New Car Bridge
Old Car Bridge
Finally Car Bridge has been rebuilt properly. Men and machinery have been busy working for three days, in the depths of winter, laying concrete pipes and filling in the bridge top with compacted gravel.
Doing Very Nicely...
The old Car Bridge was doing very nicely, thank you. OK, so it was sinking just a tiniest amount each year, but seemingly it was as solid as a rock.
At the beginning of the year 2009 our hedge trimmer man arrived, took one look, and disappeared in a puff of - diesel? smoke. He wasn't prepared to drive over the bridge - fair enough. So finally, after years of faithful service, Car Bridge had to be rebuilt.
Car Bridge Being Built
The 2009 version of Car Bridge has two huge joined concrete pipes and two huge concrete end pieces, safely allowing the water in the irrigation canal to flow through. Old railway sleepers (railway ties) which formed the old bridge are now in a heap on the side of the driveway, just waiting for me to find a use for them.
Orange Digger in the Driveway
Rusty the dog has been fascinated by the trucks and diggers as they've puttered and pottered up and down the driveway. He has fallen in desperate dog-love with the men, who each day have brought sandwiches for their lunches. And - you probably guessed it - have been more than willing to throw the crusts to a deeply focussed and terribly well-behaved dog.
New Car Bridge
My next job is to plant Phormiums and Gunnera round the edges to soften the look. And then get that jolly hedge trimmer to come back and sort out the shelter trees! Ha! A good gardener's work is never done...