April 2, 2019 – It is only one brick at a time

         I have been busy supervising tree cutters, men using a Bobcat to excavate the current crushed stone driveway, and directing men with dump trucks full of sand or fill dirt and a 10-pallet load of Belgrade bricks on where they should be dumped or unloaded.

         What am I doing?

         It has been my dream for the last 20 years to have a brick driveway at this home and I am going to have my dream.

         Now, hold onto your seats – I am going to do it myself.  Yes, you heard me – little old me is going to lay one brick at a time to accomplish this dream.

         First, I had to have trees taken down that were endangering my home and another one on the back patio that was dropping slippery persimmons in the fall.  I’d slipped and fallen one too many times in the last dozen years on dropped fruit.  Trust me – more slippery than a banana peel.

         I let the volunteer persimmon tree grow and bear fruit because the local “critters” would come at night and munch on the frosted dropped fruit.  I like nature, I like to catch a glimpse of critters eating in the wild, even if it is on my back patio.  But, having stepped and slipped on squashed persimmons one too many times – it was no longer good for my health to keep the tree.

         Then, we left a little tree grow at the end of our driveway.  But, that too became large and inconvenient in tucking in the cars.  Then it started to drop limbs that were larger than a man’s arm and I had to make the call.  I wanted to tuck the cars in on a brick driveway and the tree had to go. It was taken down two weeks ago.

         We live in the country . . .  most everyone has a gravel driveway that requires additional crushed stone or leveling or both on a yearly basis. We are no different.  We’ve done that for 20 years.  This year, year 21, I am changing my course of action.  Multiplying the cost of the crushed stone deliveries by 20 years would have paid for my brick driveway.  I don’t want to order another load of crushed stone or mess with it again.

         The driveway is about 115 feet long – YUP – long driveway. Starts out as ample car width and then fans out to fit two cars amply at the end near the house.

         Crushed stone doesn’t do much for your good shoes – scuffs them up and don’t even think about wearing heels.  When I do wear heels, I wear flat shoes and put on my heels when I arrive at my destination.  I am sick of it.  I’ve ruined more good shoes than I can even count. I’ve had enough. 

         I am rectifying the situation.

         After I had the problem trees taken down, I hired a man with a Bobcat to scarf out the majority of the crushed stone to get the driveway leveled off and into a hard surface.

         I ordered bricks from a Belgrade distributor and the bricks arrived yesterday afternoon.

         And, one of my girlfriend’s husband, Don, is a retired stone mason.  I called and asked if he would consider showing me how to cut a brick.  I’d purchased a stone chisel and sadly I’d purchased the wrong type of stone hammer. [I fixed that yesterday by returning the wrong one and getting the right one.]

         Don brought his brick hammer and gave me a brick cutting lesson.  The lesson was less than 30 seconds long.  He took a brick, tapped it with the chisel tip of his brick hammer across the width, then at the side, across the other width side and then gently tapped the chisel end of the brick all done as he held the brick in one hand out away from his feet.  Tap, tap, tap – less than 20 taps and the brick broke into two perfect halves right before my eyes.  WOW. He didn’t even use the chisel – just tapped it with his brick hammer.

         It was MAGIC – it took him less than a minute to accomplish it and I was “jazzed” – I am excited.  Now that I have seen it done – live and in person – even I feel I can accomplish this task.

         I repeat:  It has been my dream to have a brick driveway and I am going to have my dream.

         I hope you follow me along my journey.

         Beginning pictures of the driveway below.  View out to the street.

        

        View from street toward house.