You see we have a creek that runs from the bottom of the pond down through the valley. The majority of our land is across that creek. Not such a problem when the creek looks like the picture below. But when water fills up that 16 foot span or when you want to take a lawn mower or tractor across the creek, it becomes a little bit impossible.
So on Friday night Marc spent his evening coming up with a plan to build a bridge. I'm not sure how he came up with the plan but what I do know is that by Saturday morning he had a sketch and he was off to home depot to buy supplies. A few hours later this is what was in our driveway.
Probably not the safest way to transport building supplies but somehow my husband, the wood and the truck all made it home in one piece. Thankfully I wasn't at home depot for the purchasing and loading of supplies but from the stories I hear there was an endless supply of comments from other home depot patrons.
"Oh, I've lost loads transporting them like that."
"I see you are going the daredevil route."
Stares, points and whispers
"You might want to tie it down from both sides so it doesn't slide."
The last comment I believe was actually a helpful one. Now we had wood it was time to start building. On day one Marc had attached all of the joist brackets to the end of his frame and had fully assembled the frame of the bridge. I give all the credit of this bridge to Marc but I did come out and hammer in some nails for a half hour or so just to keep him company. I was surprised how fun that was.
By the end of day one I had a tired but excited husband. Sunday morning I knew that from the second he woke up he was itching to get outside to finish his bridge. And that's what he did. One more trip to home depot and by the end of the day we had a fully finished bridge. All the boards had been cut, screwed and nailed down to the frame and the bridge was evenly positioned where he wanted it.
I'm so impressed by what he was able to accomplish in one weekend. Now we just need a few friends to come over so we can make sure that it will support the 446 pound lawn mower. Who's in?
***Side Note: I wanted to label this post with lyrics from a song about a bridge. Sadly the majority of the songs I could find were pretty sad. Bridge Over Troubled Water had a great message but I didn't want to stir up talk about our marriage. Then I came across the poem The Bridge Builder by Will Allen Dromgoole. If you haven't read it you should look it up. It has a great message and I feel like Marc was building this bridge for our family and friends as well as for himself. ***
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