Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
Not the bridge in Grat #7. Someone else’s bridge, entirely
This is the Wakefield Doctrine’s traditional contribution to the Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) bloghop.
Readers? ‘This is a Grat bloghop’*. (A little football humor there.) Speaking of football, our founderess, Lizzi is reportedly exploring financing options in her quest to buy the Manchester Mandrakes. Of course, the game referred to as ‘football’ played in parts of the world is not quite as formal as that which the source of our opening (and purely gratuitous**) quote.
Be that as it may, such an ambition is minuscule tubers when embraced by the woman who, when starting this blog, back in 1984, premiered with Fifty Things of Thankful. The collective ‘aiiyeee!’ from Blogville could be heard around the world). Fortunately for us, she relented and allowed us a break with a 20 percent reduction in list size. (No, our gift for math will not appear on the list today.)
The Doctrine offers the following list of people, places and things that have resulted in our experiencing gratitude-like subjective states.
1) Phyllis
Phyllis and Una in the (then) new treehouse.
2) Una
3) the Wakefield Doctrine
4) the Six Sentence Story bloghop This week’s pic of the sic: ‘A Long Ache‘ by Miskey
5) the Unicorn Challenge bloghop This week’s Best-of-the-‘corn: Margaret‘s ‘Beach holiday‘
6) our co-writ, Serial Six, ‘…of Heroes and the MisUnderstood’ (Tom being the writer of the cool Co-Ordination of Supervillains)
7) in the 10k dept
8) something, something
9) weather approaching ideal (ideal defined as: warm enough to sweat from minor exertion (without a coat) but cool enough not to wake certain, multi-legged creatures.)
10) Secret Rule 1.3
*Vince Lombardi
** that is how you play the Grat-blog game! booyah! (lol)
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About clarkscottroger
I’m honoured to be mentioned. Thank you.
You’re welcome.
(‘cellent story)
It’s always a delight.
I have no advice about the bridge short of a group of hefty men who know how to repair things, and I get the feeling that’s not in the budget.
Tell Ms. Phyllis I still have a bit of cottage envy.
plus it’s been fun (over the years building these bridges. this being, maybe number 4… never use pressure-treated lumber, cause of the, you know, toxic preservatives and such. but the the process is an exercise within as much as without…)
It is difficult without seeing the underlying structure of the bridge; so, I will just think out loud ( in case something useful pops up).
So, we have : a) repair damaged part b) move into desired place.
I can’t see the damaged part, which i assume it’s the timber underneath that gave in.
And then, there is the moving. Water… can it be utilized? With a couple of canoes under it?
I am not sure if the repair will be sufficient… so, let’s suppose you cut that part of the bridge.
You don’t have to repair it anymore but you can reuse whatever good wood that part has.
What I am thinking is to prolong those cement fixtures: in other words, build short, sturdy parts of the bridge from both ends.
Maybe you have the opportunity to salvage steel beams from some construction/demolition site.
These two parts will be waiting for the middle wooden ( already built) part to fall in.
Supposing you have done this, then… how does the middle part can be transferred and placed?
Tough one for a single or even two persons.
Can’t see how this can be done with the bridge as a single piece, unless you have the Force strong within you and can levitate the sucker into place.
One man show? The only way I see is to built at the desired spot the basic support of the bridge and then bring smaller pieces of the existing bridge and “puzzle” them into place.
Obviously, Clark, I am of no help but still it was interesting to think about it.
thank you for the thoughtful consideration
you are correct in the bridge is simply two beams resting on the piers.
(You may note bits of iron and steel projecting from them… earlier attempts to permanently anchor the bridge on either side of the stream. As you may have guessed, the pond is fed by a stream. winter rains often raise the level of the pond sufficient to float the bride off the piers. can’t quite remember why I gave up on that particular design feature.)
speaking of Archimedes (an ancestral landsman of yours I believe) last year I was able to lever the bridge (from nearly the same spot) using an six foot pry-bar and some tree trunks(ettes)
In fact I was in the process of trying this when the left carrying beam gave out (you’re also correct on there being some wood rot. part of the price of not using pressure treated wood, which we choose not to for the obvious, poison nature side effects)
will try to figure our how to post some pitchas here of the last construction project
lets see if this works
I see.
About moving:
Have you considered making two trolleys with heavy duty wheels?
Secure them underneath each end of the bridge – with Ratchet straps, for example.
Then you all 3 can rasily transfer the bridge back into place.
Mending the broken part:
You could use a piece of tropical wood, like teak.
I would repair it the same way as a fractured bone: steel plate, lots of screws.
damn! love the concept, Nick
(concur on the sistering/installing a plate. The problem, to be realistic* is simply the age of the structure and the materials. i.e. a medium grade Douglas fir… though, maybe oak (if it’s not too dear**) will let you know)
*no, the problem is not ‘being realistic’ I was referring to the view of the situation…lol
** hey! thanks for the song prompt for today’s post!
Always a great dedicated post.
Great read, Clark!
How fun! Yes, I concur on the weather EXCEPT…we went skiing this morning at our little southern ski area and…in two weeks’ time, we’ll sample the Colorado slopes. Also, cool bridge vid. Love the img above of Phyllis working on the bridge. She’s pretty handy! And good luck with re-positioning and rearranging. :)
thanks… say what you will about climate change, but, damn, it’s getting weird.
will find a way, as I mentioned to Nick, this is at least the fourth bridge. will find a way*
*our people always do
Cool bridge video. I’m not an engineer–that’s John’s job–so I’m not sure about the “how” to make things work. I do wonder (if bridge breakage due to rising waters is a recurring problem) if a floating bridge design might be less likely to break. (Lake Washington in the Seattle area has a couple of cool floating bridges, which is why I even thought of it.) If the water currently isn’t flowing too hard, though, you might be able to tie ropes to each end of the bridge and “Erie Canal” it back to its desired location. Know anyone with a mule or two you can borrow? :-) Good luck!
yeah, those guys (John and company) do this thing when they look at a problem such as the bridge challenge that makes you say, ‘How did you see that?’ the result being a design that is better (and more often than not) simpler than the original!
Canal barge! lol excellent!
Good post.
As to bridge. If timing is right, I’ll be there again. To help.
ty