Maybe I missed my calling

There needs to be a driving test when we get older

The Front Page

Morning update

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

By Ken Tingley

Here’s something few people know about me. I’m damn good with a rake and a shovel. I have a vision for rocks. I know how to mold topsoil. I can sculpt earth.

I’m not just talking about lawn care here, I’m talking about constructing gardens, arranging the rocks and the shrubberies like Michaelangelo arranged frescos in the Sistine Chapel.

In another life, under the right circumstances, I think I could have been a high-end landscape architect. Is there a school for that. Is that even a job? All I know, is that I really enjoy it.

Sometimes, I even find myself wandering around the garden section in the big-box store looking for ideas. Is there something wrong with me?

It started about 30 years ago when we bought our current property in Queensbury when the yard was still a couple feet deep in snow. When the snow melted, about the time we were closing on the house, it turned out we didn’t have much of a lawn. On one side of the house, there were a few scraggly tentacles of grass trying to compete with the poison sumac.

On the other side of the yard, the lawn consisted of the type of fine white sand you only find in the traps at Augusta.

Where most new home owners might see disaster, I saw an opportunity. My new yard was a blank canvas for me to create what I wanted. For the first time, I made a blueprint for the yard of tomorrow. I told my wife, the more gardens I put in, the less lawn I would have to mow. I was just being pragmatic.

I pulled out my tape measure and staked out symmetrical, curved boundaries instead my normal right angles.

On the other side, I ordered topsoil, and planned an enormous garden to take a huge chunk out of my future mowing. There were a half-dozen or so boulders strewn about. I decided - since they were way too heavy to move - they would be the boundaries for the garden. They are still there.

I built a 20-foot walk with brick tiles, that led into a stone walk that led to, well, nowhere at the time.

Ten years later when we put in a pool, I incorporated a patio and gazebo into the plan.

With the pandemic in full throat last spring, I added another garden next to gazebo, molding the dirt into large mounds and curving the stone edging.

In the fall, I added another garden on the other side of the house - even larger - rolling down as many rocks as I could find on the hill behind my house to build a stone wall.

I order wood chips, planted grass and and transplanted a couple trees.

I found the work creative and each morning when the dog and I return from the mailbox with the newspaper, we both took a second and admired my work.

And I write a little bit on the side, too.

Take the keys away

There was a photo in Tuesday’s newspaper of a car that had driven into the front entrance of the Walgreen’s on Upper Glen Street. The driver accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the break. The person driving the car was 81.

When ever you see accidents like this, the driver tends to be someone who should not be behind the wheel.

I’ve written editorials in the past that drivers should be tested once they reach a certain age. It could be 65, 70 or 75, but there should be some standard where elderly drivers have to prove their fitness to drive. I’m talking about taking a road test.

It is for their safety and the safety of someone who might have been walking out of the front door of the Walgreen’s.

Happy April 14

Today you get a double dose of historical tragedy.

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. He died the next morning.

In 1912, the luxury ocean liner Titanic struck an iceberg just before midnight and sank three hours later with a loss of 1,500 lives.

Happy April 14.

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