Outdoors
Little Chores
Sometimes ya' just gotta putter. You know - those hours or days when you engage in casual, leisurely activity, often without a specific goal or purpose. Maybe it's an hour or two in the workshop, or just tinkering with or adjusting things around the house. Spring is here, but I don't have any major house projects lined up yet, but I wanted to do something, so outside we went and jumped into a couple puttering tasks! Let's get into it...
The Potting Bench
Notice I didn't say, The "Puttering" Bench! I crack me up! Anyway, The potting bench was built back in '22, and stained Valspar's Forestland.
It's an absolutely stunning color and kind of cheered up an already naturally cheerful back yard.
The stain has held up well, but we've endeavored to re-stain the potting bench and the garden bench every couple years just to help extend the lifespan of these two pieces. This has worked out well for the garden bench which I built during the fence project way back in 2001!
After a little bit of cleanup, moving the potting bench under the carport, and thirty-ish minutes of feverish brush strokes, the bench had a fresh coat of stain! And, while the bench was in the carport, I cleaned up and trimmed around the little block "patio" where the bench lives.
And just like that - good to go for another couple years!
The Fencepost Cap
Also back in '22, we replaced all the fencing at 173 (originally installed in 2001). When I first put the fencing in I used "Gothic" style post caps.
Puttering is the act of doing dozens of little chores that no one knows need to be done, that no one wants to do and no one notices have been done. - Unknown
The thing is though, after replacing the fences in '22, somehow I forgot to put a cap on one of the driveway gate posts!
As it turns out, I still had some salvaged post caps that I kept after removing them from the back gate pergola. They were pretty aged, and on this one the cap base was broken in two...
So I filled the large splits with outdoor quality glue mixed with sawdust.
And glued the halves of the base back together.
After some light sanding, I laid out the center of the post to screw the cap through the base into the post...
Then, I made sure both sides of the previously split base stayed aligned, I drove in a few small finish nails. I didn't stain the cap yet, but I will when the weather clears up again. Maybe I'll put an updated picture in this post once that's complete!
New "Stones" for the Front Walkway
The final bit of puttering (all this took place last Saturday by the way) was to make a few new "stones" for the front walkway. I won't get into it much right now because I'm sensing a whole new post on the walkway coming your way, but here's a little prep.
Back in '99 when the sewer pipe was replaced, they had to tear up the sidewalk. Instead of replacing it with your stand concrete - a straight shot to the front door, we decided a bit of a winded path with a stone look would be awesome, and I made the "stones" out of concrete using a form,
Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. - Thomas A. Edison
It looks great but over the years I've noticed there was a depression at one end of the walkway caused by settling. In a heavy rain, there's always a somewhat substantial puddle there. Well, it's time to fix that, and while I'm at it, I want to widen that same end a little, and to do that I'd need a few more stones. So I got the form out, and added some concrete dye. This last piece would prove to be totally unnecessary - but we'll talk about that another time!
And just like that - we have a few new stones!
And that wrapped up the a lovely and fun day of puttering. In all this, I think the only thing that was actually planned was staining the potting bench. The rest just came on as the day moved along! Well, that's that...thanks for stopping by and - see ya' next time!
