shows a Bird Condo. I made this several years ago with a
plan from "Cherry Tree." It has 4 apartments and is really meant to be
ornamental rather than functional. Though I've seen birds looking, none have
ever used it. The roofs are made of copper sheet and are starting to age into
the classic copper patina. It was originally just stained but started to look
pretty bad - so this winter, I painted it the colors of the house. I liked it so
much, I made several of them as gifts for the girls and other friends.
No New England yard is complete without some form of Wishing Well. It must be unique and properly placed in a subtle, but prominent, position. I made this one from a plan and painted it the colors of the house. We keep annual flowers in it during the summer and it stays out all year. I made this piece from pressure treated lumber - so it should last a while.
I wanted a
windmill in the yard for some reason. I liked this plan and was interested in
the compound angles. It was easier than I expected and came out pretty nice. I
even painted a little hummingbird on it so it would fit into the garden. It
really aims into the wind and the blades spin. It takes a pretty stiff breeze to
get the blades turning - but that's good I think. I mounted it using a pressure
treated 2x4 sunk into the ground and passing through a cut-out in the bottom and
up into the header of the tower. I have to touch up the paint annually for a
crisp appearance.
This is a little "Greeting" I made to stand on one end of the deck. I copied it out of a catalog - reverse engineering at work. The little flower under the heart is hung on a hook. It's changeable for all seasons. It's a nice addition to the deck.
This winter, 1999/2000, I still wanted a Purple Martin House. I saw a new plan in a Cherrytree Catalog and here it is. It's made almost entirely of exterior plywood and screwed and glued together. I cut the old 4x4 off about 2' off the ground (I installed it with 100# of concrete under ground) and made a hinge arrangement to add 8' of new 4x4 (cut to be octagonal). The "Barn" has 14 compartments and is very heavy. I've seen sparrows looking in the houses - but no Purple Martins - yet.
if you have any questions/comments or
simply to chat.
