Impatience Overcomes Prudence

This small stone bench weighs 180 pounds. It was stated right on the tag. The legs are separate, and they each weigh about 25 pounds, so the top is easily 130 pounds of solid stone.
 

I installed it by myself. I know, I'm as impressed as you are.

I bought it a few weeks ago, and the man at the nursery store put the three pieces in my car. When I got home I slid the heavy top down onto a dolly and moved it out of the way. But when it came time to get it over the garage doorstep, out over gravel and mulch and into the garden to place it, level and secure, the weight was more than I could handle.

I decided to wait for our house painter to come on Monday -- he's doing some stain work on the patio and I know he'd help me lift it.

But impatience overcame prudence and I put the thing in the garden on Sunday.

To level it I needed a sand base and I had just the resource available: natural caliche out in the field by our house. It's pure sand with lots of calcium carbonate and it makes a very good cement. I just filled a bucket, dumped it where the legs were to go and watered it. I used a level, to Jim's agita. He doesn't normally let me use his good tools when mud is involved.

Once the legs were spaced at the right distance, leveled and set in, I lifted the top, barely, and placed it. It wasn't graceful or even safe. I did not want Jim to help, with his bad back, so I lifted that top slab alone.

And here it is, an addition to the birdbath garden. I have plants on order -- some sages and other things -- to flank it on the left, and I will need to keep the rose of Sharon trimmed so I can sit on it.

Because I do want to sit out there in the morning shade. Not for long, it's a backless bench and it's stone, and only comfortable for a short spell. But it gives me a chance to sit down and see my gardens from another angle.

I like looking back into the patio alcove and seeing the tall grasses under the window head-on instead of to my side as I pass by all the time.

And the same is true of this garden between the kitchen door and gate. I never see it from the front, only sideways as I go from the gate to the door. Sitting on the stone bench gives me the full view.

The bench itself disappears behind the birdbath, and when the new plants go in to the side of it, it will be even more unobtrusive.

I'll enjoy some moments out there communing with the birds in the birdbath and seeing the yard from a different angle. And I'll remember with satisfaction that I installed it myself, making cement, re-arranging the irrigation lines that run there, then lifting 130 pounds, and leveling it just so.

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