Here is an email I received from a client this evening. I love this picture. The lights are amazing all the time, however with the snow cover they are breathtaking!

Hey Neil - hope you are doing well. Thought you might like to see your
work, still looking great in the dead of winter. Out there tonight in the
hot-tub with my frozen hair!
Have a good Christmas.
R.
Nice.

Past clients, you should always feel free to share with us your pictures of your yards, and also include pictures of you, your friends or family enjoying the yard!

Thanks R, for the nice email! Merry Christmas!

Updated website...

We updated the website today with project from:

Bel-Aire

Great day for a plow...

We complain like crazy when it snows on us in the spring and summer,

But we are REALLY happy when it snows on us during the winter!! LeeDavid Landscapes FINALLY gets to plow! We are officially going out to look after our route this evening. There is about a foot of snow on the ground, so it will be a LONG night, and that is just good business for us.

Woowoo, have fun and be safe out there, the roads are a mess!!!

December Update...

We are very busy right now, which is new for us as a company as winters are normally slower. We decided this year to keep Elton and Hedi on staff and come up with ways to generate the business required to support all of our commitments.

So... we are finishing garages...

And... plowing driveways...

So if you or anyone you know are looking for these types of services, please don't hesistate to call me at 403-819-1948

Residential Snow Removal

We are now equipped to provide Residential Snow Removal services to homes South of Fish Creek park in the Southwest and South of 114th St or Anderson Road in the Southeast.

Our 08-09 Contract Rates start at $100.00 per month or $40.00 per time for frontyard driveways and sidewalks to the property line. This pricing also includes ice-melt application where required.

We have space for about 35 contracts depending on locations, and all work will be completed between 7 and 11am on the day of snow events. emergency and special occasion callouts are available outside of normal snow removal times as well. (ie. when you are having company over and its snowed all day)

Please call me at 403-819-1948 to book your snow removal, because it WILL snow this winter. It is a deal right now as there is only 4 months left of potential snowfall left!!! you have received 2 months free already (Oct-Nov) hehe!

Our feature project has grown wings...

... and has been published in another magazine. We were featured in the July Newsletter for Allanblock Contractors. Now the NCMA (National Concrete Masonry Association) Based in Virginia has picked up the project story and published it in their September Concrete Masonry Design Magazine. This magazine is self described as follows:

Concrete Masonry Designs Magazine provides the latest and most
useful examples of concrete masonry construction around the world. Case studies, building features and best practices are all part of this monthly four-color magazine. Specific issues provide focus on commercial, residential and hardscape projects.

Click here to see the entire magazine in PDF form. I have also ordered a few for our records and our direct marketing plans.

Here is the rundown of what this magazine is published for:

• Concrete Masonry Designs magazine showcases the qualities and aesthetics of design and construction using concrete masonry.
• Concrete Masonry Designs is devoted to design techniques using standard and architectural concrete masonry units, concrete brick, unit concrete pavers, segmental retaining walls, and other concrete masonry products around the world. We welcome your editorial comments, ideas, and submissions.
• Concrete Masonry Designs is published monthly by the National Concrete Masonry Association (NCMA), and distributed to advance and support the concrete masonry and hardscape industry and public interest.

Our project is published in this issue alongside 3 other projects based in; Sacramento California, The Army Corp of Engineers in Jackson Mississippi, and Richmond Virgina.

We strive to maintain considerations for all parts of our little enterprise including our staff, our clients, the neighborhoods we work in, our equipment, and very importantly, our vendors. Without our very good working relationships we keep with our select vendors, we would not have achieved the goals we set out for ourselves. Without the support and dedication of Daryll, our Allanblock vendor, we would not have the opportunity to be 'published'!

Thanks to Daryll and his boss Bruce at CCI Industries for giving us the opportunity to be featured in these fine industry magazines.

Golf Day...

LeeDavid Landscapes had it's 1st annual Presidents Cup golf tournament today. Dave and Hedi were matched up against Neil and Elton in an 18 hole best ball championship to decide this years cup winners.

On the first hole, Hedi showed us that girls can SMACK the ball just as well as boys, and proceeded to out drive her partner Dave for the right to use her drive on this, the first hole. Elton whacked his first ball due south, but his team had to use his ball as Neil cranked one into the trees on the left.

The hole played out until Neil and Elton took one extra stroke on the green.

Team davehedi 1
Team neilelton 0

Hedi continued to impress with her long straight drives and accurate chipping, Dave continued hitting greens, and Elton and Neil continued to hit it into the bush.

Without much effort Dave and Hedi took a 7 - 2 lead over Neil and Elton at the turn. What seemed like an insurmountable lead became even bigger by hole 11. Dave and Hedi took the next two holes to make it 9-2. Neil and Elton looked like the big losers on this day needing to win the rest of the holes just to tie... pretty boring for the rest of the tournament right? wrong.

On the 12th Hole Elton pulled a rabbit out of his bucket hat and earned an unlikely birdie on the par 3. It was his drive and his 20 foot putt for a 2 that got his team rolling again. Neil and Elton won the next hole to pull to 5 holes back with 5 to play. game on.

The game was neck and neck for the next 4 holes as the teams traded amazing drives, incredible chips and great putts to halve the next 3 holes forcing carry-overs of the points to the following holes. On the 17th hole it looked like Neil and Elton we destined to win the 4 big points to come within one of Team davehedi. Neil and Elton had a 25foot Eagle putt while Dave and Hedi were over the green in the rough with a chip for birdie. Advantage Neil and Elton. wrong.

After Hedi chipped 155feet past the pin, Dave chips in for Birdie!!!! Yikes. Now the 25 foot putt is looking much longer. Neil takes his stance and proceeds to miss the Eagle putt and the 4 points by mere inches. well... huh... I guess it's another carry-over. 5 points to be had on the final hole. Either the score is going to be tied, or Dave and Hedi would win 14-4.

Well Elton Drove into the woods right and Neil drove into the bush left, Dave drove into the bush left and Hedi drove straight down the fairway to effectively finish off Neil and Elton. By the time we got up to the green, Dave and Hedi had 2 strokes less than Neil and Elton and Neil and Elton weren't even on the green yet. So Neil takes his stance, the only chance is to sink the chip and force Dave and Hedi to take 2 strokes to tie and force overtime. Well Neil skulls his chip and almost takes Hedi out with the missed shot (serves her right for all the straight drives and timely putts..grrr) , and Elton, while endangering no one, misses as well, thus giving the 1st annual LeeDavid Presidents Cup Championship Golf Tournament to Dave and Hedi, along with $25.00 Subway gift certificates. Neil and Elton shared an old 2006 roll-up-the-rim *win a bagel* coffee cup, for a consolation prize. too bad for them.

What a fun day, it was 27.1 degrees outside on Oct 1st, no wind and we played the incredible Sirrocco Golf Course in South Calgary. I would probably have to say, this was the best landscaping day we have had in 2008.

Happy postday...

This is the 100th posting for LeeDavid News and Notes.

To celebrate, we may purchase this mini-truck. 45mpg. It will save approx $500.00 per month in run-around fuel costs.

Truck...

...was on Bleriot Ferry.

Where in the world is the truck?

Two projects in One day!

We broke a record today. We finished the project in Discovery in the morning and then started and completed another project in Mount Pleasant in the afternoon. yay for us! We had quite the caravan driving across town.

My truck was is the lead with a 15 foot Elm tree in the back, towing the dump trailer full of loam. Dad's truck was following me with all the small tools and weedmats etc in the box with the flatdeck trailer loaded with the power wheelbarrow, a pile of pallets, the mini excavator, the porta-john and various small bits of wood etc. Behind him was Hedi with the 1/2 ton that had the dumper loaded with Sod rolls, towing the van trailer. And behind her was Elton on his crotch rocket. We did pretty good, no one got left behind at lights or anything, which was fortunate as I was the only one who knew where we were going! hehe.

Ok, back to the project in New Discovery. or... Waterworld! lots and lots of water. I wonder what the long term implications are of this neighborhood, due to the fact that it is built on a swamp with water running out of the ground everywhere. On the bright side, it is BEAUTIFUL down there.

The project finished really nicely. Very neat and clean. We have to return in the spring to plant out the 100-130 perennials and shrubs, but other than that it looks great. The customer is happy, except for a tree that Elton planted in the wrong spot. Only about 2 feet wrong, but the customer will probably lose sleep all winter thinking about that... elton. In Eltons defence, the customer was out of town when he put it in the ground.

Before

After

Looks great.

BIG wall, natural pathway, brick stairs and walkways, grass.. very tasteful and functional. There is a phase 2 for this project, where we will be building a big deck and patio below the wall.

The front yard always has the potential to be less than stellar, as the customers usually put most of their resources into the backyard. Not here though. It looks great up front.

We really tried to tie in the design of the house. We think we did a good job of that.

Great job crew! Oh, and Allanblock is the sole supplier of pre-cast concrete products on this job, and it turned out fantastic!

More stairs...

Geez these look great! Stairs. what a feature. And what a great way to place them. The homeowner needed access to the yard for our machines, so he went to the neighbor and asked if we could take out what he had done, in return for a shared set of stairs. So instead of 2 - 4 foot walkways, you have 1- 8' walkway. Well done!

Holy Crap!!

Now, I am a worry-wort for all things structural. Ask the team. I am constantly worried about the bases of patios, about the backfill against walls, about proper drainage and anything related to sinking, falling, tipping or twisting. We go to great measures to use all the tools that we have to allow for the greatest possible structural integrity of all things compacted.

Well, not naming names, I visited a landscaper, who we have been watching remove truckload after truckload of material from a relatively small backyard. We wondered where the heck is all this material coming from?

Well, from here.

The decision, I am told, to excavate to china, was because of some flowing groundwater. well... huh... So if there is flowing ground water, digging deeper will fix that? huh. I am not sure how much deeper those teleposts holding the deck up are in the ground, but since the excavation is actually below the footing of the walkout basement, I hope for their sake that the wind doesn't blow very hard. We have seen in other peoples houses in the past where a post has failed (tipped under load) and it almost ripped the deck off the house.

I am not sure how they plan to ensure the fill now that it is all new, aside from packing, packing and layers of geo-tex, along with some positive drainage system. If they hadn't dug so far down they would have been able to get away with just some additional drainage. but now....hoo boy!

Discovery Ridge update...

Again with the rain... I was away last week, but I understand that it rained and rained! It is getting to the point where we should do 1 of 2 things. Estimate for 1/2 the work in the allotted time or charge double the price. heh. Our customers may not be too thrilled about either, but I am sure they would take the first one over the second.

Anyhoodiddlydoo...

We are making nice progress in Discovery despite the unseasonable weather. The hardscape portions are almost complete as we are finalizing the stairs tomorrow and probably getting a good start on the front yard walkway. The team has been exceptional during this the "dog days" of the project. They did an amazing job on the big wall too!

Look, Hedi is the only one working here!

Notice a design trend?

In the mean time though, we were able to finish a couple of lingering service issues that have been outstanding for a while now, so there is that...

Winter working...

LeeDavid Landscapes is having a very good 2008 building season despite the incredible amount of rain and bad weather we have had. This success is due in part to our very experienced and competent staff that have come back to us each of the last 2 springs. Time can only tell if we will be able to keep them long term, however we are doing our part and keeping them on full time over the winter months, giving them a career option with instead of a job option. This is both exciting and nerve wracking as we must now create enough work to carry all of us through to next spring again when we start our outdoor projects.

This has created a unique opportunity for us.

We have openings this winter for a variety of projects you may need completed. Examples include:

- Basement framing, finishing, and general contractor services
- Garage construction, framing, finishing, and general contractor services
- Skid-steer and excavator services
- Snow and Ice removal services
- Hot-shot delivery and emergency hauling services (short and long distance)
- Furniture re-finishing, construction and special woodworking projects.

Our combined skills in a variety of disciplines allows us to be the contractor of choice, carrying our great reputation from the summer into our new exciting projects during the long Calgary winter.

Please call me right away to get started on your project or to discuss your needs, as I am sure we will find ourselves very busy as soon as the snow flies!

Truck...

...was in Kamloops.

Where in the world is the truck?

Large Leggo wall...

I spelled "Lego" different to avoid litigation...

Allanblock has been good to us this year, so we have been good to them in return. This is a Europa wall that we are constructing in Discovery Ridge. There are 4 different block shapes, with 3 separate sets of stairs, rising a visible total of 35 inches. It is quite a curvy wall.

It is the main hard scape on this project, that splits the yard completely in 2 distinct sections there fore we have utilized all the structural additions available to us. We have built a 10" thick base supported by geotextile between the clay layer and the new crush base. There is a full 8" high base of "dover" blocks that is fully buried to eliminate any erosion under the wall. We have installed 3' wide Geogrid above the base layer and above the 16" mid layer. Each 8" high layer of brick we place has been backfilled and packed with "wall rock" which allows water to drain through the ground behind the wall into the socked weeping tile and out the positive drain in the front of the wall. The wall rock also creates an interlock where we have utilized the Geogrid, so the wall now becomes 3' thick instead of 1' thick, giving an incredible amount of strength and durability.

whoops...

yikes, i bet this went bang...

bad news...

... the guy never made it.

A little perspective goes a long way...

Warning, the following photos are graphic in nature.

So you think you have a bad day, nothing goes right, or something little happens that sours your mood and you think why me. It just isn't fair, or the stress of Calgary life is too much, maybe your job is seemingly driving you to the brink... well my day wasn't bad at all, in fact I had a pretty good day, with a few minor hiccups and yet these minor hiccups had me brooding.

Until I saw this... (warning, graphic)

Calgary Police shut down both directions of Deerfoot Trail during the afternoon rush hour Monday, after a serious crash in the southbound lanes near 130th Avenue southeast.
The crash happened at approximately 4:45 p.m. (side note, I was there at 4:49) and two people were injured, one of them critically.
A man believed to be in his fifties who had been ejected from his vehicle and sustained a significant head injury. He was transported to the Foothills Hospital in critical life-threatening condition.The second patient was a woman also believed to be in her fifties, who suffered minor injuries and was transported to the Rockyview Hospital in stable non-life-threatening condition.Both patients were the only occupants of their vehicles. The driver of the semi truck was uninjured.

Slow down people, it's hard enough to drive on Calgary roads without all the dangerous driving tendencies.

Here's what else is making news in Calgary today... if the above wasn't enough perspective...

Serious Crash Closes Deerfoot
Hot, Hot, Hot: Calgary Sets Temperature Record
Bridges Development Soliciting Affordable Housing Builders
Police Warn of Break-and-Enters During Warm Weather
Fatal Shooting In Beltline
Four Homes Destroyed In Two Separate Fires
Boy Dragged After Being Struck By SUV
Home Filled With Natural Gas
Senior On Scooter Dies Of Injuries Sustained In Crash
Gang Violence Claims Life Of Woman On First Nation Near Edmonton
Greyhound Bus Catches Fire In Calgary
A Fall From A Window Leaves A Calgary Child In Critical Condition
Health Officals Say Flesh Eating Disease Not The Cause In The Death Of A Child
Empty Home Hit By Fire
Home Hit By Bullets
RCMP Probe Bus Attack in Northern Alberta
CMHC Predicts Drop In Housing STarts
Rash of Early Morning Fires In Southwest Calgary
A Firefighter's Worst Nightmare Comes True
Insurance Company's Office Goes Up In Flames

Spider-elton...

Spider-elt, spider-elt, does whatever a spider-elt does...

Actually just a little trick photography, we are laying erosion control mats on a freshly grass seeded slope... in the Slopes! Springbank Slopes that is. The straw mats are made from coconut branches and will decompost in about a year, leaving a nicely rooted lawn. The mats are on top of the seeded loam and will keep mother nature from blowing, raining, washing, birds eating the seed away. All it needs is a little water and a little time.

A couple more pictures...

of the Cranston Project...

Done done done, another one bites the dust...

Wow, when the weather is good, we can power through projects.

This project in Cranston went very well from start to finish. Off to the Slopes of Springbank and then Discovery Ridge. These are a little outside our service area, but are very nice projects.

Nice note..

We received an email on another subject from a past client and they included this note..

Thanks also to you and your crew - all were most professional and enthusiastic
and the results are par none... We love the yard and are so glad we found you
and your team to "build" it for us....

nice....

Again... wow...

that was 3 incredibly hard days of patio building. Fantastic work Hedi and Elton. It looks fabulous and the homeowner is ecstatic! clapclapclapclap!

Bravo! Hedi, Elton and Dad... Bravo...!

This patio in Cranston we are working on is among the finest, if not the finest we have installed. There is a very strict pattern here, made to look random... get it? Very hard to get it just right. They did! This still has to have the polymeric sand tamped in, so it will look even better in the next day or two. What a feature! Terrific job you three!

Hedi went home this weekend, so...

... I thought I would give her fans something to see back in S.A.

(if you scroll to the bottom of this post, you will be rewarded)

...I'm not looking...

...still not looking...

...ouch, the hand...

...cowgirl up...

...still not looking...

...hahaha, made you look... ...at a really cute bunny.