May Day Flower Pots

This adventure begins on Friday morning before I left for work, when DH came back from Home Depot and said there are two flower pots I think you are going to want in a trash pile. But ... they are huge. He said 'Let's go look at them', so off we went.

We've passed these pots for years and years. They were on either side of a driveway and evidently new owners didn't want them. These pots are about 40 years old.

When I saw them I wanted to cry because they were just too heavy for us to deal with. We came back home, and I got ready for work. DH went up the street and asked a road crew if they could help and he would pay them. He talked to three different people, and the boss said lets look at them and after looking at them, he said he'd be back at such and such a time. Well, he never showed and that was very disappointing. We thought maybe the guy would show up on Sat. but he didn't.

It happened to be trash pick up day too on Friday, so we had no idea if they'd be around after the trucks came along picking up. DH and I both said if these are meant to be ours then they will be, if not, then that's just the way it goes. We didn't really NEED these, but we did hate the thought of them going out to the land fill and just get broken and buried. He went by Sat. morning and saw that everything had been picked up but the pots. When I went by on the way home from work, I saw them there still with another pile of brush and trash growing also.

Saturday night as we were sipping a glass of pre-dinner wine, DH thought of using our a.c. jack. I went out to where it was to check what weight it would hold and it said 500 lbs. We got in the car and went to where these monster pots were and took measurements of the things so that DH could figure out how much concrete was in them and how much they would weigh. He figured 370 lbs. each So we got all excited about doing this project and since it was going to be Sunday morning when we'd be doing this we knew the traffic would be light and it would be quiet, so decided to get up early. Early wasn't the word for it. DH woke up around 4 and couldn't go back to sleep for thinking about how to do this thing so we got up. Got things loaded into the truck, had one cup of coffee and took off.

The morning air was breezy, we could hear roosters crowing in the neighborhood and we hoped for a smooth move of these pots.

Of course, I made sure I grabbed the digital camera and here are the pictures from our adventure.

First we had to cut the roots that had grown out the bottoms of these pots, and that took some energy and time. We hadn't eaten our 'Wheaties' either so were going along on that one cup of coffee and adrenaline. It looks like ancient jasmine in these pots. I don't need them as I've got them in several places around here.

Here's DH starting to saw away the roots. You can see that it was still dark out when we started on this project.

By now it is lighter and you can see how the a.c. jack was used. Now we will back up the van to the pot and then let the jack down, and tie the jack and take off for home.

Here we are back at home and you can see how the jack was just barely off the road.

Another picture of the whole back of van loaded with pot and jack.

Here is one ready to be lowered and tipped over off jack.

One happy 'junker'.

Pots in their new location, waiting to have old roots taken out and a pad laid of solid concrete half blocks for each one, then put upright. DH was taking temporary platform off the a.c. jack also in this picture.

This picture and two below are close-ups of shells on pots. Some shells were broken or knocked off when these were moved by people into trash pile by a machine. We will place them with best side showing.

We have been 'curbside shopping' for years and years. These were our heaviest pieces so far. Now we know we can use this a.c. jack again, but we really hope we don't have to. To us, it's always amazing what people will throw out and we are happy to do our part in recycling when we see something we can use.

More pictures will be added later when these are set up and things are growing in them, but not this week.

The End.

Song: Peaceful Morning

Created on ... May 01, 2005