Progress

Regardless of the seemingly relentless heat I was spurred on to activity on my yard art centerpiece. This was partly due to an uncle reading my blog and sending me the advice " don't leave a project a half-finished eyesore waiting for inspiration as to how to successfully complete the project. Just get after it and sweat and diligence will provide the path you seek ". Okay.
I thought digging out the trench around the plywood silhouette was difficult. Under a very thin layer of topsoil , it was just heavy,dense clay and trying to dig was like trying to carve a brick. I had envisioned just making a thin line around the plywood but this proved to be too difficult  , so after pinning the plywood piece in place with some heavy duty spikes , I actually troughed out about a shovel width all the way around.
NOTE : agave leaves come to a point that is very sharp and they will puncture the incautious and unwary - repeatedly .
Looking at the state outline  from hindsight I can truly see that my choice of that rubber edging was possibly not the best solution for building my form as it proved to be a lot less flexible than I had anticipated and the state of Texas has quite a few sharp angles and corners. BUT - being stubborn - I persevered ( endeavor to persevere - love that line from Chief Dan George in The Outlaw Josie Wales ) and eventually made my way completely around the piece.

Tired , dirty , punctured ,and VERY sweaty I had Twila take a picture of me with my almost completed visionary work of art. I backfilled all around the piece with the rock I'm using to cover the yard.

I was feeling a little rocky today after indulging in beer and poker at my favorite dive bar last night ,and it's still very hot and sunny even though we were supposed to have rain today , so i limited my activity to a run to Lowes where I got more stones for the overall edging which still needs to be completed ,a few more bags of marble chips to be spread around , several bags of quikrete , some more spikes to help " fine-tune " the rubber edging form , and several different types of hooks for mounting my back yard art on the lattice which will be installed against the new fencing. When I say worktodoworktodo I'm not kidding.
I've been trying to engage Twila's help deciding on the placement of all the plants we've been gathering for this rock garden, but I'm beginning to suspect that she is holding back , allowing the entire project to be " my inspiration and perspiration ".
SO - next up is more shovel work to get the plants in the ground , finish the edging stonework , remove the plywood and mix/pour/finish the concrete , and then spread the marble chips over the rest of the yard. Slowly but surely it is coming together. Still trying to decide what to do with the flowerbed on the other side of the front sidewalk. I'm sure some ridiculous notion will eventually rear it's ugly head and I'll be "on the job " again.
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