Finer Details Grave Care

08/07/2026

A canopy on a hot day like today makes all the difference! We simply would not be able to work without it!
Today we epoxied two pieces of a child's stone back together.
This is the stone we showed a while back that had Portland Cement that had to be removed first. It was an accepted adhesive back in the day, but conservators now avoid it because it is stronger than the stone and if it gets struck hard by a branch or lawn equipment, the stone will break at a new location instead of the cement breaking off, as happened with this stone.
We will infill this later with an appropriate mortar after the epoxy dries.
We also discovered that the footstone placed there was not William's (the stone we are working on) footstone -- it had MEB on it instead of WHK.
We discovered this from excavating the base to pivot it to alignment with the row, when we found his footstone buried along the backside of the base. "Well, if this is his footstone, whose footstone is propped up in the plot?"
After investigating, we found Mary E Brown, who had a headstone of the same type, marble, who was missing her footstone. We returned it to her plot and reinstalled William's footstone.
Sometimes cemeteries are like puzzles and mysteries to solve!
Stay cool out there today!!

08/07/2026

08/07/2026

We did some re-lettering (inking the inscription) this week at a cemetery in the Katahdin region and we love how the letters really pop out! We gave five footstones and four corner markers a clean, dug out w**ds and growth that were burying them, and applied two coats of Akemi lettering paint to the footstone inscriptions.
Because there are living people named on some of these stones, we have cropped out names to protect the privacy of those who still walk among us.
There are more and more requests coming to us to ink stones that have inscriptions that are faded or hard to read. This work requires very particular climate specifications, a temperature in a certain range and no rain expected within a certain window.
We have three re-lettering orders still to complete. If you would like your headstone letters to shine, let us know.
There are so many ways to beautify a gravesite plot, and we love them all!
Contact us if you would like inking, or any other services, scheduled in our work diary.
Thank you, as always, to our supportive customers.

08/01/2026

Today we had the honor of visiting Maine U.S. Congressman Amos Allen who served in the 56th to 62nd U.S. Congresses, from 1899 until his death in 1911 and who is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Alfred, Maine.
We placed a flag at his plot in gratitude.

07/28/2026

From northern Maine to southern Maine: We are booking headstone cleanings and simple repair work in the vicinity of Shapleigh, York County, Maine for this weekend and other select dates. Let us know if you have grave care needs.
We operate out of Lincoln, Penobscot County, but also have a camp in Shapleigh, York County -- so we can book in the southernmost county at reasonable rates!
Contact us if you need our services.

07/27/2026

It was an amazing sight to behold, driving past St. Matthew Cemetery in West Enfield at night and these pictures don't do it justice -- but Wow!
The solar light graveyard decoration displays are a joyful illumination that showcases how much families participate in the art of remembering their loved ones at this cemetery.
Some cemeteries have a few lights, but this one was ablaze in color, like a Christmas Tree!
Of course, we couldn't enter the cemetery, because it's closed at night but these photos were taken at the edge from the road.

07/26/2026

Brothers Moses and Newell Babcock are back together in Snow Cemetery!! Once the epoxy cures, we'll give it a clean, mist all the stones in the cemetery one last time for prolonged weather activation to improve upon the thorough brush cleaning we gave them last fall, photo document all the stones, hand in a final report to the town of Winn and then this project will be closed!!!
We are still working on the veterans memorials in South Winn Cemetery also and those stones are coming along beautifully. Going to start cracking on the repairs over there soon.
This week looks to be that all the stars are aligned with Maine's unpredictable weather to give us a window of no rain and low humidity in which we can get going on the four letter-inking jobs our clients have been ever so patiently waiting for!
We also have a few prospects in line for potentially complete cemetery restoration projects that we are excited about.
There is nothing we love more than beautifying cemeteries and this is the best time of year for it!!

07/25/2026

Saddle #15: "Sunset Wildflower" is a moderately flamboyant, slightly larger, wildly assorted combination of floral colors, proudly standing cranberry stems and extra greenery, summoning the deep glow of a summer sunset behind a Maine forest.
We know that technically, summer just began, but it's hard not to notice the August-like evening air crispness lately -- nodding to the upcoming transition toward autumn.
Each of our toppers is a one-of-a-kind unique piece of art, special and unlike any other, much like the individual whose memory will be honored when we place this atop their headstone.
Our saddles stand out in a cemetery as more creative and distinctive than your typical ordinary topper, made with care, thoughtfulness and intention to a theme.
We made this one the other night while our granddaughter was visiting for a crafts night, and she helped us name this piece of art.
This topper is available as an add-on to a plot care subscription for only $50.
If you aren't a subscriber but would like this topper, you may get a Topper Tending Care subscription for $110, which includes three months of basic plot care and topper tending service.
There is a reason we don't sell these outright, but instead sell them only as part of a plot care service: More and more cemeteries are prohibiting the use of permanent botanicals because of the littered landscapes that result when people place a saddle upon a headstone and don't return until next year, and then wind and nature do their part to disassemble graveyard decor and blow the debris across the cemetery.
We think this decor beautifies cemeteries and makes a plot a special place to visit and would like to preserve this tradition, so we are doing our part to be good stewards of the cemeteries and maintain the plots where these saddles may get installed.
The market price for a gravestone topper in the market is generally $50 (for a small basic one) to $150 (for a larger more elaborate one), and that's just for the topper alone.
With ours, you not only get the saddle, but three months of plot care, including light headstone cleaning, w**d removal, garden amd plant watering, prep for scheduled family visits, complimentary ground decor, removal of decor by deadlines per cemetery rules, removal of w**ds, trimming of growth abutting stone and around decor when missed by groundskeepers, removal of litter and debris and discounted rates on garden, potted plants and fresh flower installations.
Contact us if you would like this splendidly-designed artwork added to improve the appearance of your love one's final resting place.

07/25/2026

Two cemeteries in one day!
Today, after epoxying together pieces of a headstone at Snow Cemetery in Winn we headed over to Half Township Cemetery in Lincoln to put together a broken keyholed marble tablet that had been previously repaired by some type of cement, perhaps Portland Cement, which was an accepted adhesive back in the day before it was realized that it is stronger than the stone is, and would rip more stone apart from the headstone if it ever broke again.
Well, that's exactly what happened to this stone and now it has to be dealt with in a caring and intentional way.
As we learned from the several training sessions we attended this year, removing concrete from a stone needs to be done delicately so as not to have more marble getting pulled off from the stone along with the concrete, especially with this stone experiencing heavy "sugaring" -- which is how we describe when a soft stone like marble is corroding in such a way that small sand-like granules are crumbling away from the stone.
It takes time, patience and a steady, gentle hand to chisel the concrete away without pulling extra marble apart from the stone as well.
We managed to get all the concrete, as well as some white rubbery caulk or glue of some kind that was also used in the past as a repair, removed with minimal loss of marble.
The treatment plan for this stone calls for an application of consolidant to harden and strengthen the adjoining faces so that the epoxy will hold them together instead of the sugared pieces just sliding off the epoxy, but the right consolidant must be used.
Some consolidants double as impregnators, but those type would render the epoxy ineffective because it would not be able to bond to the stone.
Today, we carefully chiseled the concrete off the stone, scraped the adjoining faces of the broken pieces with a metal brush (the ONLY time a metal brush is ever used on a headstone -- for surfaces that are not the outside visible faces of the stone), rinsed the surfaces to be adjoined, applied some consolidant to the adjoining faces, and oh yeah, before all that, we dig around the base and reset the foundation stone to make the affixed tablet level and pitch.
If the consolidant made the stone stronger, our next step will be to epoxy the two pieces together, infill the gaps with an appropriate mortar, clean the whole stone after repaired, with quartenary ammonium, and then once fully cleaned, apply consolidant to the entire headstone as a whole.
This stone seemed like it might have been beyond salvation but so far, it looks like this treatment is going to work to restore the stone.
This is a multi-visit repair as each step takes some amount of time for the product to cure.
We will keep you updated!