Gotta put on my sexton hat…

Before T died he had specific ideas as to what he wanted on his gravestone. After T died, Landlady learned there were specific things monument makers are not willing to carve on a gravestone. So she found somebody who works with marble but not really grave markers, and that person made T’s marker. This left us with the problem that it wasn’t a proper gravestone and we had to improvise. We made a plywood form, poured it full of concrete, and glued the marker to the new concrete pedestal. Worked so well that we made a smaller form for the pets who went into Boot Hill, since Landlady has unusually grandiose ideas about pet grave markers.

Unfortunately ol’ Sexton Joel left the form out in the weather. I need to pour a couple more pedestals, and the old form isn’t going to get it done.

So this morning during chicken chores I brought a piece of scrap plywood from Landlady’s barn…

…and now there’s a new one. Which I will carefully store indoors, once I’m done with it this week.

The holes are for pieces of rebar scrap, to anchor the whole thing to the ground. That piece can be unscrewed and removed from the form once the concrete has set up. When pouring the concrete I turn the whole thing on its side, open end up.

T’s grave marker was so cool I feared some tourist might actually steal it. So in addition to being larger, his has long rebar anchors that are set in more concrete. You’d need a backhoe to get it out of the ground, and most tourists don’t bring backhoes. The pet marker anchors are just set into the dirt, at least for now – the theft problem ol’ Untrusting Joel anticipated never really arose.