The Bridge

There are a number of small streams running through our property.  We live at the bottom of a small valley, that opens out to a larger valley (Pleasant Valley), that is connected to a series of valleys marching down the Sierra Nevada mountains to the Sacramento valley.  We are situated at the very back-end of our valley, with steep hillside on both sides and the back.  All of our streams meet at the front of our property, where they merge, flow under our road and continue on to join the Cosumnes River.  Which is impossible to pronounce.  (I tell myself that it rhymes with "go sum this")

The largest of the streams runs the whole length of our property, entering at the back of the Back 40 pasture, running alongside the dressage court, down past the chicken pen, my garden, the house and the next to the girls' pasture fence before going under the front fence, making a hard left, flowing under our driveway (or over it) and merging with the other streams.  Just before the stream reaches the chicken pen, it passes under a bridge that crosses over to the girls' pasture and the compost piles.  When we moved in, it was in decent shape; wide enough to drive the tractor across and sturdy.

Since then, its been steadily eroding.  Ground squirrels have been excavating the top and sides.  And, we had a bit of flooding action going on this past February.

The bridge had never been quite wide enough to drive a truck across comfortably.  After this winter, driving anything but the tractor across was flat out impossible.  And to make matters worse, there were huge holes in the top, initially dug by squirrels, but enlarged by the exceptional amount of rain we have had this winter.  It made me nervous, walking Lucy and Pistol across.  It felt like crossing a mine field.  It needed to be replaced.

Brett doesn't do a half-way job with anything.  He builds beautiful and sturdy structures.  After countless sleepless nights, where he tormented himself with different designs and calculations, he got to work.

I think its pretty dang impressive myself.