This guy was particularly… big? I did wonder if this could be Harold, but that’s an awful lot of weight to have put on, in a short time. But perhaps it’s been a bad pandemic year for everyone, bunnies and humans included. I know that I wasn’t making the best of food choices.
It’s incredible to think about how much work went into our backyard arbor. From the planning and prototype, through the power augur and construction… it’s been a very involved, multi-step process.
I thought to snap a photo before we lit things up and settled in our chairs… but forgot to take a photo afterwards. We mostly just sat and looked into the backyard, admired the arbor, and watched the evening slowly take over the day.
They’re solar powered, and should recharge on their own. They also made a lovely little pattern, on our floor.
Looking out the back door, I spotted this little guy tucked away behind some rocks.
Another fun thing to return to, after several weeks away: apparently, the squirrels had themselves a bit of a party along our fence.
Rather than grow them directly in the soil, she is uses these specialized bags that allow for a custom mixture of soil (and also allow the water to drain if overfull).
I’m itching to see the arbor painted, as right now… the white moulding seems just a little chinzy against the natural wood. But since it’s pressure treated lumber (that wasn’t kiln dried afterwards), we need to wait a while until the wood has properly dried out.
Liz called me outside to the back porch, where she pointed out this very quiet and slow showdown happening.
If you look through some of my older/recent backyard posts, you’ll likely spot Tippi in the background. In all her tree-afro glory.
Tippi’s really needed a trim for a while now.
One big lesson learned: instead of cutting all the boards at once, we installed one board, then did a lot of re-measuring before cutting the second board.
First up – a lot of math. In addition to getting the lengths needed for each piece, we also had to determine the angle of the cut. We got a digital angle finder, and thanks to Leah Bolden’s help, figured out what we needed to cut.
While we were out working in the backyard, I spotted this little guy sitting nearby… bold as brass. As soon as I got my camera out, he got spooked and ran away.
Ready to cut and install the cross beams (the pieces that connect the arches). Liz got these pieces prepped the night before, so that we could hit the ground running when we got off of work today.
Installing the back arch. Things are shaping up! Let’s gloss over just how much shimming and angling was needed, to get these pieces to line up.