While walking around the yard examining my half-dead plants, I noticed that the lawn mower had broken one of the irrigation pipes where it comes out of the ground. I reported it to the office. A man came by the next day to fix it. I asked him if he could help me figure out the five zones on the irrigation system controller. He turned it to “manual” and turned on each zone in turn. While doing so, he noticed that all of them were set to only three minutes, three times a week. Not enough for the summer in Florida! No wonder all my shrubs were sickly.
One of our items on the fix-it list was the painted lanai floor. The paint was peeling up. When the painter came and patched the spots, he told us that they had mixed too much sand in the paint (to make the floor non-skid) and it would continue to peel. We decided to go ahead and come up with some flooring. A neighbor recommended “pool decking”.
The man from Mid-State Stone , with a helper, arrived at 0800. Andy and I had already moved most of the patio furniture from the lanai; they moved the rest. Then I positioned myself inside the sliding glass door to watch them work.
They carried in bags of lentil-sized river gravel. This is the lanai at 0836.The helper mixed up the epoxy in a blue bucket, measuring with two cook pots.He made a pile of three bags of gravel, one each of black, white, and reddish-brown.Then he mixed them thoroughly with a shovel.He spread the pile with a rake.The master began spreading and smoothing the gravel with a trowel.The helper mixed the next batch as the master worked.Here is a closer look. It is smooth and shiny.This man must have incredible abs and arms. He stretched out to do heavy work. He made grooves above the grooves in the concrete.Finishing up the second row while the third row is spread.Here is a pile of the three colors before being mixed. The black and red have more brown in them than I was expecting.It was fun to watch him pouring the thick epoxy into the gravel volcano.The process was very similar to making biscuits.Starting on the last row.He used the bottle of water to keep the trowel wet so the epoxy would not accumulate on it.Maybe he should have sprayed some on the soles of his shoes.He was cornered while mixing the last batch of epoxy.He made the well with his shoe.Here is a closer look at the tiny gravel.The master was taking a break in the golf cart while the helper spread the last batch of gravel.He said he has been doing this for twenty years. This is the leftover gravel at the end of the job.The job is done.They loaded their gear back into the truck at 1151. I suppose they stopped for lunch before heading to the afternoon job.
Bill Snow called late in the afternoon to say that he and Mary would be spending the night at Lake Louisa State Park, just thirty minutes from us. So we drove down there to meet them and got there before they did. We waited at the entrance gate.
Bill and Mary’s old fifth-wheel at Lake Louisa. They have bought a newer on. The evening sun was shining through the Spanish Moss at their campsite.Mary and Yuki
I also took a photo of Bill, but it turned out most unflattering.
Dinata Misovec 