07/31/2026
The last few weeks the majority of my time has been eaten up by a very large project at my parents’ farm. We have a bridge over Butternut Creek that needed to be replaced. This is a bridge we take tractors, wagons, etc over. Butternut Creek is a trout stream, which means no bottoms on any bridges so a new culvert won’t work. In comes my father’s bizarre but brilliant mind. We disassembled a grain bin and turned it into a concrete form for a new bridge. The final bridge concrete will take place in 3 separate pours and hopefully the engineering works for this bridge. Overall height is 7’ at the center and 16’ plus a few inches wide. It’s been a lot but we’re getting close.
We built the form in the shop, split it in half, swung it with a backhoe onto wagons, took it down through the woods, swung each section into place with an excavator and reassembled it. All while having to divert the stream so we don’t contaminate anything. And yes, the entire project has permits. 
Praying we have enough bracing!
