Daniel's Grave Site

This will be the story of Daniel's grave site. As we do more, more will be added to the story.

On July 4th, I decided it was high time to be doing something. It looked like this at that time:

This is the view from the bottom.

This is the view from the south east corner.

This is actually the monkey bridge which crosses the stream near Daniel's grave site.

 Amena, Cedric, Seth and Laura helped bring slate up from where there was a pile of it near the creek. On July 27, I went down and pulled most of the few weeds that had dared to grow in preparation for the next day when I planned to get it ready for planting.

This is from the bottom again.
Joseph was sort of supervising as we were in the process of putting the slate around the border.

 On the morning of July 28, I went down to work on it. It wasn't all that hot, but it was awfully humid and sweat was dripping from my eyebrows onto my glasses. That was quite interesting. I finished pulling weeds, including some that had stickery little thorns that I wanted my gloves for. Then I pulled away some of the grass and other vegetation that was growing too near the edge. Next I used the hoe to loosen the dirt in order to get out some of the rocks (I don't think it's possible to get them ALL out). I raked the rocks and made a pile of them to put around the outside edge and some around the inside edge to help the slate remain upright. Then it was time to make a trench around the perimeter with the spade.

From the north east corner.
Joseph wanted to know if I was taking pictures of him.
In a manner of speaking, I was.

 Cedric and Amena had made a pile of slate a few days ago. I used up what they had brought up which was enough for almost half. I started at the top and began working down the sides. When I had used up the slate I had, I went up to the house. After lunch, Laura, Seth and Joseph went down with me. Laura and Seth brought up more slate and I was able to finish that. Seth and Joseph put rocks around the outside. While they did that, I dumped two bags of top soil and Laura and I spread it out. Then I dumped out two bags of manure and humus and we spread that out. Last I dumped and we spread out three bags of potting soil. The last thing I did was plant the St. John's Wort in the south east corner. It had begun raining by then and Paul had driven the van down for some reason. Seth and Joseph rode with Paul up to the house while Laura and I gathered tools and empty bags and took the cart and wagon back up to the barn.

This is from the north west corner.
The slate is all in and we have the ground pretty much ready for planting.
Although you cannot see it, there is a St. John's Wort in the south east corner that I dug up from near the top.

On July 30 Joanna needed/wanted to go to Walmart and I had some errands to run so I got more top soil, manure and humus, and potting soil. An echinacea plant as well. The next day, Nick wanted to come over and help do whatever so before lunch he hauled the dirt down. After lunch he went down with me to dump dirt and plant.

In the north east corner I planted the rhododendron Paul gave me for Mother's Day with some help from Nick. Nick planted the echinacea in the north west corner.

The rhododendron.

The echinacea.

From the bottom (east).

The view from near the edge of the field.
Daniel's grave is in the center and you can see the echinacea and rhododendron.
In the background you can see an end of the monkey bridge.

August 2, 2012. The first anniversary of the accident and Daniel's death. Not exactly something to celebrate. However, Daniel was a friend to many and his life, though short, touched many. On this day were added to his grave site double impatiens, a petunia, garden mums, black-eyed Susans, a cannas and sunflowers. The sunflowers were planted as seeds; it being so late in the season, we are hoping they will come up. Nick gave us the impatiens, petunia and cannas.

This is what it looks like as of the 2nd:

The garden mums at the top.
You can see the petunia as well.

The view from the bottom.
The sunflowers were planted along the edge in the upper left.
The cannas is in the center by the black-eyed Susans.



View from the north west corner.
You can see all the dark spots where everything was watered.

Petunia with the impatiens behind.

I was sitting near the top and thought this was just a good picture.

I would like to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to visit Daniel's grave. If you would like to, just email me (pamssoapsetc@hotmail.com) or send me a message via Facebook (pam.roperflint@facebook.com).