Big thanks to everyone who leant a hand on Little Long Lake Bridge.
There was invaluable instruction shared with us from Gavin Rose who flew in from England again to be involved. His assistance in building this the fourth bridge he and I have collaborated on in Canada made the whole event another great success. Gavin took extra time to patiently shape many of those special stones that we needed to make this bridge even more unique than the other 7 DSWAC bridge projects, with its pitched corrying and extended voussoirs and keystones. If the DSWA had pinnacle awards in Canada this surely would be a contender for the prize.
Another key player was Norman Haddow whose cheeriness, energy and knowhow injected the project with great momentum early in the first week of bridge construction. Thanks Norman for giving up some of your time in Canada after Rocktoberfest and joining us on this project.
John Scott , heritage masonry professor at Algonquin College dropped by for two days helped with big stones moving and shared some of his valuable masonry knowledge (and humour) with our students.
Thanks too to Angus who is a qualified mason too and hosted this workshop and carried and shaped a lot the big stones. He did such a great job on the pitching. He and his wife Elaine provided great hearty lunches, and plenty of refreshments and great snacks.
Thanks to the students who all gave so much to this project. Matt and Dan both from the States became good friends over the two weeks and were really hard workers on this project. They asked all the right questions and hopefully learned a lot too. Alan drove here from Guelph and was a big contributor too and although he had to leave before the bridge was completed he got to see the form pulled out on the eve of his 71st birthday. Happy birthday Alan!
All in all this was a great experience. The bridge is a sturdy looking, almost Hobbit-like structure, that well suits the mossy wooded 12 acre lot we chose to built it on. It will last a long time and charm everyone who stumbles across it. Interestingly Angus has yet to build a rustic style house on the property . I have to give him credit for having the inspiration and commitment into landscaping his newly bought property before setting about building a house on it instead of having it be just an after thought.
