Garden Arbor Construction, Part 3

With our post holes dug, today we focused on getting the arbor posts situated and fixed in place (mostly). We spent a good portion of the morning talking at the kitchen table, going over our approach and how to best figure out the placement of things.

As reference, the plans we’re adapting/following are here.

Strings staked and leveled.

Two front posts, leeled and in place.

Liz, marking up a 4×4.

All four posts in, held in (partially) with garden stakes. And some spacer pieces near the base.

The internal width of the arbor (if you’re walking through it) is 4′ between the posts. The depth of the design was 2′, but we decided to increase it a bit to 3′.

Side view of the stake party. Vampires, beware.

We had a cutoff time of around 3PM, as we had an invitation to dinner with our neighbors Mark and Anna across the street. Mark stopped by a little earlier, letting us know the meat he had going was going to take a bit longer… so we had slightly more time to keep working.

All of which worked out well. We got our posts in and positioned, showered, and were able to have a lovely meal with Mark and Anna at their house, out in their backyard. After a full day of working, it felt great to relax and catch up with the two of them, with a delicious dinner.

We’ve visited a bit with family, since we passed the two-week time after our second shots. But tonight was our first official “social” occasion since, well… since the pandemic began, I suppose. And it felt very liberating to eat and laugh and catch up with Mark and Anna, hanging out without masks on.

It felt odd at first, but got more comfortable as time went on. Which I suppose will be the mantra for the coming year. It was really lovely to hang out with Mark and Anna again, and I daresay it was the closest we’ve felt to normal in a good long while.

Related:
Garden Arbor Construction, Part 1
Garden Arbor Construction, Part 2