DIY American Flag Pallet

The Finished Product

After a couple of months of driving by a wood pallet on the side of Northside Drive I finally picked it up earlier this spring and set out to make some yard art out of it. I had been on the hunt for a pallet that I could make an American flag out of. The first one that I got didn’t have enough slats on it, so I now use it to store my garden tools.  The good folks at Ace Hardware recommended I use spray paint that has built in primer. So with red white and blue paint and some really thick masking tape I set out to create my flag. Here are some pictures of the progress, and the finished product below, just in time for the 4th of July.

The First Taping

Getting the Stars just right

Almost Done

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New Big Green Egg Table

Several years ago Martha gave me a Big Green Egg for Fathers Day.  I felt unworthy then and still do now, but it’s a really amazing tool, and until this point has lived in a “nest” with fold down arms.  For my 40th birthday Martha sort of gave me a new Big Green Egg table for it to live in.  The reason I said sort of was because I had to call the guy and order it, go pick it up, and stain/seal it before I could use it.

A buddy of hers gave her a link on craigslist of a company in Auburn Ga that makes these unfinished cypress tables for the Big Green Egg.  I pulled it up, found the one I liked on their website www.CypressGrillTables.com, and placed my order around 8:30 on a Thursday morning.  It took me about 45 minutes from Buckhead to drive to their shop which is located off of Highway 316 on the way to Athens.  I got there at 10:30, loaded up the table, in and out in five minutes or less.

Here is a picture of the unfinished table in my man room ready to get stained:

To get it finished I went to Ace Hardware on Roswell Road as they are all knowledgeable in the Big Green Egg arena.  They pointed out everything I would need to go from what I had, to the finished product.  I decided that I wanted it to be a darker color to offset the beating it will take over it’s lifetime, burn marks, dents, scratches etc.  I used MINWAX Wood Finish (Special Walnut 224) which gave it a nice rich brown color.  I applied one coat of that and let it dry overnight.

After the stain dried I put on the first coat of the sealer which is MINWAX Helmsman Spar Urethane.  It is a clear semi-gloss water based sealant.  Now this had to be applied 3 times all over the table which took a few days to get through.  The can actually says 4 coats are needed for exterior use but I went with the guys recommendation at Ace and did three.

The final touch was to go to Lowes and buy some robe hooks that might go on your bathroom door.  They are an oil rubbed bronze and look great with the table.

    

Here are a few pictures of how it turned out.  I could not be any happier with the results.

Thanks for reading.

Carson Matthews

Atlanta Fescue Grass After 3 1/2 Weeks

After 3 1/2 weeks of growing grass in my backyard, we are making some progress.  The problem areas are still problem areas, but they have good reason to be so.  They are starting to fill in but it’s very obvious that  in my situation, the new grass literally only grows from the aerated holes.  Not much going in the areas that may have filled in because of ponding water.  Below is a picture showing the progression over the 3.5 weeks.  It really doesn’t look drastically different from the October 5 shot, but that’s because I mowed it for the first time today.  In most areas it was super thick and getting too tall, so I’m hoping it will continue to fill in.

Here is a shot from a different angle

Here are links to the previous posts documenting this grassy story:

https://carsonmatthewsblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/growing-grass-in-atlanta/ 

https://carsonmatthewsblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/growing-grass-in-atlanta-update-after-two-weeks/

 

 

Growing Grass in Atlanta

Growing Grass in Atlanta is not the easiest task in the world.  Atlanta is known for having a solid canopy of trees luring above its homes.  There are so many wonderful things about our canopy, but growing grass isn’t one of them.  I’m sure you have heard it’s pretty hot in Atlanta, but it also gets pretty cool during the fall and winter, which makes choosing your grass a little more difficult.  The picture to the right is what our lawn looked like in the Spring of 2010 and what we are trying to get it to look like again. Below is a picture of what it looks like today:

In our front yard we have plenty of sun and are able to grow Zoysia grass which is thick and wonderful.  Our back yard is pretty shady with some areas of full sun.  Since most of the back yard gets less than 4 hours of sun we are not able to grow Zoysia.  Instead we are pretty much stuck with Fescue.  Don’t get me wrong, Fescue is a beautiful grass but it takes a bit more care to keep up.

I went to Pike Nursery and met with the store manager who told me more than I could ever retain about growing grass.  He set me up with a good game plan and told me everything I would need to get it done right.  Here’s what I used:

    

The first thing I did was spread out the Pike Lawn Starter across my whole back yard.  I rented an aerator from Ace Hardware ($50/4 hrs) and with this I killed two birds with one stone.  While aerating the dirt, I also worked the lawn starter into the soil which will ultimately help my new grass grow.  After majorly disturbing the ground, I used my spreader to lay my grass seed.  I used the Atlanta Blend from Pikes for most of the lawn because it thrives in both sun and shade.  For the shadiest part of my lawn I used a dense shade mixture from Pennington Seed.

The last part and certainly one of the most important ingredients in the process is water. This has always been a struggle for me because we don’t have an irrigation system installed and I don’t have time to run the sprinkler as much as it needs to be done in order to be effective.  So, I went to Lowes and bought this nifty timer that is programmable to ensure your lawn gets the much needed water throughout the day.  In addition I got a couple of sprinkler heads that surprisingly cover the lawn perfectly.

This is by far the most effort I’ve put into growing grass in the back yard so I am really hoping it will do the trick. Today is the first day of Fall, we got a soaking rain last night, and the weather looks perfect for growing grass.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Swimming at Chastain Pool

Last weekend we took our new GoPro out for a spin at Chastain Pool. We had a lot of fun trying it out and getting some underwater footage.

 

Carson Matthews

Thanksgiving Turkey Preparation Timelapse Video

Here is a iPhone 6 timelapse video of our Thanksgiving turkey preparation on Thanksgiving morning. After this it went into the Big Green Egg for several hours and came out perfect!

Timelapse Compilation of Sunrise and Weather

Here is a video compilation of time-lapse videos out of our front window. Our house faces East so we get great sunrises and a consistent look at clouds and storms moving through.

Sunset over the Chattahoochee River

Here is a picture of the sun tonight as it began setting over the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta. This shot was taken from the East Palisades Trail of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area looking west to Cobb Parkway as it crossed the Hooch.

Nikon D800, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8

70mm f/8.0 5 frames processed in Photomatix and Lightroom

Saturday Down South

Saturday Down South