Building a bridge

This blog post might well have been titled Silver Linings.  One of the silver linings from this pandemic has been all the time at home; many people have been agreeing on this.  Many families are thankful for the slower pace and I think we can count ourselves among them, to an extent.  However, Mike's delight in being productive and staying busy makes the "slower pace" look a little different on our 2.5 acres.  We've honored the social distancing for the most part, but that doesn't mean (in case you were wondering) that you can't get a load of lumber delivered on 2-days notice (thank you, 84-Lumber in E-town) before a holiday weekend.  It's true, he had been dreaming up plans for this for at least a few weeks in a serious way, and a few years in a casual one, but I have to say I'm impressed and never expected him to complete it - mostly on his own - in under 3 days.  Paul did help out a bit on Sunday, although the main point of his visit was a different construction project - the rehanging of our swing!!  Importantly, Mike also had the help of three little boys who scarcely left their daddy's side, or at least not his sight.  When they weren't helping, they were playing underfoot in the creek.  I would check in every hour or so and see if there were any bored children and literally found no takers.  

What was accomplished (that's Nick's word, actually), is nothing short of amazing.  Here's a chronicle of pictures to show you through the weekend.  

I'll start with the little stuff.  Grandma's bench got a new spot!!  

this is the same beautiful swing that Paul made us probably a decade ago now, with a new Christmas gift from 2019 and lovely spot.  It'll make a perfect spot for pondering.  

and now onto the big project... (drum roll, please).... 

[Please note: Loads of Laundry are doubling by the hour here]

Lukas drilled about 30-40 screws in on the bridge boards here 

and was also busy teaching his little brothers!  

[sidebar: training Luna to a shock collar this past week is going OK. she's a bit overly submissive now but I think in the long run the independence she'll gain will be worth it.  it has 3 modes: shock, beep and vibrate and I have exclusively used vibrate and she is intensely responsive when I do!]

The Completion Celebration - Splash Daddy!

This evening after dinner we headed back down to the main attraction, and no exaggeration, we made more than 10 videos of kids jumping off the bridge or enacting tales of snapping turtles, crocodiles, tigers and lions coming out from under the bridge to growl and scare off tasty little Pfeiffer boys that might be in their territory.  As has been universal during this pandemic, the creativity of these characters was top notch and honestly there's nothing I'd rather do than sit with my back to the 80-degree sun on the bridge my husband built yesterday over our babbling creek and take another video of these handsome devils. 

My cup overflows.