I finished making the Iza Memorial marker yesterday. I couldn't find the right size brass letters at first and then it took 2 weeks for them to arrive. Apparently, 2" brass letters are actually only 1 3/4", so they match. BTW, these came with simple slot-head screws. Any company who provides such nearly-unusable screws should be ashamed. Phillips heads are managable, square heads are better, star heads are amazing.
And, naturally, I had to make it match Skeeter's and LC's markers and I had gone all fancy then. Couldn't be a simple box or upright stand. No, I wanted an angled front so the letters would show up. Now I have to keep doing that.
Well, I don't mind; it's a labor of love and remembrance. But I keep having to figure out the angles of the cuts, and after 10 years, I didn't remember exactly. I messed up a couple of pieces.
But all turned out well...
I had initially removed the perennial plant between Skeeter's and LC's markers a couple days after Iza went over The Bridge, but my right knee fails sometimes so I couldn't dig deeper. I have been careful with the knee for weeks, so I was ready to dig again today.
Shrub branches and briars were in the way, so I used a cordless hedge trimmer freely. The briars were interwoven with the shrub.
But I plan to remove that large shrub anyway. Golden Euonymus. Evergreen to yellow leaves. The label said 5' high and 3 feet wide, HAH! They grow to 10' high and 5' wide.
I only mention that because the spot where I want to bury Iza is covered with 2" thick roots from one. I spent an hour yesterday digging up offshoots, briars, and poison ivy. Can't have those above my sweet girl! I think I will place black plastic or corrugated cardboard over the soil under the 3 markers to keep the weeds down.
But the shrub roots are thick. I could cut some with an ax, but I have serious tree roots from a neighbor tree on the surface and making mowing BUMPY like driving over railroad ties. So I've ordered "landscaping blades" for my reciprocating saw. They will arrive in a week.
Every delay hurts. Iza needs to be properly buried deeply and with some few artifacts of her life. But Iza's spirit is free even if her body is triple-bagged in the freezer. I hate that, but I have to wait yet again... I need the saw blade to cut through the shrub roots and pry them out.
Damn, digging holes with a pry bar and shovel in frozen ground for both Skeeter and LC was actually easier. But I am determined that Iza will be buried no less deeply nor without a few things she loved.
