The Trellis

The trellis.

The trellis.

Or, maybe, our third and best attempt.

The set up:

Denise:  Babe, look at what I bought.  Grape vines!  One red and one white.  The only place they might grow well is that strip along the driveway—it’s the only place that gets sun most of the day. 

Dwayne:  Mmm.

Denise:  I’m picturing a small trellis…right here….  In a few years, the kids can come out and munch grapes, and…

Dwayne:  Trellis?  And by little, do you mean a 4 post extravaganza that will require a full ton of concrete, 6 weekends of labor, oodles of money in stone, grout, and just-right hardware? 

Denise: Yeeesss…..?

It actually only took a few hours of us working together to build this:

(Granted, setting the posts had to be done one day, the horizontals the next.)

Dwayne was ground crew and engineer.  I was Rosie the Riveter.

Wesley was charming.

I’m barefoot right now, because these two blow my socks off!

This is my little bitty trellis after weekend #1:

A close-up of the hardware that Dwayne assures me I don’t want to know the cost of.  Sigh.  It’s too late, I love it.

Of course, that amount of solid wood needed far more than the original concrete foundation.  Weekend #2 was adding a full ton of concrete the bases.  The first one is carved with a D, the next K, P, and finally, W.

Dwayne decided the trellis needed more.  Like stone-clad column base.

Denise: Sigh. [Translation:  I am a woman with trials.]

The next weekend(s), it looked more like this:

Then, this:

Then, grouted:

Then, finally, capped:

Dwayne: The End.

Denise:  Now I can finally plant my grape vines, and resuscitate all the plants Dwayne crushed. 

Thanks, Babe, I love it!  And doing projects with you, even if it costs me two (more) dead rose bushes.