Tuesday greeted us with the anticipatory waves of the incoming bridge. P was out and shoveling away the packed dirt in the East end of the bridge foundation first thing. P2 continued his work to hack away all the remaining brush and roots around our Weeping Cherry area. Y started the day with a watering of the new plants, with a couple of our pink flowery ones showing obvious signs of shock. After selecting and placing rocks for the next section of the path, Y moved on to bringing gravel for the foundation and helping P measure the squareness of the foundation sans the bridge across the stream. The morning shift ended with P completing the East end of the foundation. We were ready for real to get this bridge in!
D and P2 plotting out what else to pull out from the Weeping Cherry area. Photo credit: YSOur second Corkscrew Rush in the quarantine looked pretty clear of Fairy Fern thus far. Photo credit: YSP2 and P digging away in their respective areas! Photo credit: YSIs that deep enough and square enough for the Allan blocks? Photo credit: YSThe rocks have been selected. All we need to do is balance each one on sand relative to the slope, sweep with granular dust a couple times, water a couple times and then dig in with fingers around each rock to fix it in place, and then sweep with more dirt. Photo credit: YS
Has yesterday’s ground cover taken root yet? Photo credit: YS
These two pinkies haven’t been looking too hot. It’s swim or sink in this heat and we hope you swim! Photo credit: YS
A mountain chickadee enjoying our stream in the heat of the day. Photo credit: EO
Around 3 pm, the moment we all had been waiting for had finally arrived – K was here with the bridge! Everyone dropped whatever they were doing and went outside. K surveyed all the changes we had made to the pond and the garden since the last time he was here some weeks ago.
Is this really 98 inches? You sure? Photo credit: YS
Finally, we unveiled the masterpiece(s) that K had driven out here for 3.5 hours. We cut out the tape and uncovered all the blankets that the pieces were ensconced in to reveal the three large pieces – two for the handrails and one for the decking that had to be assembled. It took K ten minutes to glue and screw the handrail parts to the decking and voila!
The stash. Photo credit: YSWe’re so giddy with enthusiasm just holding the first smooth handrail. Photo credit: POPlacing that handrail with care against the old sprayer. Photo credit: YSThe second handrail is coming out. Photo credit: YSAnd finally, the decking, woot! Photo credit: YSAssembly step 1 – the glue. Photo credit: YSAssembly step 2: Two supports on a side clamped down. Photo credit: YSAssembly step 3: Screwing it on. In D’s words, who else would like down on the ground to fix up a bridge for you, P? We are very fortunate indeed, and grateful for it! Video credit: YSD can hardly wait to walk on that bridge! Photo credit: YS
Four of us carried the assembled bridge to the site, while P did the tricky job of crossing the stream while balancing most of the weight of one side of the bridge. But, it was an almost perfect fit in the foundation and needed very little adjustment. Huzzah P and D for planning and building out the foundation work without having seen the bridge in person, and huge thanks to T and K for building the bridge out for us!
Here she comes (16x speed). Video credit: EODo we need to make any more adjustments? Photo credit: EO
The shadows are occluding the face, but D is thrilled to be standing on that bridge. Photo credit: YS
The bridge is open! Bienvenue! Photo credit: DO
K breathing a sigh of relief that this is done! Thanks K! We wish T were here to see the installation in person. Photo credit: YSE & P testing the height of the handrail and enjoying the view. Photo credit: YS
P is missing a fishing rod, and some fish. Photo credit: EO
Gotta be, gotta be golden..our golden bridge sans the gate. Photo credit: EO
Our wonderful dinner celebrating the bridge from K and T, and K’s visit here! Thanks mama E. Photo credit: YS
We’re all pretty chuffed with the addition of the bridge today. Thank so much again for your generous gift, T and K! We plan to go celebrate Canada Day tomorrow by looking for some grasses for the upper pond edge and hopefully planting our Japanese Maple. Stay tuned!
The day started a little later at 8 am today. The crew kicked off with their usual stand-up. Given P had a lot of meetings and could spend less than an hour this morning, we decided to focus on finishing up the grass removal as well as lowering the step down from the patio to…
The day began with a skeleton crew composed of D and P for the morning shift. They worked on digging out the upper landing of the Bridge and the path to complete our loop on the West side of the garden, next to the patio. The morning shift ended early as some of us had…
Our crew got to work around 7:30-8 after battling some Monday morning blues. The main event of the day was set to be getting and installing pond liners on both our ponds and stacking all kinds of rocks around them. While the Kelowna specialty store opened at 7, we gave them an hour to settle…
The crew was up and about early on this hot day. P2 went about pruning all the pokey and prickly greens by the big, old ash tree. P continued to work on adjusting the height of the path by the North end of the garden. While he put Y to work on digging up the…
The crew was up and going around 8 am on this sunny but windy morning. We had rock piles to finish and water flow to contour. We had to make sure that all our layered waterfall rocks that had taken so much effort to balance on our rock stacks actually got the water flow as…
It was another crisp summer morning here at West Kelowna, but that didn’t stop our crew from getting started on the task they had been looking forward to for days – getting the pond liners in! Before we started with the liners and under lays, we wanted to solidify how the upper pond’s waterfall rocks…
