My buddy Rick from Dixie Thunder of Aiken County SC came by Saturday morning April 25 and he and my son built a gate in the wall of the kennel fence.  The ramp when built will extend beyond a tree in my yard and the gate will give me access from the ramp ending to the the parking spot.  This way I can avoid the one door coming out of my office that we can’t ramp right now.  The space is really close to my property line and to do a proper ramp it could come beyond the property space.  We might have to just leave the steps there, but the kennel gate will give me access to the car without having to worry about the steps at the entry/exit door of the kennel.

We lacked people and funds to start the ramps on Saturday so we are shooting for Monday or Tuesday.  After the tornado left us with serious tire damage I wound up having to use the funds that were raised by Dixie Thunder and meant to put toward this project.  My donors understood because everyone knows I have had a terrible streak of bad luck and have been barely holding on financially.  The problem is we just have to figure out a “plan B” since the funds needed for the project have been depleted.  We decided to skip the wheelchair door that would allow me to bring my wheelchair inside my bedroom.  I’m still able to take a few steps and with proper care of my hips I will continue to be able to stand and take a few solid steps.  So we can put that adaptive project off for while.

I don’t have the donation payout yet for the plumbing in the bathroom.  I put in my payout request but there seems to be a delay so we are not going to get the plumbing worked on while the volunteers are here.  That is a project my son will have to do alone when the donated funds are released.

Here are some photos of the gate.  I’m so happy!  The entire gate was made from salvaged lumber and we re-used the chicken wire cut from the existing kennel.  The only purchased items were the hinges, nails and slide lock.  The braces leaned up against the fence are there to keep the beams straight.  We still need to either add some guy-wires or maybe plant some steel stakes deeply in the ground to mount the beam onto.  The stretched netting over the top of the kennel tends to pull the wood inward and to keep the door swinging properly we need to keep at least those beams straight and resisting the pull of the netting.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 1:36 pm and is filed under Becky's Corner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.