The Old Folks Home

[Arielle]

as I read the first paragraph above the statues , I thought you were talking chikens or swans, so was startled to find I was totoally off base-- maybe you need the swans to discourage any art theifs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The beautiful thing about those statues is someone would need a crane to steal them. I'm guessing they're around 800 lbs. each. When the shop owner said I could have them, I recruited a buddy with a flatbed trailer. we backed it up right to the door of the shop the statues flanked the door. We carefully lowered them to the side of the trailer and it was all we could do to hoist the base up and slide it onto the trailer. I didn't know where I was going to put them but I didn't have time to pour a foundation and if they had gone anywhere on the ground they would have sunk pretty quickly. The driveway is 120+ year old gravel so is very hard packed and widens there so that's where they went. When I got home we used cables and my bobcat to lift them off the trailer and set them in place where they stand today. They may be there forever.

 

[ronott1]

The beautiful thing about those statues is someone would need a crane to steal them. I'm guessing they're around 800 lbs. each. When the shop owner said I could have them, I recruited a buddy with a flatbed trailer. we backed it up right to the door of the shop the statues flanked the door. We carefully lowered them to the side of the trailer and it was all we could do to hoist the base up and slide it onto the trailer. I didn't know where I was going to put them but I didn't have time to pour a foundation and if they had gone anywhere on the ground they would have sunk pretty quickly. The driveway is 120+ year old gravel so is very hard packed and widens there so that's where they went. When I got home we used cables and my bobcat to lift them off the trailer and set them in place where they stand today. They may be there forever.

It is sad to think people may steel your yard decorations. What a world it is(ok it has always been like that).

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Ever see the pictures of when kids drive around all over town stealing pink flamingos and then put them all in one person's yard? Not nice but kinda funny.

Christmas decorations are a big thing around here and always have been. When I was a kid living in the city of St. Louis, the city had an annual contest. First, second and third place were always pictured in the St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper. One year, every winner was in my neighborhood. The family at the opposite end of my street won first place (which they did almost every year). Among many of the cool things they had was huge homemade bible in the middle of the yard that was about 20'X15' opened to what I seem to remember was Luke 2:1-20 - The Birth of Jesus.
The house at the top of the street from us won second place. They had a very small backyard the length of which faced a side street. It had a nativity scene with live animals - a donkey, several sheep and a calf. The entire yard had about 2 feet of straw fluffed up.
Our house won 3rd place. My mother made a Santa Claus years earlier with a jigsaw using plywood. She painted him up to look very realistic and he was as tall as our single story house just fitting under the eave. He was waving with one hand and the other hand held a huge gift bag she made. The bag was about 5' long. We would gift wrap all sizes of boxes filled with scrap lumber to keep them from blowing away. The bag would be filled to overflowing with gift wrapped boxes and several boxes scattered on the lawn. Then we had a floodlight on Santa and the gifts. We had a huge 3 section picture window and the year we won, we painted nativity scenes on the inside of the glass. I think that put us over the top since that was the only year we did that. The entire neighborhood was a constant parade of cars in the evenings.

Every year we had to make new gift boxes because during the day we would see cars pull up in front, someone would jump out, run up to the house and grab a box or two and run away. Can you imagine that morons actually thought they were real gifts?

I remember every year she touched up Santa's paint job, just to keep him fresh looking. So each year his beard grew a little till it started to cover his belt and then she'd cover the bottom of it with red paint to redo it, sort of giving him a beard trim.

 

[getaclue]

Originally Posted by ChickenCanoe
The beautiful thing about those statues is someone would need a crane to steal them. I'm guessing they're around 800 lbs. each.

What the heck are you feeding them? LOL!

 

[Arielle]

Thank goodness for 120 year old gravel driveways--

THe flamingo sotry reminds me . . . .

Woke up one SUnday morning at college, in a suite of some 30 ag students, to every traffic sign you could imagine. THe most memorable was the saw horse type road block with the blinking amber light!! Two students had apparently gotten drunk and went on a rampage the night before. . . . . ironically "she" went to to have a very respectable job and he . . . .he was the son of a senator or brother to a senator . . . . not sure where he ended up! I can see how funny it was now! At the time I was totally annoyed because I couldn't get my breakfast cooked, lol

THanks for the walk down memory lane CC!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Originally Posted by ChickenCanoe
The beautiful thing about those statues is someone would need a crane to steal them. I'm guessing they're around 800 lbs. each.

What the heck are you feeding them? LOL!

They're a little taller than me. I have to use a ladder to paint them. They're on a 2X2' or so thick concrete base, Artemis has a dog at her feet, Paris has a tree trunk behind him. I guess those items are to make them bottom heavy. They both have bows and quivers, and they're concrete!

 

[chickisoup]

Ever see the pictures of when kids drive around all over town stealing pink flamingos and then put them all in one person's yard? Not nice but kinda funny.

Christmas decorations are a big thing around here and always have been. When I was a kid living in the city of St. Louis, the city had an annual contest. First, second and third place were always pictured in the St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper. One year, every winner was in my neighborhood. The family at the opposite end of my street won first place (which they did almost every year). Among many of the cool things they had was huge homemade bible in the middle of the yard that was about 20'X15' opened to what I seem to remember was Luke 2:1-20 - The Birth of Jesus.
The house at the top of the street from us won second place. They had a very small backyard the length of which faced a side street. It had a nativity scene with live animals - a donkey, several sheep and a calf. The entire yard had about 2 feet of straw fluffed up.
Our house won 3rd place. My mother made a Santa Claus years earlier with a jigsaw using plywood. She painted him up to look very realistic and he was as tall as our single story house just fitting under the eave. He was waving with one hand and the other hand held a huge gift bag she made. The bag was about 5' long. We would gift wrap all sizes of boxes filled with scrap lumber to keep them from blowing away. The bag would be filled to overflowing with gift wrapped boxes and several boxes scattered on the lawn. Then we had a floodlight on Santa and the gifts. We had a huge 3 section picture window and the year we won, we painted nativity scenes on the inside of the glass. I think that put us over the top since that was the only year we did that. The entire neighborhood was a constant parade of cars in the evenings.

Every year we had to make new gift boxes because during the day we would see cars pull up in front, someone would jump out, run up to the house and grab a box or two and run away. Can you imagine that morons actually thought they were real gifts?

I remember every year she touched up Santa's paint job, just to keep him fresh looking. So each year his beard grew a little till it started to cover his belt and then she'd cover the bottom of it with red paint to redo it, sort of giving him a beard trim.

Up here there is a "thing" that gets done to you. If you look out your window and see your yard filled with pink flamingos, you have to pay a "Rescue Fee" to the culprits to get them removed. It's a fundraiser and the money goes to a specific charity, usually a local food pantry or the Cancer society, etc. You get "nominated" to receive the birds by an anonymous friend. All in good fun. The local chapter of the Walk for Life national cancer annual fundraiser has put their own twist on it by decorating a toilet VERY brightly and planting it on your front lawn until you pay up. All in good fun for a good cause and this stuff can really stand out in the snow so everyone knows how long you are being a screwge. Oh, you are allowed to solicit funds from friends etc. to help.

 

[Cynthia12]

My goodness, what an afternoon we had yesterday. A neighbor gal brought by some wood for DH to work on for her Scouts..and Arrow Plaque. She went home while he worked on it. Said it would be ok to call her when done. He got done. Thought, I should just go over and show her and see if it is ok. She's lives across the street two houses over. She is sitting on the back porch looking at her mail, her two little girls are out there playing. He starts to talk to her, she turns her head around to look at him, then starts to say...oh..oh..stands up and dad says, her eyes didn't look right..he said, you better sit down..are you ok..can I get you anything? She passes out, he catches her. He calls me because he doesn't know what to do. I know she has diabetes. I said I'm coming..I ran..I fell as I got to the curb across the street. I got up, being careful to think..anything broken? I felt ok, I started to run again. Got to the back porch, she was half conscious.. eyes open but couldn't talk, even after I rubbed her mid chest area, no response. I call 911. The police get there first. I did what the 911 operator had suggested. Flat on her back, chin up. Couldn't give her anything sweet, she wasn't conscious enough to swallow. The next door neighbor had seen me running by her front window, she also knows about this gal and her diabetes. She thankfully has the husbands work number. He informs us that she is pregnant..as the paramedics got there. We were trying to get some sweet paste into her mouth, but it was clenched pretty tight, got some in. When they checked her blood sugar, it wouldn't even register. I was holding my hand under her head while they started an IV. Still not conscious. By then neighbors could see what was going on, they got hold of relatives..a sister and a niece. The sister took the kids..but, in the meantime, DH was wonderful watching them while I was on the phone, and working with her. I was talking to her, not sure she could hear me, but I kept my hand under her head, and they gave me the paste to give to her a little at a time. She wasn't swallowing..I said, she isn't swallowing, she needs to have her head turned..and sure enough, out came most of what the police officer had given her, and what I had given her. That's when they said, let's just take her now. Off she went, off went the kids..asked the next door neighbor if she would let us know how she was because the husband was going to call her back. She came to our house later, and said that she will be fine. They were keeping her a while to watch her. She's had two children with this illness..which is dangerous, and now, she is trying again. If DH hadn't gone over there, no one would have been there when she passed out. So happy he felt inspired to go over instead of calling. He would have thought she wasn't home.

I'm sore today, did something to my left knee for sure. At least, no broken bones! I'll be fine in a couple of days of taking it easy, pretty sure. I fell pretty hard..old people shouldn't run. :/ I'm so glad she was doing ok last night, haven't heard anything today. Hope that baby is ok too!

 

[ronott1]

My goodness, what an afternoon we had yesterday. A neighbor gal brought by some wood for DH to work on for her Scouts..and Arrow Plaque. She went home while he worked on it. Said it would be ok to call her when done. He got done. Thought, I should just go over and show her and see if it is ok. She's lives across the street two houses over. She is sitting on the back porch looking at her mail, her two little girls are out there playing. He starts to talk to her, she turns her head around to look at him, then starts to say...oh..oh..stands up and dad says, her eyes didn't look right..he said, you better sit down..are you ok..can I get you anything? She passes out, he catches her. He calls me because he doesn't know what to do. I know she has diabetes. I said I'm coming..I ran..I fell as I got to the curb across the street. I got up, being careful to think..anything broken? I felt ok, I started to run again. Got to the back porch, she was half conscious.. eyes open but couldn't talk, even after I rubbed her mid chest area, no response. I call 911. The police get there first. I did what the 911 operator had suggested. Flat on her back, chin up. Couldn't give her anything sweet, she wasn't conscious enough to swallow. The next door neighbor had seen me running by her front window, she also knows about this gal and her diabetes. She thankfully has the husbands work number. He informs us that she is pregnant..as the paramedics got there. We were trying to get some sweet paste into her mouth, but it was clenched pretty tight, got some in. When they checked her blood sugar, it wouldn't even register. I was holding my hand under her head while they started an IV. Still not conscious. By then neighbors could see what was going on, they got hold of relatives..a sister and a niece. The sister took the kids..but, in the meantime, DH was wonderful watching them while I was on the phone, and working with her. I was talking to her, not sure she could hear me, but I kept my hand under her head, and they gave me the paste to give to her a little at a time. She wasn't swallowing..I said, she isn't swallowing, she needs to have her head turned..and sure enough, out came most of what the police officer had given her, and what I had given her. That's when they said, let's just take her now. Off she went, off went the kids..asked the next door neighbor if she would let us know how she was because the husband was going to call her back. She came to our house later, and said that she will be fine. They were keeping her a while to watch her. She's had three children with this illness..which is dangerous, and now, she is trying again. If DH hadn't gone over there, no one would have been there when she passed out. So happy he felt inspired to go over instead of calling. He would have thought she wasn't home.

I'm sore today, did something to my left knee for sure. At least, no broken bones! I'll be fine in a couple of days of taking it easy, pretty sure. I fell pretty hard..old people shouldn't run. :/ I'm so glad she was doing ok last night, haven't heard anything today. Hope that baby is ok too!

That is an amazing story!

Take are of that knee.