Build a Bridge....And Get Over It!
How many times have I heard someone say "Build a bridge and get over it!!" to someone who is complaining?! I know I've said it tons of times in my life!
Yesterday I did exactly that, I built a bridge.....to get over the ditch hahahhaaa!!!
Our Nursery barn is on the other side of a semi deep ditch. BeatleDad built a temporary bridge for us to use. By temporary I mean, he laid a pallet down and threw a few skinny logs down and called it done!
The kids and I HATED crossing that bridge, the logs rolled, you never felt steady, but if you stepped on the pallet you felt like it was going to break. So yesterday I decided the time had come. I was going to build a bridge and get over it....quite literally!
So here's what we had in place already. A pallet and some logs.
What we needed was something sturdy, that would last a long time, and wouldn't roll under our feet. We are a singe income family, which means we don't have the financial means to just run out and buy wood, fences, bridges or what not. We do with what we can find, already have, and what we can get our hands on.
I LOVE pallets! Seriously if you're on pintrest you totally understand why. The amount of projects you can use pallets to build is astronomical.
We had pallets on hand but I didn't want to use those (must save the pallets!!) BeatleDad said there were some boards that he had no plans for. He had taken something apart and used what he needed and the boards were just laying there, begging to be useful.
Awesome right!!?? All that had to be done was remove the fifty bazillion nails that were in them. Seriously....someone got trigger happy with a nail gun and shot these things so full of nails it was ridiculous. What were they trying to do??!! Do you see all the holes in that picture, and that's not the whole board!
So I got a nail puller and my trusty pink hammer....we all knew I was gonna have girly tools right......and got to work. Remember when I said mother nature here in southern NC likes to keep us on our toes!?? So it was COLD...and by cold I mean it was in the 40's with a wind chill of like 20.
Stop laughing...seriously I can hear you and you're making me feel like a whimp. That's cold for us!!
Normally my farming wardrobe consists of leggings, pink rain boots, and short sleeves. I can get dirty but still look a little girly and cute. NOT yesterday. Yesterday I looked like a scrub monkey. Yesterday cute went out the window like dirty mop water (do people still throw mop water out of windows??) I threw on one of BeatleDad's long sleeve shirts, a toboggan, a pair of jeans, and his old coveralls. The pink boots were still there, but ya can't see them. This was not cute farming, this was survival of who can stay warm lol!!
After 10 hours of pulling rusty nails out of the boards...ok ok, more like 1 hour. Give me a break it felt like 10! I was ready to begin building a bridge! I did not have enough boards to cover the whole bridge. Remember the logs??!! I like using what we have on hand sooooooo, I alternated the boards and the logs a little haphazardly and came up with something I liked.
Once I had everything laid out I grabbed a drill and screwed in the boards. Then picked up my girly hammer and some long nails and nailed in the logs (screws weren't long enough for the logs). Once it was all secure I still felt like it needed something. This was my project after all...I can't leave it unfinished.
So I scrounged around through all the cans of paint we have and found a color that sounded interesting. Red Tile...when did we ever buy that and what the heck for!? Mixed it up and grabbed a brush and voila! My bridge was done. No one feels like they're going to fall through or accidentally participate in the log roll! Call eclectic, rustic, rugged, country chic, or whatever other adjective you decide to call it. Heck, you can even call it ugly if that suits you! I call it perfect!
Next time someone tells me to build a bridge and get over it...I can tell them "I already did!" hahahha!!!
