Patio & Water Supply (yes, this post is about Streetscaping, I'm just slow to get there)

I was going to name this post Streetscaping: Dragging it Out, but I didn't want anyone to get the impression that the project is taking too long when, in fact, it's moving along rather quickly. I'm still updating about the Streetscape, but I have a bunch of other stuff I need to blather about first (I'm the one dragging it out). I'll get back to it directly...

This is (will be) the new patio:

Not much to look at yet, huh? It's ready for the concrete to be poured. The plastic (old, holey tarps) are laid out underneath the wire and the concrete truck will be here first thing Saturday morning.

It's still a bit rough around the edges, but I'm excited that it's all coming together.

If you haven't been in to check out the stage-side loft, you don't know how cool the view is from up there (will post more on that, too); from the patio, the scenery is of the hillside that overlooks Main Street with the old high school dominating. The landscaping that is planned will provide a green, relaxing space.

If you look closely at this next picture, you can just see a green garden hose in the bottom right corner going up the hill (I tell you why in the next post):

By walking to the far edge of the patio, I had a good view of the work going on in the street:

The gas company was working on their lines and the City of Grafton was working replacing the fire hydrant in preparation for the sidewalk replacement moving on down the street.

Quite industrious!

For all the hard work and to all the hard workers: Thank you for doing so much for progress in Grafton!

Downtown Streetscaping - Tuesday June 29, 2010

Grafton's Main Street 'Streetscape Phase II' started last Monday. It's been a bit dusty and noisy and congested down here with all the work. Even with the slight inconvenience, it's wonderful to see progress in downtown.

(This project has, so far, produced at least a couple of good stories - and you know how I like a good story.... This is the first of at least 3 updates related to the construction goings-ons...)

These first pictures I'm posting are after the old sidewalks had been jack-hammered and ripped up. These almost-complete views are a reminder that this whole mess will be well worth the effort in a very short time.

This picture is from Tuesday (yesterday), very early in the morning (you can see the mist in the hills in the far background) and half of the section they were pouring is already poured and ready for finishing:

Grafton's Builder's Service & Supply had one of their concrete trucks here at 6am and the guys of R&R Construction, who are doing this phase of the sidewalk replacement, were here even earlier.

This next shot is from later in the day; the concrete is still green (raw), but not goopy:

New sidewalks!

Check out this post over at the Taylor County Blog Project for an old post about the first phase of sidewalk replacement.

This second phase means that we will soon have classy streetlights on this end of town, too.

Progress is good. Messy (even goopy), sometimes, but good.

Sidewalk Warning

This is old news, but it's funny enough to revisit...

I love digital cameras for many reasons, but automatically dated photo files have to be one of the major advantages.
I'm one of those people, before digital photography, who developed a roll of film, looked at the pictures, and then dumped them into a box with the intention of putting them into a photo album at some future, unspecified time. That future, unspecified time never seemed to arrive, and I added to my intentions with thoughts of flawless chronology and scrap-booking artistry, which, of course, only pushed that elusive unspecified time further into the future.
Ha!
And then enter the digital camera. Pictures are automatically developed as soon as I upload them so I can look and dump even more quickly. Only instead of into a box, I dump them into a virtual file folder, so I'm not collecting dust and taking up space (or not much) and I feel much more organized because of it. AND the picture automatically tells me when it was taken so that my dreams of flawless chronology have finally come true!
So, for that reason alone, I am able to say that this picture was taken in April, almost exactly three months ago:

It's Dozer's finger pointing at a crack in the sidewalk.
Why?
Well, before I get to that, I should point out the white crud on the fingernail and knuckle.
It's drywall mud.
Prior to automatic picture dating, I would have looked at the drywall mud on the little hand in this picture and then tried to figure out the approximate time period of drywall mudding and at which stage I would have welcomed help from the kids and then used that information to figure out when this picture was taken.
Not very efficient, huh? (I hope I'm not the only one who does stupid stuff like that).

He's pointing at an ant house.
It doesn't qualify as an ant hill, because it's not big enough, so the kids named it the ant house.
Actually, there are two entrances (or an entrance and an exit?) and they did a good job of drawing attention to the two holes with sidewalk chalk:

"Watch out for Ant homes."
This message was intended to deter pedestrians from unknowingly stepping on the ants.

With arrows added for clarity:


And then they decided that the little ants needed some help with their food supply:


Potato chips and sandwich crusts.



The care, feeding, and observation of these ants kept both Dozer and Screech occupied for most of the day.
Of course, I got to watch for a while, too, and I have to say that it is very satisfying and fascinating to sit on the sidewalk and watch those tiny little critters team up and tear up hunks of food into pieces that will fit into their ant home.

So, don't forget, "Please be nice to ants:"


Update:
Now that summer is here and the sun is hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, the ants are nowhere to be found and the kids have been forced to find other forms of entertainment....