One Thing Leads to Another
Updated: Aug 3
Topping Off the Granite Path
Near the beginning of my prayer garden adventure in 2011, I made a granite path from each side of the front of the house all the way around to the back. It’s basically a full circle around the house. I started on the left side (read A Pathway of Living Stones ), and then the right side, which leads to my storage area. The back was last.
It was quite a lot of work, but fulfilling and enjoyable, with God speaking to me along the way. I began by laying the stone borders and landscape fabric, then hauling load after load of decomposed granite, followed by spreading, raking, and tamping. Starting from the front walkway, I went across, then around the left side of the house to the back gate. It was about 3 ft wide. A wide path allows for the overgrowth of plants, which can completely obstruct a narrow one as they grow. Later, I laid a path on the right side of the house.
When it came to the back—from side gate to the other side gate—I knew how much work it was and decided to hire it out. Trees Please (no longer in business) laid a steel border and made the path, which is quite large, for a very reasonable price. More space in the back allowed for a wider path, 4-5 ft.
After a few years, I was given some small granite stone which I made the mistake of adding to parts of the path. I don't recommend this. When raking the path, the larger rocks are raked up with acorns and larger debris, so you either have to separate them somehow or just throw them in the bin with the debris. “One-half minus” decomposed granite is the standard (which I used originally) and that’s the best, at least for a yard like mine that drops acorns and twigs.
After eleven years, the rain had washed away some of the smaller particles, leaving bare
spots and bigger stones. Finally, with cooler weather at hand, it was time to resurface the path, and it just so happened my sixteen-year-old grandson needed to earn some money. This time I had a delivery truck dump four yards of ½ minus on my driveway and hired my grandson and his two cousins to do the work. I helped a little for the fun of it.
And what fun we had! They worked for five hours, with short breaks and a hotdog lunch. They listened to Christmas music and sang and danced as they shoveled. They shouted out lines from the movie “Holes”: “I’m tired of digging, Grandpa!” and the answering “Well that’s too dang bad, keep digging!” It filled my heart with joy to watch them, and it was worth every penny of their generous wage.
After they dumped wheelbarrowfulls of granite all around and raked it smooth, they put away tools and it was time to go.They did the heavy lifting, but I still have work to do: water down and tamp the newly spread DG, and fill any low spots with the pile left on the driveway. I'm happy the path is topped off; it should last many years, but, as you know, one thing leads to another.
As I’m tamping and filling a few spots, I see that much of the rock edging has sunk over the years and is buried. I might as well dig up the worse ones and raise them up. In preparation for resurfacing, I had raked up as much of the larger granite in the path as I could and saved it. It made a good base underneath the stones as I raised them up higher.
As I work, I think “This will most likely be the last time I do this. In another 11 years I’ll be an octogenarian.” Mixed emotions stir my heart: amazement, surprise, gratefulness, nostalgia, joy and sorrow. Past, present, and future meld together as I face the reality of aging and uncertainty. I don’t know how things will be in another 10 years, in my world and the world at large, but I’m confident I need not worry because the One and Only Creator acts in Love in every Time and Circumstance, though human eye may not see or understand.
In the meantime, I’ll do what I love to do as long as I’m able—like the natural stone mosaic I’m now working on (which I’ll tell you about next month!)—because one thing leads to another.
Comments