Oh to be a kid again! This even looks fun to an old lady like me!
This Monkey Playsystem #4 includes a ten foot wave slide, monkey bars, two swings, rock wall to climb, a glider, a fireman’s pole, angled ladder, a four foot by four foot tower with slide and a 4 by 4 sun deck and canopy. The set is built of Woodguard maintenance free lumber and has a 10 year guarantee not chip, crack, rot, peel, or blister.
Wow, swing sets have sure come a long way since my kids were small!
I am SO excited about this product! Rubbersidewalks just makes so much sense to me! It’s all WIN-WIN!
Rubbersidewalks save trees that might otherwise have to be removed, and trees, we all know, are very good for the environment. But just in case you haven’t heard…
Trees convert carbon dioxide to oxygen and help remove pollutants, resulting in better air and water quality.
Trees provide shade and cut cooling costs. According to the Department of Agriculture, the net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day. Four trees planted around your home can save you up to 30% on cooling costs. One million trees would save this consumers ten million a year in energy costs and help eliminate much of the dangerous emissions that are damaging our ozone.
Trees help our wildlife and they help our quality of life as well, lending beauty and serenity to an area, not to mention raising real estate values. Healthy, mature trees add an average of ten percent to a property’s value.
Rubbersidewalks also help the environment by keeping tires out of the landfills. Rubbersidewalks are made of 100% California tire rubber. A square foot of Rubbersidewalks uses the rubber of one entire tire. 400 square feet keeps over two tons of waste tire rubber from going into landfill.
Rubbersidewalks are also budget friendly. Panels are easy to remove and replace for tree root inspection and maintenance, unlike concrete sidewalks which must be torn out and replaced. Rubbersidewalks can also save you expensive litigation from falls and injuries due to cracked damaged walks. Rubbersidewalks will not crack due to freezing or tree roots. Roots actually respond differently to Rubbersidewalks than concrete.
And lastly, Rubbersidewalks are just a really appealing product. They are safe and nontoxic. They absorb sound and percussion, making for a more pleasant walking experience. They are very attractive and available in many colors and textures.
What’s not to love??
I will warn you ahead of time, stonework is not for sissies. It’s hard work. You’ll probably want to wear leather gloves as stonework is hell on the manicure.
The first picture shows the ugly concrete and concrete blocks that made up the walls of our homes foundation and patio, before we affixed stone to them in a kind of “veneering”, for lack of a better term. We purchased about a truckload of thin pieces of stone, the pieces we chose were too thin to even work as path stones. They came out to be about 6 cents a pound. Next we cleaned the concrete blocks with a high powered pressure hose and left it to dry. To apply the stone, we mixed up a batch of mortar then troweled it onto a smallish area at the base of the wall, kind of like icing a cake, then firmly pressed the first stone onto the wall and tapped it lightly with a rubber mallet. The thickness of the mortar varied with the thickness of each stone, it generally worked out to about a half inch or more thick.
We chose each stone according to its color and shape, fitting the pieces like a jigsaw puzzle, working bottom to top in small areas so the mortar didn’t dry before the stones were placed and adding more mortar as we needed it. We used a hammer and chisel to break up pieces that were too large. After the mortar had hardened we filled in the spaces between with stones with mortar, taking care to clean the excess off the face of the stone. When the entire wall was covered with stone and the gaps were filled and dried, we capped off the top with much larger, thicker pieces of stone using the same technique.
I think it looks GREAT! Especially with flowers hanging down over them. Next spring we’re going to do the floors of the patio. Hubby can hardly wait.
“Albert with Pipe and Shovel” Is a gorgeous reproduction of an antique German Gnome. The original gnome statue from which he is modeled is exhibited at the Gnome Museum in Germany (Yes, apparently there really is a Gnome museum) Albert is made of stoneware pottery and is safe for outdoors…although with a Gnome this fetching I’d keep a close eye on him, Gnomes have a way of disappearing, (see the Garden Gnome Liberation Front). Albert stands 11 1/2 tall and is smoking a pipe as he takes a rest on his shovel, but not to worry! He’ll be back to work on the garden in no time!
Wow, two of my favorite things, pizza and out door grilling, together
at last! With the Grill-Top Pizza Stone you can get that
great brick-oven style Pizza taste right in your own backyard.
The porous clay stone and raised stainless-steel frame sit right over
your gas grill. The unit has an attached thermometer and a special back splash to keep all the toppings from getting away. They even include recipes!
If your dad is a Grillmaster (and most are), he’ll probably like the motorized grill brush/ While most dads are forced to toil away for precious MINUTES, scrubbing their grills by hand the old-fashioned way, this year’s coolest dads will have a better alternative. Like domestic 007s, they can slyly take out their motorized grill brush and smoothly and casually clean the grill without spilling the martini in the other hand.
Remember - It’s not what you buy, it’s how it makes them feel.
