The weather in Bedford, New York, has been quite mild this winter. We've had unseasonably warm temperatures and very little snow - a good time for getting a lot of our outdoor projects completed.
Yesterday, a team from Sandoval's Landscaping Inc. came by to start repairs on my stone wall. Last year, a car veered off the road and hit the wall, causing a section of stones to tumble out of place. In other areas, various stones have also shifted or moved over time because of inclement weather or large growing tree roots.
Here are some of the photos showing the skill and talent of these tradesmen - enjoy.
Fieldstone is any architectural stone used in its natural shape. Part of the dry stacked fieldstone in this section of my stone wall has to be completely re-stacked.
I called on the help of Sandoval’s Landscaping Inc., from nearby Patterson, New York. Rolando Sandoval is the husband of my housekeeper, Enma. Rolando and his crew were available to come right away to assess the damages and get to work.
Some of the tools of the trade for masons include brick hammers, chisels, and shovels.
They also use pinch bars and pry bars for moving larger stones and boulders. Made of forged carbon steel, these five-foot long bars provide excellent leverage for repositioning even the heaviest of stones.
Stones are first removed by hand, one by one, nearly all the way to the bottom – it took quite a bit of time to do this.
And then by hand, one by one, the stones are returned, and repositioned just right, so when completed the top of the wall is completely level.
The crew uses pry bars to move this 500-pound stone back into place. The foundation stones must be positioned securely because all the stones above will be resting on them.
Smaller stones are collected from the pile and used – nothing is wasted. And the tighter the fit is, the stronger the wall. Most stone walls were built without mortar, using gravity and the shape of the stones to hold them together.
Larger, more attractive stones were used as face stones and placed on the outside.
As the stones are stacked, smaller pieces are positioned as shims for the larger ones.
Some pieces need to be chiseled to fit tight crevices. These masons knew exactly how much stone to chisel in order to create the pieces they need.
Dependable mason’s twine is secured from one end to the other to serve as a guide for the masons. Mason’s twine is usually made of 100-percent filament nylon, which is resistant to abrasion, rot, and mildew.
Hugo has been working with Rolando for 17-years. He is a very skilled mason and enjoys this type of work. He is also incredibly strong.
Martin has also been with Rolando’s team for many years. Here he is measuring a stone to ensure it fits the space needed.
Rolando extends another line down to ensure the stones for the face side of the wall are positioned perfectly straight. Stones should be level both into the core of the wall and along the face. Stones that are not level may slide causing internal stress in the wall over time.
Here is one section all done. It is quite impressive to see how the stones fit together so perfectly for a very level, straight wall.
This wall is now good for many more years.
But there are several more sections to repair. In this area, top stones were misaligned, likely from inclement weather or growing tree roots that caused the stones to shift.
This section of the wall is right at the edge of a pond. Stones toppled down over the years and also need to be re-stacked.
All the repairs will take a few days to complete, but in the end all the stones will be secure and level.
It’s a lot of work to be a good mason. Here’s Rolando’s crew stopping for a quick photo before heading stacking again. Pictured here are Rolando, Eddie, Hugo, and Martin. Thanks guys! It looks great!
Every year, I try to attend the Big Game with my good friend, Jane Heller. I love the excitement of the crowd and all the action on the field, from the battling football teams to the entertaining half-time show. It's also fun to catch up with other celebrities that are there. This year, it was held at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
I’m sure you’ve seen many photos from this year's exciting Super Bowl LVII between the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles and the AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs, but here are some of mine. Enjoy.
Although in the Northeast we haven’t had much of a winter, it was nice to travel west for warm weather and this year’s Super Bowl LVII in Arizona. It was the fourth time the state of Arizona hosted the game including this one between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Arizona is the only state that contains four separate desert regions – the Chihuahuan in the southeast, the Mojave in the upper west, the Sonoran Desert, and the Great Basin Desert along the Nevada-Utah border.
Among the many beautiful cacti in Arizona is the saguaro. The saguaro cactus is the largest cactus in the United States, and will normally reach heights of 40 feet tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, the Whipple Mountains and Imperial County areas of California. The saguaro blossom is also the state wildflower of Arizona.
We got to the State Farm Stadium early – spectators were just arriving. This stadium opened in 2006 and is the home of the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League and the annual Fiesta Bowl.
This stadium has 63,400 seats, but can be expanded to 72,200 seats for “mega events” such as the Big Game.
Seats filled up quickly. The players were able to warm up on the field before the game. The Eagles are in midnight green and the Chiefs are in white with red.
And look who I bumped into – chef, restaurateur, television personality, and author, Gordon Ramsay.
Here, crews are setting up for the famous “half time” show – always scheduled after the second quarter of the game.
The entire half time show lasts 30-minutes. If you didn’t catch it, Rihanna put on a spectacular performance. Rihanna is a nine-time Grammy Award winner, and a 12-time Billboard Music Award winner. Here she is making her entrance on stage from above.
She and her dance crew appeared atop seven platforms suspended anywhere from 15 to 60 feet above the field. This performance was a celebration of her catalog and included songs “B – Better Have My Money”,
“Where Have You Been”,
“Only Girl in the World”, “Umbrella”, and “Diamonds.”
For her performance, Rihanna wore a silk jersey catsuit in vibrant crimson paired with a sculpted leather corset, and a red cotton flight suit.
By the end, she added a flowing and dramatic red Alaïa coat with matching gloves – a personal nod to the late fashion designer André Leon Talley.
This was also Rihanna’s way of announcing she is now expecting her second child.
Can you guess who this spectator was rooting for?
And here I am with First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, who was also cheering for the Eagles. But we all know who won – the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38 to 35. It was a great game and a very enjoyable time in Arizona.
Whenever I travel, I always try to fit in a visit to a garden, where I can learn more about landscaping and horticulture.
Last week, during my trip to Arizona for Super Bowl LVII, I stopped at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Situated on 140-acres in Papago Park, the Desert Botanical Garden features cactus, agave, and other desert plants of the Sonoran Desert and the world. Founded by the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society in 1937, the garden has more than 50-thousand plants - one-third of which are native to the area, including 519 species, which are rare, threatened, or endangered. Please visit the Desert Botanical Garden the next time you’re in the area.
Here are some photos.
We visited on such a beautiful day. This is the Ottosen Entry Garden at the Desert Botanical Garden. This space is divided into three different gardens featuring a selection of Sonoran desert plants.
Among them, these barrel cacti – a group of barrel-shaped cacti native to North and South America. Most of these cactus plants grow up to two feet tall and about a foot in diameter.
Here is a closer look at a barrel cactus with its strong, stiff spines and prominent ribs.
The barrel cacti in the foreground is Ferocactus pottsii – a species from Mexico. This rare and distinctive barrel cactus has relatively delicate spines and a lighter green color.
Echinocactus grusonii, popularly known as the golden barrel cactus, golden ball or mother-in-law’s cushion, is a well known species of cactus, and is endemic to east-central Mexico. It is rare and endangered in the wild. It forms a pale green, barrel-shaped stem with prominent ribs adorned with areoles and bright golden spines.
Nearby is a bed of Opuntia engelmannii, prickly pear cactus. This is a bushy succulent shrub with light green or bluish-green, egg-shaped, fleshy pads that grow up to 12-inches across. It is common across the south-central and Southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
All prickly pear cactus plants have flat, fleshy pads that look like large leaves. The pads are actually modified branches or stems that store water, help with photosynthesis, and produce flowers.
This is a Boojum tree, Fouquieria columnaris. The plant’s English name, Boojum, was given by Godfrey Sykes of the Desert Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona and is taken from Lewis Carroll’s poem “The Hunting of the Snark”. The trunk is up to 10 inches thick, with branches sticking out at right angles, all covered with small leaves.
Pachycereus pringlei, Cardon Cactus, also known as Mexican giant cardon or elephant cactus, is the tallest cactus in the world native to northwestern Mexico in the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, and Sonora. It’s part of the columnar cacti family which also includes the giant Saguaro.
Here is a view looking up. It is slow growing, and grows up to an average 30-feet when mature, but there are some that are known to be as tall as 60-feet.
The cardon cactus has grayish-green stems each featuring 10 to 15 ribs.
The Carnegia gigantea, Saguaro Cactus, is an arborescent or tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus Carnegiea. Saguaros are found exclusively in the Sonoran Desert and can grow to be more than 40 feet tall.
This iconic cactus has an average life span of about 150 to 175 years. However, biologists believe that some plants may live more than 200 years.
Here is a stunning specimen of a crested saguaro. Saguaros sometimes grow in odd or misshapen forms. This one has a fan-like form at the top. These crested saguaros are rare and biologists are unsure why it develops. Some speculate it is some kind of a genetic mutation, while others say it is the result of a lightning strike or freeze damage.
Along with the saguaro, the Stenocereus thurberi, Organ Pipe Cactus, is one of Arizona’s most distinctive cacti, forming large clusters of 30-foot high stems, branching from the base.
This is Cephalocereus senilis, or Old Man Cactus. It has fluffy white tufts of hair over the surface of the cactus body. The long hair is used to keep itself cool in its natural habitat. As an outdoor plant, these can grow to 45-feet tall, but are generally slow growing as potted specimens. I also have some old man cacti – they’re potted up and growing in my greenhouse.
I love agaves and have many in my personal collection. Agave macroacantha, the Black-Spined Agave is a very distinctive small to medium-sized agave with leaf rosettes that grow on very short stems. The grayish-green leaves grow to more than a foot long ending in sharp black spines.
Agave paryii truncata, Artichoke Agave is an evergreen, perennial succulent forming tight rosettes of broad, short, thick, silvery-blue leaves with conspicuous reddish-brown teeth and terminal spines.
And, while they may also look like rare and beautiful cacti, the bright green plants are desert sculptures by glass artist and entrepreneur, Dale Chihuly. These florescent glass pieces look so similar in shape to the yuccas growing next to them.
Surrounding the garden is Papago Park. This is one of the buttes of Papago Park. The word “butte” comes from a French word meaning “small hill” – not to be confused with mesas or plateaus, which typically have top surfaces that are larger than their vertical faces, while a butte is taller than it is wide.
And here I am with my friend Jane Heller, and Christine Colaco – both from Bank of America. Jane and I go to the Big Game together every year and try to catch some other interesting sites during the weekend. It was great to visit the Desert Botanical Garden. I hope you can make it a stop on your next trip to Arizona.
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