Rick Lerwill's Old West Style Earns Him Yard of the Week Award

Rick Lerwill's home in Payson is a natural beauty with an Old West flair, and our latest Yard of the Week.  Pictured: Front yard beauty

Pictured: The Old West awaits out back.

As the Tilt-O-Whirl whizzed and the carousel churned cheerful rounds at Payson’s Memorial Park over the weekend, another city of fun lay hidden a block away. This local attraction has been made with an old west appeal and is partially hidden in the backyard of Rick Lerwill’s home.  And it is the kind of creative approach that went into the landscaping that has warranted its selection as Yard of the Week.

Rick was in search of a place he could call home two years ago, when his parents, Jay and Mary Ann Lerwill, told him that the rambler down the street from their home was up for sale. Rick wasted no time to buy it.

Set back from Second East, beneath soaring pines and stately quaking aspens, his yard evokes a sense of canyon living.  A gurgling stream runs parallel to an irrigation ditch that continues to feed into the area’s water share system. A thin island separating the two was improved upon by the home’s previous owners.  They are a characteristic Rick has enjoyed since first sight.

His parents and neighbors here watch out for each other, and each adds to the aesthetics with their own well maintained yards.

Rick applied his own personal touch right after he moved in, first, with the addition of an attractive white vinyl fence along the property’s north side.  But where his talent has most bloomed is out back, where he and dad, Jay, created a world all their own.

Their project began earlier this year, after Rick’s co-worker said he had planned to burn all the wood from old sheds and barns he had dismantled in Colorado.  Rick wasted no time here either, stepping in to save some of the impressive boards he could put to good use in Payson.

The salvaging would take several trips from Utah to Colorado and back, before Rick and Jay would set forth to construct a useful shed and outbuildings, all with a facade straight out of an episode of Gunsmoke.

More so, it is reminiscent of an old-west scene Jay had created at a store he and Mary Ann had owned and operated in Cedar Fort from 1986-1994.  The Cedar Valley Country Store, as it was called, was a combination convenience store, cafe, and public attraction, complete with horseback rides for visitors to an area far less populous than it is today.

Rick’s place is a smaller representation of his parents’ old west Cedar Fort city, but admired all the same. He has planted few flowers, but the aesthetic vibe is still there.  The yard is a natural beauty, well maintained in the spirit of the homes nearby, and one which calls upon a respect for a time gone by.  We applaud the Lerwill family for their hard work and congratulate Rick Lerwill as recipient of the Yard of the Week award.