Our friend Ed Gulley has liberated our woods, about 12 acres of woodland out behind the pasture that has been inaccessible to us because of a fast-flowing stream. We are hardy and handy, but not that hardy. We had elaborate plans to hire someone one day to come over with a truckload of lumber and build some sort of walkway, but we didn’t wish to build anything too large, and didn’t have a lot of money and just kept putting it off.

Never underestimate the ingenuity and creativity of the farmer, Ed Gulley came over with Carol one day and walked out back and announced later he was coming over with a bridge. We couldn’t imagine. He showed up with large chunk of wood, two old plans of chestnut (I think) and a drill.

Ed is the size of a small dinosaur and hauled this stuff down in a cart, he crawled into the water  (which was freezing) and mumbled and grunted, and lo!, the Ed Gulley Memorial Bridge (I’m calling it a Memorial Bridge because it is unlikely anyone will build a bridge in Ed’s name when he is gone, although he will not be soon forgotten).

I was a little tentative about the bridge at first, it is narrow and looked a bit thin to me, but I was wrong. The bridge is sold and sturdy and easily  bears my weight.

In the woods, we are finding some paths through the dense brush, there are some lovely streams back there.

I cross it slowly, and sometimes sideways. Maria skips across it and so do the dogs, and we are loving our woods more and more each trek, it is peaceful and interesting back there, the space has a spiritual edge to it, and this week we will set about removing the various hunting stands built without our knowledge or approval.

We’ll keep one because it might be fun to sit up in. Ed is threatening to come build a bench for us to sit on or meditate on. We don’t want to take advantage or him or Carol, but there is really no stopping him once his mind is made up. More to come.