Beam Setting

          The forms came off the caps of our new bridge this week. 

          And they built the rebar supports for the sides of the bridge.

          Fuzzy, which is what they call this man, had a wire twister to twist wires on the rebar. And I have one of those! I picked it up at a junk sale someplace and use it to twist copper wire for art projects.

          Max had a different wire and used pliers to twist them together.

          The beams were expected the next day. Once the beams were set they wouldn't be able to get in there and finish the stonework, so they turned their efforts to that.

         

          They brought in a special crane just to set the beams. It can lift 550 tons. Brian, the inspector, stood near and chatted with us for a long time.

          "How long will it take to set the beams?" Mike asked.

          "Not long once they get it all set up," Brian answered.

          A couple of guys from the crane company came down the bank and stood on the plank bridge that crossed the creek. The crane turned around and extended his boom while the guys on the bridge directed.

          "What are they doing?" I asked.

          "Finding the center of the bridge," Mike told me.

          Once that was done the crane turned around and stopped over the back of a truck. He lowered the hook and a couple of guys attached straps.

          And I wondered, "Once he has it set for the center will he not move it again?" I asked.

          "He probably marked the location on a computer," Brian told me. "Then he can find it again."

          The hook lifted until it came to the end of the straps and he stopped again. They attached a second set of straps.

          "Two short straps are stronger than one long one," Brian told Mike who then told me.

          "What are they going to attach it to?" Mike wanted to know.

          "They set hooks into both ends of the beam," Brian answered.

          "They sure don't look like I thought they were going to," I said.

          "These are box beams," Brian nodded toward the beam they were setting. Then he went on to explain. "There's steel and cables inside and they use the cables to create the camber. That's what gives the bridge its flexibility. Have you ever been sitting on a bridge and felt it move up and down when another vehicle goes over it?"

           "Uh-huh."

          "That's a good thing. If it doesn't move then that's a bad thing."

          The beams sit on a neoprene pad. "It just keeps concrete from grinding on concrete," Brian answered my why question.

          Sometimes it's not quite right and they make a mortar mix to fill the crack and that's what Fuzzy's doing in this picture. He's got mortar mix in one gray container, water in the yellow, and he'll mix in the other gray one.

          "How much does each beam weigh?" I know you wanna know.

          Each beam weighs 81,000 pounds, is four feet wide, three feet high, and 71.6 feet long.

          After the first one was set Mike and I went home to repair the plastic that came down in the big winds the week before. We were taking down the boards and realized the plastic came down because Mike only had two screws in the top board, one on each end. There was a seam here between two pieces of plastic and they simply slid out. But the wind had worked hard on them while they flapped loose and they were ripped so we put up new plastic and added extra one by fours for reinforcement on this, the windiest side of the patio.

          "Wanna go see what they got done on the bridge?" Mike asked me.

          "Sure."

          On the way down, Mike asked. "How many do you think they have set?"

          "All of them."

          "I say three."

          Mike was right.

          Besides the hooks to set the beams in place, the beams had rods set in to put poles on for safety cables.

          Most of the guys used the safety system even though the beams are plenty wide. They walk along till they get to a pole...

...then have to unhook and rehook on the other side.

          Except Fuzzy. He thinks he's special.

          Setting the last beam in place.

          After the bridge crew went home for the day we went down to walk across the beams but the crane crew was packing up the crane.

          "They don't care. You can walk on it anyway," Mike coaxed.

          I didn't want to. I was afraid I'd embarrass myself trying to climb up. So we sat and watched them get the crane ready to leave. The counterweights are so heavy they can only put two on a semi-trailer.

           They took the hook off...

...stowed the boom, pulled the stabilizers in...

...and locked 'em down.

          The crane has seven axles. Mike wondered if all three of the front ones turned with the steering wheel and it was our intention to sit and watch until they drove it away but they ran into a problem and Mike got tired of waiting.

          Sometimes I get tired of watching them and I turn my camera to other things as we sit there.

          A tooth on the bucket of the track hoe.

          The sun shining on the naked trees.

          A turkey vulture gliding overhead on the wind currents.

          We went shopping the next day so I'm not sure what they worked on. By the time we got there, they were gone for the day. But they had laid a ramp to the beams so I wouldn't have to climb up, I could simply walk up.

          I took a picture of Mike on top...

...then, when I went to join him, I found I had to scoot a little under the track hoe to join him.

           "They put some of the pans in," Mike said.

          "They're for when they pour the concrete?" I queried.

          "Yeah."

          "And they stay there? They don't take them out once they pour the concrete?"

          "Right."

          There were little metal plates poured right in the concrete where the guys welded the rails that held the pans.

          On the two outside beams, other metal pieces were poured into the concrete that these things are attached to.

          "What are they for?" I asked Mike.

          "I don't know unless it's for a walkway so they can put the rebar up for the sides," he guessed.

          A lot more engineering goes into making these beams then is first apparent.

          "Peg, did you get your new stove in?" you ask.

          I did! It's larger than the old one so Mike had to extend the barn board backing. I've been cooking on it and even made goodies for the bridge guys. Early in the week I made them a coffee cake and later in the week I made Dream Bars.

          "That coffee cake was pretty good," Fuzzy told me, "but these are the best cookies I've ever had!"

         

          At home, I saw some critters like these aphids.

          And this beauty. 

           Mike actually found this Marbled Orb Weaver and pointed her out to me. This spider is also called a Halloween Spider because you typically will see them about this time of year as the females search for a good place to lay her eggs. Then she dies. They only live about a year. The males, maybe not as long. Since they're much smaller than the female, it's not uncommon for them to become her first meal after mating.

          They're not aggressive so if you find one feel free to pick it up and take a picture.  

          With the leaves coming off the trees, I spotted this hornets' nest in the neighbor's tree.

          Max, one of the bridge workers, told us a story about how all summer long he mowed under a tree in his yard and would push a branch out of the way as he ducked and went under on his riding mower. In the fall he found a huge hornets' nest on the very same branch. He doesn't know how he never got stung but he didn't.

          Once we had the patio wrapped in plastic Mike realized a lot of wind was blowing through where the plastic didn't go the whole way to the top in the front.

          "Let's put a soffit up," Mike said.

          Mike went up to the upper barn and brought down some leftover metal siding.

          He cut it with his angle grinder and it didn't take us too long to put it up. Now we are tucked in for the winter.

          I got three more witches hats done this week. I've been so busy with so many things that I haven't been able to work on them very much. I so wanted to have them done and given in time for my friends to enjoy them for Halloween but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

          "We won't say they're late," I told Miss Rosie. "We'll say they're early for next year."

          She laughed.

          I played with my resin a little. I used a plastic lid from a cottage cheese container and made a suncatcher. But I don't really like the ring around the outside.

          When we went shopping, I searched for a resin mold to use instead but Hobby Lobby didn't carry what I was looking for. An internet search for mold alternatives landed me on a page that showed you how to make your own. Cool! So I made my own mold using silicone, corn starch, and a few drops of baby oil.

          "How did it work?" I know you wanna know.

          Not so great. I don't know if my mold wasn't made right, or if it was my resin, but when I went to unmold it, the resin stuck to the mold and I had to tear it apart. I went back to the internet and ordered some molds from China. They were cheap but I'll have to wait 10 – 44 days for them to get here.

          Patience. It's a virtue.

          "Peg, I think I figured out why you didn't get your Halloween stuff done," you say.

          I know, right!

          Speaking of making things...

          My beautiful friend Jody made me a gift. She made me a dried flower arrangement and she put feathers in it! How clever! A girl after my heart. I just love it.

          Jody wasn't the only one who gave me a gift this week.

          "Your box should be coming in the mail today," Mike said.

          I was surprised. "You got me something?!"

          He looked smug. "Yep. I deleted the emails before you could see them."

          "How sneaky. What'd you get me?"

          "You have to wait and see."

          I cooled my jets. On a return trip from the bridge, I asked, "You think the mail's been here yet?"

          "I don't know. We can check."

          Our box was empty. "Maybe the mailman took it up to the house."

          "It wasn't that big of a box, Peg. It'd fit in the mailbox."

          A little later the mail and the box arrived. When I opened it I was a little disappointed. It was a cleaning kit for my new glass stovetop. "The next time you get me something," I told Mike, "I want it to sparkle in the sunshine." I held my hand up in front of him and wiggled my fingers.

          A ring has been on my mind ever since I received an offer from Kay Jewelers for a hundred dollars off a purchase of a hundred dollars or more. I need — no want — a new wedding ring. The one Mike bought when we got married is titanium and I break out in a rash if I wear it too long. I have an allergy to nickel so I'm guessing there's nickel in titanium. I got on Kay's website and found a simple fourteen-carat gold band for a hundred forty-nine dollars. With my hundred off offer I could get it for forty-nine dollars. My ring size (for these big ole fat knuckles) is a nine. Do they carry a nine? Noooo! Half sizes. "Do I get an eight and a half or a nine and a half?" I asked Mike.

          "I don't know." He wasn't any help at all.

          "I guess I'd better get it bigger and make it smaller. If I get it smaller I might not be able to get it on."

          I filled out the online order form, added the coupon code, and submitted it. Offer not valid on this product, came the reply. Check your offer for exclusions. I did check. This is a regular priced item, not on sale. I'm not combing it with any other offer — what is going on! I opened a chat window on the website and asked their rep.

          "This item is excluded," is all the answer they would give me along with, "Sorry."

          Right. And I punched the hang up button as angrily as I could. Whatever!

         

          I told you earlier that we made a shopping trip.

          "Yeah! Where's my road pictures?" you ask.

          Well, I didn't take any. Mike invited his crony Vernon to go with us. "I've been wanting meatloaf," Mike told him, "and I heard Cracker Barrel makes a good meatloaf. There's a Cracker Barrel down by Clark's Summit. You wanna go?"

          "I'll go if I buy lunch," Vernon told him.

          So I sat in the back and it just wasn't conducive to good picture making.

          Well, there isn't a Cracker Barrel at Clark's Summit. It's twenty miles beyond that at Wilkes-Barre.

          "You wanna just forget about it?" Mike asked.

          "Heck no! That was the whole point of this trip." It really was. My pantry is pretty well stocked. "We'll just look at it as an adventure."       

          Our GPS got us there. And it was all highway driving. Even though we were on roads I'd never been on before, I didn't even see anything I thought would be a good picture so I wasn't sad about sitting in the back seat.

          It wasn't real busy and we were seated pretty quickly. I sat beside Mike with my camera strap around my neck.

          "What's the camera for?" Vernon asked.

          "I'm going to take a picture of your meatloaf," I told him. Both he and Mike ordered it. I got a bacon cheeseburger. My camera, if not in my bag, tends to hang around my neck. I don't trust myself not to stand up and dump it on the floor if I just lay it in my lap. Since I always intended to tell you about this little adventure, I was keeping it handy.

          Our food came.

          "I got one of your green beans." Mike stabbed it and showed it to Vernon.

          "Oh geeze," Vernon mutters with a little laugh and I turned my camera on him. He hates it when I do that.

          "How was the meatloaf?" I know you wanna know.

          It was good. Mike and Vernon both liked it but there was a spice in it that Vernon couldn't quite identify.

          "Let's ask the waitress," I suggested. "she'll tell you."

          But Carey didn't know. "There's not really any spices in it. Maybe it's the green pepper?"

          "Yeah," Vernon was quick to agree, "maybe that's it."

          We were on the way home, sitting in traffic, and this name comes up on one of those electronic scrolling billboards.

          "How the heck do you say that name?" Vernon asked.

          "I was wondering the same thing," Mike said.

          I thought I'd ask you guys.

          I have a landscape and a sunrise picture to show you, but no more room! (Online I have the room, so you get to see them even though they are not in the printed version.)
          

          Let's call this one done!