The Lumber Run for Bog Walk Construction

A lot of pressure treated lumber was needed for the bog walk at the Wiacek Woods.  More than the roof rack of our cars could carry, so we experimented with renting a truck at Home Depot in Derby on a Sunday morning.

Mark arranged the truck rental with Dwight in the Rental Department.

Mark and Shawn loading lumber (Shawn and Greg in the Lumber Department were great helping us load up lumber - couldn't ask for nicer people).  We had a lot of 5"x5"x8' and 2x8x8' pressure treated timbers to get.

We got one of the $19/hr. trucks, Mark loaded it up, while I signed my life away with a lease agreement.  It was actually pretty easy, but Home Depot's Legal Department apparently doesn't want people taking off for parts unknown with any of their trucks.

We had our one safety incident of the trip when Mark jumped into the cab and banged the Funny Bone in his left elbow on the truck center console.  Me, being the helpful guy that I am, took a picture of him.

The truck was the right size for 10 bog bridges.  Too many more and we might've needed some tie-down straps.

Driving safely and carefully over to Shelton we dropped off our load at Meadow Street.  Teresa Gallagher met us there and after unloading assisted us with backing out onto Meadow St.  We put a little gas back in the Truck and returned it to Home Depot with nary a scratch on it.  And within the 1.5 hr. timeline to pay just $19 to rent the truck!

Later I went back up to Meadow St. with a chainsaw to cut the 5x5 sleepers into smaller 2'-8" sections.  These would go on the ground and the twin 2x8's screwed onto them after a lot of ground layout and preparation.  But our Lumber Run was Done!  Successfully, I might add.

Some items to note:

• Get there early if you need a truck - good planning by Mark.
  
• Home Depot staff were very helpful
• Bring help to load and offload the lumber (it was WAY easier with 2 people that one person loading the roof rack on the car)
• The HD truck worked OK.  It's an automatic transmission, with big rear view mirrors.  Take your time and drive easy.
• Thanks to Dwight, Shawn, Greg, and Kelly at Home Depot for all their help.