Texas history in my lil' ol' yard!
I lucked out the other day. As I was rooting around on Craig’s List, trying to find cheap bricks to use on the backyard walkway I wanted to build, I stumbled upon this cryptic message:
“Pavers for sale, $70 for 100, these are the heavy pavers used to pave streets in Dallas and Fort Worth.”
My interest piqued, I sent a messge and told the guy I needed 300 – he said he had over a thousand. But I’d need a truck, since the bricks weighed about 8 pounds a piece. The truck was no problem, and after recruiting my husband and son, we drove out on a Monday morning to pick them up.
Was I ever surprised to see what he had for sale:
This man had over a thousand Thurber Bricks sitting out in a pasture, apparently culled from an old courthouse and the streets surrounding it. I thought I hit the historical jackpot. What a find!
After strenous lifting, we got the bricks on the truck, which groaned under all that weight (it’s an F150, which is a great vehicle, but its bed isn’t made to haul 2,400 lbs!) At home, my son and I proceeded to move the bricks to the backyard – thank the lord for wheel barrows – and set out to make a walkway.
Here's my son David with all the bricks.
I have a plan to get the walkway the way I want it with only half the labor. Laugh all you want, but I just put the pavers on the ground – raked, and fairly level – then I placed landscape frames around them. When the weather gets cooler, I will take dry concrete mix (maybe quick-crete), pour it all along the bricks, sweep it into the crevices, and then add water. If all goes according to plan (and why wouldn’t it? she questioned, famous last words echoing from across time), I’ll have a walkway without having to dig into the impossibly dry ground. See, ain’t I smart?!
When it goes well, I’ll post the finished pictures. If for some reason this plan fails, I’ll still post pictures, but with funny captions or something. (Evidently, the blogging software is having some issues with posting images. I can’t post any now, but I hope to do so soon).
But I think, all in all, it’s pretty nifty that I now have a Thurber Brick path in my backyard.
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