Last week I had a couple days off in lieu of having worked a weekend. During my days off, despite the chilly weather, I undertook a couple outdoor projects.

The first was to create a little walking bridge to connect the driveway to one end of the walking trail I’ve been creating around my property. We only have about an acre of land, but it’s a beautiful piece of land and I want to be able to fully enjoy it. So this trail will meander through the wooded areas that surround the house. I debated building a more interesting bridge, with an arch and railings, but in the end I decided to keep it simple. It’s just a couple of 10-foot pressure treated 4×4 posts as beams, with some bracing underneath and 6-inch decking. The bridge was necessary to allow easier access to the trail, crossing a rock-filled drainage ditch at the top of the driveway.

From this angle you can see a bit of the trail, as well as the new home that has been build on the neighbouring property, on what was untouched woodland until last summer:

The other project was a ramp, connecting the back deck next by the hot tub to the other end of this upper part of the walking trail.

The fence provides additional privacy for the hot tub area. Previously the shed, which houses my studio office space, provided sufficient cover, but with the new house up on the hill, we were feeling rather exposed when we went out for a soak.

Shaun helped install the decking on the ramp, but for the most part these were my own projects. He had to work during the day, and he’s not as into the whole walking trail thing as I am, so I happily worked on these things without him. (He did help me remove some fallen trees from the trail on the weekend.) I really enjoy this type of carpentry, so I didn’t mind doing it alone.