Dolphins in Deerfield

The dolphins have landed!

In 2004 my neighbor Larry was traveling in Nha Trang, Vietnam, and saw a stone carving that he just had to have. Vietnamese craftsman had sculpted the three dolphins from a solid slab of rock. He bought it on the spot and made arrangements to have it shipped to the U.S. After several months it made its way across the Pacific to the West Coast. Another few months and it had arrived in Knoxville at a warehouse.

Larry had the stone carving brought to his garage where it rested for five years in its heavy-duty crate. In a post last year, I told you about Larry building a mongo gazebo at the side of his house. The floor joists of the gazebo rest on a massive concrete column, the perfect resting place for a dolphin sculpture that weighs more than a 1,000 pounds.

Getting the sculpture from the garage was an engineering feat to say the least. A commercial Bobcat that was on the premise doing some driveway work was commandeered to move the stone to the edge of the gazebo. Today, Larry and I used an engine hoist and a tractor to position the carving in the middle of the gazebo.

The dolphins at last are in their final resting place. Did I ever tell you about the 1,000-pound eagle carving with wings spread that we put in Larry's Africa room?