Six Kitchen Trends to Use in Your Kit Home

As they say, the kitchen is the heart of the home. Generally, it’s where family congregate at any hour of the day, whether it’s grabbing a piece of fruit from the fridge, crowding around an island bench to debrief the day or hovering while preparing dinner. The kitchen is really a room to get right. Here are 6 kitchen trends that will not only have your kitchen looking fantastic, but practical too.

1. Trough sink

Big enough to fit catering platters in and functional, trough sinks suit pretty much any and every style of kitchen. The style can complement modern kitchens, bringing a sense of the old in, and they fit right in with rustic style kitchens. Classic kitchens with farmhouse styling also suit trough sinks and the style can easily fit in with industrial kitchens too. Another way to incorporate a trough sink into the kitchen design is to put in a multifunctional trough that can be used for anything from planting herbs, to chilling drinks or even keeping some food cold.

2. Island benches

Do you have a wide, open kitchen area and need something to fill it? Pop in an island bench. It’s a functional space that people can gather around and as well as eating, preparing or serving. It can also be used as a great storage space.

You can also include some amenities that you wouldn’t necessarily have had space for without it. Always wanted to include a wine fridge in your kitchen? Under the island bench is the perfect spot for it.

There are a couple of ways you could use the island bench as well. Either you can leave it completely bare on the top, meaning it can be used as a seating area or for serving, or you can pop some prep appliances on the bench, for example, a prep sink or a stove top. Either way, the island bench is both practical and fashionable – it’s a win/win addition to your kitchen.

3. Innovative shelving solutions

There’s a long list of options when it comes to storing things in the kitchen. While there are some utensils and ingredients you may want to store away, there are ways you can include these elements in your kitchen design.

If you need spices or cooking utensils handy, do you really want to be opening and closing drawers and cupboards every time you use them? Not only will you get some practical storage solutions, but you can utilise some gorgeous containers and utilise the shelving as decorative pieces. Or you could line up your cookbooks so they become part of the décor. Alternatively, if you have some beautiful plates you’d like to show off, shelving can be a great way to do so.

4. Vertical gardens

Bring the outside in with living walls. These can either be a decorative piece, including some greenery in your kitchen design, or they can be practical, with herbs that you can use for cooking. While the location of the living wall will determine which plants you can use, all you need is a blank space, the right materials and you’ve got yourself a vertical garden. You can get some from your local Bunnings, but these are also fairly simple to make if you’re confident. On trend, gorgeous to look at and if it works, a handy cooking ingredient too.

5. Brass and mixed metals

Add visual interest and depth to your kitchen by introducing metallics to your kitchen. Ignore the advice to avoid mixing different types of metals – don’t be afraid to combine silver, brass and iron. Be bold! It creates texture and personality, things a trendy kitchen needs.

A tip though, is to keep the metals on the same visual plane. For example, let’s take lighting, faucets and cabinets. While it would look weird to mix metals on the same visual plane, by all means, use copper in the lights, stainless steel appliances and brass on the cabinets. Another tip, use one finish repetitively and the other as an accent. This will balance them nicely.

6. Get smart with the technology

One trend that won’t be going anywhere fast is the addition of smart technology. A smart kitchen is an excellent kitchen, so when you’re starting from scratch, it’s really an opportunity to ensure your kitchen is in line with the times. This may mean a smart fridge, an oven that tells you when your cake is done or a coffee machine that automatically turns on in the morning. Appliances with touch-screen controls, WIFI capabilities and social media connection are now the norm, so for all the culinary enthusiasts, pop those on your list of must-haves.

The benefits of customising your kitchen

When you’re building your home from scratch, everything about it should be tailored to you, your family and your lifestyle. That definitely includes the kitchen. Everything should reflect the way you’re going to use the kitchen, from the type of appliances through to the layout and functionality. On the topic of functionality, it’s a good tip to zone your kitchen in four categories – prep, cooking, storage and cleaning.

Customising your kitchen also means you can style it to suit your personality. It should also be customised to suit the style of home you’re building. There’s no point having a farmhouse style kitchen in an ultra-modern home. Of course, you also have the opportunity to choose the smaller elements, from cabinet colours through to splashbacks and handles. When it comes to your kitchen, everything about it should reflect you and your circumstances.

Check out our ultimate guide to customising your home. Here you’ll learn all about the different styles of kitchens you can put in your home.

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Challenges Collecting Payments After Heavy Snowfall

Snow and ice management contractors dream of “the big storm.” They often wonder what it’s like to have to deal with an ongoing snowfall. They dream of all the money they will invoice out and how the profits will roll in. Some will give a passing thought to being tired after a few days of pushing the white stuff around a parking lot. In Erie, Pennsylvania, we get more than our fair share of snow as compared to most of the country. At the lakeshore, the average snowfall for a given winter season is just under 110 inches of snow. A few miles south of the airport, by the lakeshore where there is an increase of 900 feet in elevation, snowfall totals often exceed 250 inches, and once every few years it will exceed 350 inches. That is in the same vein as the Tughill Plateau in upstate New York.

This past Christmas Eve the forecast was for some lake-effect snow in the range of 7 inches, so when it began snowing no-one was overly concerned. Of course, we’ve been here before — numerous times. When we awoke on Christmas Day, it wasn’t snowing, so no one gave the snow a second thought. When the snow started up again, there was no concern. I can’t tell you how many Christmas Day storms we’ve seen in Erie during my 45 years living here.

By noon is was snowing hard — very hard. The snow was piling up, but the nice thing about it was that it was Christmas Day. Almost every commercial and retail property in Erie was closed for the holiday. As night began approaching, there was 2 feet of the white stuff on the ground. Not a big deal — we’ve been here before. It’s Erie. We’re accustomed to lake-effect snow. By the 11 p.m. news, things were starting to look a little bleak in the snow department. It was looking like the totals for this storm would approach, and possibly exceed, 3 feet. OK — that’s unusual. Surely it would stop overnight and life would go on.

However, upon awakening on Dec. 26, it became apparent this was going to be unusual. The national news programs were making mention of the 3-foot Christmas Day storm and the fact that some local records were beginning to fall. About lunchtime on Dec. 26 the city of Erie declared a state of emergency as the forecasters were now talking about totals approaching and exceeding 5 feet. All retail stores (including the mall) were closed and closures for Wednesday, Dec. 27, were being announced.

Local reports were telling us of snow totals 10 miles south of Erie being well under a foot of snow. The local radars showed a band of snow running right along the lakeshore. On the 26th, the surrounding suburbs declared a snow emergency, meaning only 4-wheel-drive vehicles or vehicles with chains were allowed on the roads.

The Christmas Day snowfall totaled 34 inches. The Dec. 26 snowfall totaled 26.5 inches. The last two days of December 2017 saw another 17-plus inches of snow hitting Erie. It continued snowing until New Year’s Eve, with 85 inches of snow accumulating for the holiday week and 121 inches of snow recorded for December 2017.

Make no mistake, the local contractors were getting their fill and were working almost nonstop throughout the event(s). However, it was evident that this particular snowfall could not have come at a better time, from a snow management perspective. It began on a holiday that found almost every commercial site closed for the holiday. The city’s declaration essentially forced another day of closures of most of the city. Cars were off the roads and the parking lots empty, allowing full clearing of the lots. I can just imagine plowing that kind of snow with cars stuck in parking lots and/or on the roads. What a nightmare that would have been.

And, for those who think all this was great for the plowers out there — think again. It was a lot of snow, requiring Herculean effort to clear commercial sites. Loaders were stacking and relocating snow for days afterward.

It might seem like a financial godsend to those on the outside, but the truth is that collecting the money come March and/or April will be another nightmare. Property managers and owners will start playing “let’s make a deal” when the invoices come due, complaining about how much money they got billed for the storm. They’ll want contractors to eat large percentages of the outstanding money because budgets were exceeded.

This will put a heck of a damper on the thrill of seeing all that snow and all those records being broken. I used to tell my snow management clients that nobody makes money on snowfalls that exceed a foot at a crack. This Christmas 2017 storm will not be a windfall for the snow contractors — and it could put more than a few out of business.

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Considering Emotional Intelligence When Hiring

Most landscape companies fail to look at a critical piece of the employment puzzle when they’re hiring, and that can lead to poor choices, says Glenn Bertha, success coach and recruiter with LandOpt LLC.

That critical piece is “emotional intelligence,” and while it’s a concept that has been around since the 1990s (author Daniel Goleman penned the book “Emotional Intelligence” in 1995), most people still don’t know what it means. Turf recently spoke with Bertha to find out more about this concept and why landscape companies need to adopt it into their hiring process.

Emotional intelligence, or “EQ,” is defined as the ability to recognize and understand emotions in oneself and others and the ability to use this awareness to manage behavior and relationships. Those factors are incredibly important when it comes to hiring someone to come work for your company. Yet most landscape companies fail to look at any of that. Typically, that’s because they’re caught up on skills or IQ. But Bertha says that’s just touching the surface of what that person is all about and failing to dig deeper could result in a bad hire.

“What people typically look at when recruiting is information such as where the person went to school, what they studied and what kind of knowledge they have,” Bertha explains. “But if you think of it like an iceberg, those things are only the tip. The bigger part of the iceberg is emotional intelligence. Admittedly, that’s harder to bring out. It’s below the surface. But it’s huge and you have to know how to bring that out in people when evaluating them.”

Looking at EQ

In order to be good at recruiting, Bertha says you must “do your homework on emotional intelligence.” You need to understand how to assess an individual for their “EQ not just their IQ,” Bertha adds.

It all boils down to the cost of turnover, he continues, adding that 46 percent of new employees fail within 18 months of being hired.

“It costs a tremendous amount of resources to bring someone onboard, assuming you got the right person to begin with,” he says. “If it doesn’t pan out, that cost just keeps escalating. But the high cost of turnover could be greatly reduced if you look at emotional intelligence as part of your process.”

And Bertha stresses it absolutely must be a process — a well-defined one, at that. He says his company’s hiring process is 11 steps and one of them is focused on emotional intelligence. The goal is to weed out candidates who are likely to fail.

Bertha says it’s important to come up with a process that works for your company. Part of that process should include some sort of personality assessment. He says that his company uses the Activity Vector Analysis, or AVA. But there are certainly others to consider as well. While this should be an important part of the process, Bertha advises not getting too caught up on it. He calls it just “one tool in the tool bag” and an assessment alone should not be a reason to count someone out. That face-to-face time during the interview process is so important, too.

“When you ask the right questions during an interview, it will give you some insight into the candidate’s emotional intelligence,” Bertha says. “One of my favorite interview questions to ask is: ‘Can you teach me something as though I’ve never been exposed to it before?'”

How to send a text, how to refill the water cooler or how to do a puzzle are all examples, but Bertha says it doesn’t matter what it is. The point is that you should pay attention to how they respond as it reveals tremendous insight into their personality. It will tell you whether this person puts thought into what they’re saying or whether they just throw a lot out there.

“The key that you really want to look for is that the person asks empathetic questions to you — or whomever is being taught how to do something,” Bertha explains. “They should be asking, ‘Do you understand?’ or ‘Am I being clear?’ throughout the process. This is a component of a high emotional intelligence quotient.”

Putting a hiring process in place

If you don’t have a hiring process in place, Bertha recommends developing it by taking a hard look at the way you’ve hired in the past. What’s worked — and what hasn’t? When you have hired someone who has failed, where did things go wrong? Why did they fail? As you think about those questions you’ll have a much better grasp on what exactly you’re looking for in a candidate and that should help you develop your hiring process.

While it may sound like a lot of work, it’s not something that can be put off, Bertha adds.

“You can’t afford to not do this,” he urges. “I understand resources are limited — particularly time — but it will cost you significantly more if you choose a bad hire.”

By putting in the time to refine or create your hiring process, these efforts will pay off for you with some very specific rewards, Bertha says. That includes employee loyalty, reduced absenteeism and improving your brand, just to name a few. And these things are “priceless,” he says. For that reason, it’s absolutely worth the investment in developing a hiring process that includes emotional intelligence as a critical factor. Don’t be a company that makes it a missing piece.

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4 HR Mistakes You’re Probably Making

If your business is run like most of the landscape businesses out there, chances are you don’t have a strong focus on your human resources efforts. Unless you’re a multi-branch business with a strong corporate mindset, it’s more than likely you don’t have processes in place when it comes to staffing the company. But the truth is, regardless of your size, you should. All businesses need staffing processes in place that will optimize their chances for success.

Even if you don’t have the money to invest in a full-time HR person, you need to put more emphasis on your hiring process if you want to continue to grow your business.

Turf recently spoke to Steve Cesare, a human resources expert and a “harvester” with The Harvest Group, at the GIE+EXPO during his educational session at the National Association of Landscape Professionals’ LANDSCAPES conference about the key mistakes he sees companies make when it comes to HR and to staffing. Here are the four mistakes he sees most landscape business owners make.

1. You have an inadequate staffing focus.

Most landscape businesses do not make staffing a priority, and that’s their first mistake. How important is staffing to your business? Are you constantly looking to hire? If you’re not, then Cesare says you are making a critical HR mistake. That’s because he says these days staffing should be a 24/7, 365-day gig.

“You have to be on top of it,” Cesare says. “Most companies only hire when they have a vacancy; you are missing out on valuable opportunities if that is your approach.”

Cesare says that another fault of an inadequate staffing focus is the fact that most companies do not have a “staffing team.” Most companies have a single person that handles all staffing responsibilities. But without a team there is no accountability.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have someone in charge. There absolutely needs to be a person who takes responsibility for the effort.

“The companies that are most successful are the ones who put someone in charge of the staffing effort,” Cesare says. “Someone has to own it — to really care about it — or it will not be sustainable.”

2. You are too cost-conscious.

The cost of labor is going up and if you’re not willing to accommodate that increased rate, then you are going to lose out on valuable prospective employees, Cesare says.

So, how can you tell if that’s the case?

“If you are not getting four or five resumes each week, you’re being too cost conscious,” Cesare admits. “And you’re not investing enough in your staffing process.”

Cesare recommends investing in a strong employee referral program by incentivizing employees to do your recruiting. It’s cheaper than hiring a head hunter, he adds. But don’t give up all the investment at once, Cesare warns. If you’re willing to invest $400 in bringing in a new laborer, don’t give it away up front. Give them $100 for the first 30 days, $100 for 60 days, $100 for 90 days and the final $100 for staying for 120 days.

If you’re being too cost conscious, you must shift your mindset about investing in staffing, Cesare adds.

“It’s not about filling a position, it’s about accruing wealth for the organization,” he says. “When you think of it that way, it changes how you feel about investing in the effort.”

3. You don’t have job descriptions.

Cesare says the vast majority of landscape companies either have job descriptions that are incomplete or they have no job descriptions at all, and this is another key HR mistake. Cesare says that every existing employee should have a copy of their job description.

A scaled-down version of the job description can also be used for hiring in the form of a job posting. While the job description should detail, in length, the employee’s job duties as well as what is expected of them in terms of qualifications and competencies, a job posting should summarize only the key points.

Once an employee is hired, at that point you would bring out the full-length job description and go over it with them in detail, Cesare says. This should be updated annually and should come out once a year during the employee review process.

4. You can’t retain your people.

If you’re struggling with a retention problem, then you’re going to have a hiring problem, Cesare says. You have to look at the latter first. If you don’t have a place where people want to come to work, then you are only going to continue to struggle with hiring.

“You must treat your employees like customers,” Cesare says. “You make a strong effort to keep your customers onboard. Do the same thing with your employees. Treat them well so they want to stay.”

Happy employees also share their experiences. And, if you’re investing in an internal recruitment effort, then you want to be sure that your people are sharing positive things about your company to the friends and family that they suggest come work for you.

Cesare also suggests not losing touch of your best people.

“Get all of your employees’ names on a list from A to Z and determine who you feel to be the top five to 10 players,” he suggests. “These are the people who you absolutely do not want to leave. By treating them right, you can ensure that they don’t.”

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2018 Product Roundup: Plows, Blades, Pushers

ARCTIC SNOW & ICE
Sectional Sno-Plow
The new power-angled Sectional Sno-Plow is comprised of 32-inch independent sections on the HD models and 30-inch on the LD models, to let the plow contour to the grade of any surface for cleaner passes, according to the company. The pin-in-place patented Slip-Hitch allows for changeover to any quick-connect mounting couplers, skid-steer or bucket mount to fit any manufacturer’s wheel loader, backhoe or skid-steer mounting system.

BOBCAT
Snow blade
The snow blade can angle 30 degrees to either side and oscillates five degrees to keep in contact with the surface. The blade angle is adjusted from the cab by a fingertip control. It is designed to remove snow from sidewalks, driveways and parking lots, the company says. Optional features include rubber or polyurethane cutting edges and end-wing kits.

BOSS
SK12
The SK12 is the newest addition to the BOSS skid-steer box plow family. The SK12 is a trip-edge box plow with a self-adjusting hitch that allows the blade to adjust to any terrain, according to the company. This 12-foot model has rugged support struts that add structural strength, stability and long-term reliability.

BUYERS PRODUCTS
EXII, HDII, TEII and VXFII Series
The new generation of SnowDogg plows includes the EXII, HDII, TEII and VXFII Series. A major feature is the QuickMount II, which allows for jack-free mounting and dismounting. The plows have dynamic scraping and edge wear with the Floating A-Frame. Optional accessories include wire-reinforced blade guards and cast shoes.

CASE
Sectional Snow Pusher
The Sectional Snow Pusher has Hardox 450 steel cutting edges and a sectional design that scrape cleanly down to the pavement, the company says. The unique moldboard sectional edges of the pusher allow it to skip over curbs and obstacles up to 9 inches in height. For compact track loaders, it comes in three, light-duty model sizes: 8 feet, 10.5 feet or 13 feet, each with SSL mounts.

CATERPILLAR
Snow plow
The 10-foot snow plow has an IT interface and an angled width of 98.3 inches. The hydraulic angling can reach up to 35 degrees. It is 41.4 inches tall and has adjustable skid shoes and bolt-on skid plates to reduce the chances of gouging the surface, according to the company.

FISHER
HS Compact Snowplow
The new HS Compact Snowplow is designed specifically for midsize pickup trucks and SUVs. The 23.5-inch tall, 16-gauge, powder-coated steel moldboard comes in 6-foot, 8-inch and 7-foot, 2-inch widths for rugged snow plowing performance, the company says.

METAL PLESS
Pickupmaxx
The Pickupmaxx is a snow plow with hydraulic wings and is designed to be installed on a pickup 1 ton or bigger. The side wings are made of heavy-duty steel CHT400. It also has a front blade defl ector and a quick-attach system with two headlights installed on the blade.

MEYER
Drive Pro
The new Drive Pro is a commercial-grade plow for clearing snow from tight spots like driveways and alleys, the company says. It is designed for full-size SUVs, light-duty pickups and half-ton pickups. The lightweight, high-strength steel models have also been redesigned to offer ground clearance of up to 9 inches. Offered with the option of two operating systems, contractors can choose between the new Standard Operating System or the EZ-Mount Plus system.

SNOWEX
Heavy-Duty Series
The Heavy-Duty Series is designed for commercial contractors outfi tting larger vehicles. It has a 31- inch tall steel blade. Six vertical ribs, two angled Power Ribs and a quad design provide added torsional strength to prevent blade twisting, according to the company. Robotic welding ensures consistent strength throughout the headgear.

SNOWWOLF
QuattroPlowHD
The QuattroPlowHD is a versatile snow plow for heavy equipment such as wheel loaders, tractors and backhoes. It’s a high-capacity, hydraulic angle snowpusher, angle plow with wings, wide-angle plow with wings and backdrag plow, all in one, the company says. The QuattroPlowHD is available in 10- and 12-foot lengths. When the wings are fully extended on the 12-foot plow, it is 17 feet wide.

WESTERN
IMPACT UTV snow plow
The new IMPACT UTV snow plows are professional- grade plows designed and built exclusively for utility vehicles, the company says. The tough, 6-foot wide V-plow can handle 5-foot sidewalks and gates in angle, scoop or V mode. The 6-foot straight blade is a commercial grade snow plow in a lighter-weight package that fits more UTVs.

 

 

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Story Of A Landscape: Outdoor Living Room With Porcelain Paver Patio Installation

For Dennis Shennard, owner of GroundMasters, Inc., in Hightstown, New Jersey, there’s a lot to like about a project he did for a family in nearby West Windsor.

Not only was he able to up-sell the clients well beyond the patio they’d first envisioned, but the project won an honorable mention from Hardscape North America in the category of porcelain — residential.

Shennard says he was initially contacted by the clients following a referral from one of his previous clients. That he’s been in business for 26 years and has a reputation for doing hardscapes didn’t hurt, either.

Photo: GroundMasters, Inc.

And, the clients’ wishes were initially simple: they wanted to do something with their backyard. He describes the lot as about a half-acre in a development, but off to one side, which made it a bit more private than others in the area.

“They had an existing patio that was small, and the landscaping was overgrown,” Shennard explains. “It was also settling. And they wanted to make it a little easier coming out the back door.”

Shennard began showing them examples of his work, and started talking about possibilities, including an outdoor kitchen, fire features, water features, and shade structures. Ultimately, they decided they wanted all those options.

Photo: GroundMasters, Inc.

“The job was originally sold with EP Henry paver products,” Shennard says. “They were especially taken with the CSW (cast stone wall) block. It’s a new veneer-style wall that’s manufactured in-house and comes out in modular pieces, so it goes up very quickly compared with a masonry wall.”

And, then they visited GroundMasters’ shop; Shennard believes it might have been to sign some of the papers regarding permits for the job.

“I have porcelain on display outside my office,” he says. “They said, ‘What’s that?’ Since porcelain is typically a lot more expensive than pavers, I don’t necessarily push it. These people had a budget and we’d already added all these features; I was afraid they’d tell me to go away.”

Photo: GroundMasters, Inc.

Instead, based on their enthusiasm, Shennard showed them a couple projects he had done with porcelain, and he said they were taken by the fact that it doesn’t absorb a lot of heat, doesn’t fade and isn’t slippery.

“I gave them a price for the upgrade to porcelain and they went with it,” he says, adding that what they had anticipated spending $30,000 on ended up topping the $100,000 mark.

Certainly, the approximately 2,000 square feet of Atlas Concorde USA porcelain pavers is the heart of the project. Shennard says the bulk of the work is in 2-foot by 2-foot tiles, but 8-inch by 48-inch planks help complete the original design.

Photo: GroundMasters, Inc.

Perhaps surprisingly, the porcelain tiles are dry-set, and Shennard says it’s no different than installing paver bricks.

“Your minimum would be six inches of base, with an inch of sand for the bedding course, although this has more,” he says. “We used tile spacers when we put it together. Then, we jointed everything with an SEK SUREBOND polymeric sand. It holds up very well, especially with the porcelain.”

The reason for a thicker base is simple. From the foundation of the house the patio is on grade, but as it comes away from the home Shennard the lot drops slightly, to where the far edge is 12-14 inches off grade, requiring a set of steps to the lower level, which contains the fire pit.

Additionally, a porcelain walkway leads to the driveway.

Photo: GroundMasters, Inc.

The outdoor kitchen features a grill, a sear station, sink, refrigerator and storage drawers in an L-shape with a raised seating-area/bar on one side. Aside from granite countertops, the kitchen is built from the EP Henry CSW product.

“It’s very cost-effective for us,” says Shennard. “It’s about half the price of building a masonry wall and has been a real game-changer for us. People can get that natural-stone look at a masonry block-wall price.”

Near the kitchen, but not covering it, is a 14-foot by 18-foot pavilion that provides a shaded dining and seating area. Shennard says the decision was made not to cover the kitchen because of the cost involved in meeting certain building codes that would have required a hood.

Photo: GroundMasters, Inc.

“It can become pretty pricy sometimes,” he says, adding that the patio starts to become shaded in mid-day, so sun isn’t an issue.

The pavilion is also wired for an outdoor television, although the clients didn’t opt to install one initially.

Completing the amenities are a pondless water feature and a firepit. The water feature was installed mainly so the client would have the sound of water while she’s working outdoors.

Photo: GroundMasters, Inc.

Shennard also describes the firepit as basic. Set at a level below the rest of the patio, it’s installed over Techo-Bloc’s Antika pavers.

The stairways both out of the back door and leading to the firepit are built from a combination of EP Henry CSW block and the company’s bullnose treads, with Atlas porcelain for the landing.

Lighting for the project involves more than 60 low-voltage LED fixtures. While the pavilion has a fan and lights, much of the lighting is in the pavilion’s columns, around the staircases coming out of the home and leading to the firepit level, and under the wall caps, including the kitchen countertops.

Photo: GroundMasters, Inc.

Shennard says grading and drainage for the project wasn’t an especial challenge.

“We had some natural pitch,” he says of the lot. “We had to do some drainage under the patio and away from the walls, but that was it. We didn’t have to stir much outside the construction footprint of the patio.”

However, the company did do some softscaping on the site. Shennard says some of the trees that had overgrown near the old patio were transplanted, but one of the goals of the clients was to open up the area. Much of the planting centered around bringing more color to the backyard.

Photo: GroundMasters, Inc.

Work on the project took a four-man crew almost three months, and if the project offered one challenge it was the weather.

“We built this through the winter, although we were able to get the base in before the ground had frozen,” Shennard says. “Once we had the base in, I felt confident continuing to work on it, but because we were doing tile we had to wet-cut everything, and there had to be warm days to make sure the water wasn’t freezing in our saws.”

Photo: GroundMasters, Inc.

Still, he says, under better conditions, the crew could have finished the job in six or seven weeks.

Shennard is particularly proud that the job gave the clients just what they wanted, which in this case was a space where they could not only be outside as a family but would encourage their three boys to spend more time outdoors.

“That was the inspiration for the fire feature and the water,” he says. “We finished the job in early spring, and I visited the clients during the summer, and they just love it. We raised the value of the home and created an outdoor living space for them. It worked out very well.

Photo: GroundMasters, Inc.

Photo: GroundMasters, Inc.

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What’s In My Truck: Bryon DeLong

Bryon DeLong, account manager and snow plow truck operator for Bluegrass Landscape & Maintenance, based in Bridgeton, Missouri, says he enjoys plowing in the wee morning hours when there’s nobody else around. It’s serene at that time, and he’s able to get a whole different view of the busy city that nobody else gets to see — at a time when no cars are on the road. While Bluegrass handles snow throughout the St. Louis region, the company also has a national division that stretches into Illinois, Iowa and other parts of Missouri, Arkansas and Kentucky.

The company has well over 100 plow trucks, 65-plus skid-steers, and 100-plus sidewalk crew members throughout the snow events their regions bring them. DeLong says the snow events in St. Louis can be unpredictable — they’ve had years where there was more than 40 inches falling and others where they got nothing. As a result, they have to be prepared for anything. We recently caught up with DeLong to find out just how he does that, as well as what he keeps in the truck to be prepared for whatever he faces.

On long nights, Mountain Dew, Monster Energy drinks and an occasional Starbucks Latte help keep me going. You can’t forget to stock up on gas station food either! Anything from Zebra cakes to sunflower seeds makes it into the truck.

Most of the music I would listen to in the plow is interrupted by phone calls. Whether it’s from dispatch or clients, we’re always in touch so there isn’t a lot of quality music time. I should at least try to buy a good ring tone for my phone.

My plow is a mobile office in many ways. I always carry a laptop, laminated site maps, charging cables, battery backups, and of course a cellphone with Bluetooth headset. It is critical to stay in contact with the command center. We are very good at managing any issues because of our communication standard.

I actually enjoy getting to plow at night. I have a city route, and it’s really neat to see the cityscape with a snow cover at night and no cars on the road. It’s most challenging when we plow outside of those overnight hours. It can be really tough to get from one point to another when there is traffic, rush hour or accidents.

A crazy snowstorm of 2014 stands out. One January night, I was headed back to the command center for more salt. We had received over 11 inches of snow in a 24-hour period. I was on a back road and was running through snow drifts up to 36 inches deep. With the plow all the way up, it was still catching drifts and blasting snow. The only way to make it through was to keep the gas down and hit the drifts as fast as you could go.

The Essentials

Tool kit

Flashlight

Snow shovel

My backpack survival kit (snacks, drinks and extra clothes)

Spare fuses

 

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