Ideas appreciated for my latest free struff.

EddieWalker · Feb 17, 2008

My FIL asked if I had any interest in some cement slabs that the city didn't want. He's the Chief of Police and thought of me when they decided to get rid of them. They are 3ft square, about 5 inches thick and have the Texas Star molded into them. The city has one of them at the base of thier flagpole in front of City Hall, but the remaing 13 have just sat behind the building for years.

I told him that I would come up with something to do with them and have a few ideas, but nothing for sure. Some of them have some damage to the edges that I can fix real easy, otherwise, they are in great shape.

The thing to remember is that the goal for my land is to develop an RV Park. Using them in a way that will compliment the Park and add to guest enjoyment is always first on my priority list.

No idea is a bad one. I'm open to all suggestions and would consider the more bizare and unusual ones, that I would never think up myself, to be very helpful.

Thank you,
Eddie

Wayne County Hose · Feb 17, 2008

Hello Eddie,

Great find. I'm sure there's lots of different things you could do with these in an RV park. How about incorporating a couple into your fireplace design?
Isn't it a coincidence that you have 12 things on your 2008 to do list and there are 13 of these blocks, guess what #13 is.

jinman · Feb 17, 2008

I think I'd maybe just use them to mark special locations throughout the RV park. Kinda like your parks "star attractions." You might even number each star for additional identification. Otherwise, you might save them to embed in the slab of a common picnic area in a checkerboard or crisscross pattern. Another thing would be to put them along your front fence, in the ground and paint them appropriately to draw attention.

BTW: They look like the kind of stars I have seen incorporated into retaining walls under highway overpasses throughout the state. Were they extras left over from a similar project?

ToadHill · Feb 17, 2008

If your pads are stone, you can place them at the location of the side doors on the RV's as a way to avoid bringing stones into the RV.

Casco1 · Feb 17, 2008

To bad you're not around here, they would sell as winter weight for pickups.
I have two similar slabs for mine. in my case they are half grave vault covers from a friend who works in a cemetery.

If you don't mind a suggestion I put a couple of hooks on the back of my BH bucket. Curling the bucket gives much gentler lift & drop than the arm. Saves wear and tear on the truck when putting blocks in and out.

MossRoad · Feb 17, 2008

If you are going to have any trails on your place, you could put them at the trail heads and intersections.

When I was pouring a foundation for a garage out on our property one wall at a time, I had some 2X2 foot square forms made up for any unused concrete. I ended up with about a dozen 2'x2' slabs. We placed a few of them in the corners of our fenced in yard... the dog always tended to jump around in the corners when barking at the world and tore up the grass in the corners and got muddy paws. That stopped that!

texasjohn · Feb 17, 2008

What a wonderful thing to have.... and so many uses...

I'd think that they might make a great entry/exit step for all the doors you will have into cabins. A place to stand and stomp and get the mud off before entering... kinda a logo/signature thing for your place...

tallyho8 · Feb 17, 2008

I think they would make great door stoops for the RVs. That first step up from the ground is usually a little difficult on most RVs.

weldingisfun · Feb 18, 2008

jinman said:
I think I'd maybe just use them to mark special locations throughout the RV park. Kinda like your parks "star attractions." You might even number each star for additional identification. Otherwise, you might save them to embed in the slab of a common picnic area in a checkerboard or crisscross pattern. Another thing would be to put them along your front fence, in the ground and paint them appropriately to draw attention.

I like the idea in red.

EddieWalker · Feb 18, 2008

Thank you for the ideas. Using them to mark locations sounds pretty good. Steph and I like the idea of having them on a map and encouraging guests to explore the land to find them. Using them on the trails also has a similar feel to it. People would know that it's a designated trail and the Star's would make the trails a little more unique.

With only 13 of them, using them for the cabins or RV sites wouldn't work as I'm a stickly for uniformity. I want every site and cabin to be alike, or as similar as possible.

My thought for them was to use one as a center peice for under sitting benches that I will put around the land. A few on the dam where it's shady, others along the creek with a nice view of the water flowing, and a few in the woods.

My benches are going to be thick cedar trees cut in half, lengthwise, and mounted to two pipes cemented into the ground. Just a flat half length of cedar to sit on. No backs or anything fancy. Then I was thinking that the Star would look nice centered under the bench and surrounded by cement pavers. I want something under and around the benches so I can mow around them quickly and easily.

I'm not sure about this idea because I don't know if the Star's will look good with the pavers and the cedar logs, be too busy or if there might be a better use for them. Using just cement pavers and the Cedar logs was my original plan for sitting benches, so adding the Stars is just a spur of the moment thought that I need to think about for a bit longer.

Thank you,
Eddie