Scattered Thoughts . . .

I managed to "pave" the new girder bridge on our little garden railroad and it is looking pretty good! I did one small section at a time.  First, I applied a rather thin coat (but not too thin) of waterproof exterior construction adhesive on a small section of the roadway.  I applied the adhesive thick enough to completely obscure the wood base.  Then I sprinkled fine sand over the adhesive.  Then I carefully pat the sand down with my hand...  then carefully and lightly brushed the sand until it was even...  then again carefully pat it down with my hand.  Then I would move on to the next section.   The idea of using the waterproof exterior construction adhesive was two-fold...  First, I wanted to make sure the sand would stay in place in widely varying weather conditions.  Next, I wanted the adhesive to act as a sort of sealing coat protecting the wood underneath.   Here is a photo looking straight down the roadway and acr...

I made some significant progress on our newly designed and now fully built girder bridge for our garden railroad yesterday.  Hmmm...  well, I guess it is not fully built just yet because I still need to pave it with fine sand and I need to add lights.  The bridge, itself, is fully built though.   Consequently, my spinal pain last night was unbearable.  My spine was on fire with sharp pain radiating to my hips, pelvic region and kidneys.  The pain truly was brutal, take-your-breath away type of pain.  I'm feeling significantly better this morning so that is good! Yesterday's primary job was to assemble all the balusters, the top rail and the parapet bearings at each corner.   This promised to be a tedious job but it went more smoothly and more quickly than I expected.   Each baluster needed to be glued and nailed in place, one-by-one, using a nail gun so it was definitely a tedious process.   My air compressor and nail gun...