Well, it's finally done. I got rid of the fountain. I kept thinking that I should contact a statuary place to see if it was worth anything, and that I should do more investigation, then I decided that really, all I wanted was to get it out of there. So I placed an ad in the Recycler (a classified ad newspaper, that lets private parties place ads for free). I got a couple of e-mails about it and then about three calls about it. An older man came out to see it yesterday and he came back today with his 1 ton flatbed truck and took the fountain away. The base pool was not going to come out in one piece, but he offered to sledge hammer it out for me and haul the concrete away, and he did. It took him and his worker about 4 hours to do it, but he did it. I think he figured since the fountain was free, this was how he was paying for it. And my ad said, "$1.00 OBO, heavy, you haul." (the $1 was just in case the recycler wouldn't let me put in an ad for something that was free) If they'd have had a jackhammer it would have been quick work, but they didn't so they were stuck there hammering away. The man is a retired mason and said that he'd just finished installing a fountain in his front yard and his wife had just commented to him that it'd be nice to have one in the back yard. He picked up a copy of the Recycler and there it was. So now we have this 80" diamater hole in the front lawn. What to do with it? Before I go any further, here are before and after shots.





Now what to do with the hole. First of all, there's no way we'll be able to match the grass so that's right out. Phil and I talked about it at lunch today and I said we should do some sort of cool compass thing with it, he suggested concentric circles (lawn darts anyone?). I also took a look at it this afternoon and thought maybe we should just turn it into a sand box for LB to play in, but then the neighborhood cats who wander through might find it attractive and that would be ICKY!! So we'll see. But the main thing is that it's out of there, which means the swing set can now go in there.

One of the parents of the toddlers that we sometimes hang out with is a landscaper, so we think we may ask him to come in and take a look at it and possibly some other things we want to do too. I don't know if this is the type of thing he will do or not, but it's worth asking at least.

On a totally different note, LB's new shoes came in today, I can't wait to put them on him. They both look very cute. We went with the mouse and turtle shoes.