A New Bridge, a Cat and a Snake

Upon returning from Hawaii this winter, we found quite a few things around our home that needed to be repaired or replaced. One of those was the bridge over our backyard pond which had rotted to the point of being unsafe. One of our daughters works for a wood company, so she gave Mike some beautiful wood for his birthday to build the bridge. He put a nice arch to the stringers. I can't explain how he did it because of the complexity, but it involved ropes, hydraulic jacks, adhesives and more. (If you know Mike, you can appreciate the wacky genius he has for this sort of thing and imagine the crazy setup in our garage.) The garage must be sound, because he used the rafters to support the two ends while jacking the middle into the arch. I was terrified to enter the garage for a few days in case something gave! Here are the results--beautiful, huh?

 

 

 

Our cat Shredder enjoyed the activity and sun out in the backyard.

 

We also get some guests in the pond.