Garden Table - First Step: We Agree and Believe

Becky and I confirmed that we both believe the garden table should stand in the location visible in the bottom photo scratched out in the gravel. Our agreement is an important first step. We want our table to provide maximum hospitality. This is the dream and this is the time and place of our first step; our garden table groundbreaking.

The groundbreaking took place while I was getting the grill on for Becky's Booster Block Party Planning Committee Meeting. I took the opportunity to move a little gravel. My spirits were high and I was thinking that all I had to do was move a little gravel, level it out, stack the bricks and put on the top. Two factors popped up to dash my preliminary concepts. Number one, I knew in my heart that this effort would be inadequate. Number two, the sheer weight and size of the concrete top means that to set it on top of a base will require an effort equal to ten stout, young men directed to lift and carry the piece.

During my painting days our crew helped the marble guys on a remodel job years ago move a counter top made from a slab of black African marble. That slab was about the same size as our concrete slab. We carried that slab from the truck to the kitchen. Installation of the counter took every bit of the strength of ten stout workmen to move and set. The boss marble guy had to buy us all a good lunch to get our cooperation. Transportation of a massive, breakable object is a huge and perilous task in itself. Break it and the project is dead. Set the top poorly and it stands as a monument to poor administrative skills. This is to become our outdoor table. I can't let Mother-in-law have anything but good things to say about it.

I am forced to go back to the drawing board. That's a good thing.