It's a Sign.

It's up!  Not quite finished, though.   Our new Scottsboro sign. 

Today Jim and Keith screwed the stainless steel letters in place and carefully loded the giant log onto the Kubota's front end loader.  I came home in time to watch Keith maneuver the unwieldy load--lifting the bucket to clear our front gateposts--down the highway.  But this doesn't do it justice--the caravan included Jim's pickup truck in front, the tractor, the other Jim's pickup, George's big green high-sided farm truck, my antique minivan, and, promptly, an impatient teen in a bright yellow pickup trying in vain to zigzag around us.

Keith finessed the tractor into position, with tiny moves forward and back, since he was wedged between the posts and a construction trailer on the property.  The two Jims, Zach, Odle, Kathleen and I provided variably useful feedback, and it first looked as though, due to the slope, the tractor would not be able to lift the crosspiece quite high enough.  More tilting, adjusting, bringing the load down to rotate the log so the letters would be vertical.  And then, in the 5 minutes while I was gone to fetch the peavey, there it was, settled carefully twelve feet up. 

Odle climbed up into the basket, there was a bit more lifting and shims tucked behind the left end, someone tossed up the mallet and Odle drove in the spikes. 

Now DiAnne has to paint our logo and the signboard with moveable letters mounted in place, and--voila, there it is.

But Keith is the real hero here.  A sign was part of our local "charm offensive", but no one dreamed of such a handsome piece of work.  Keith designed it, and helped Lonnell Matthews and Phil wrestle it through codes.  It was too complicated to get permission to put in in the rightofway, and Phil, bless him, volunteered a corner of his property.  I'm not sure exactly who wangled the two-foot utility poles--they were the massive leftovers from the hops pole project. 

Ellen's family company cut the letters from brushed stainless steel,  and the sign gang who were here today, plus Joe and Tom,  installed the uprights a couple of weeks ago.  Itself no small task. 

So here's to Keith, and everybody.  I'm just miffed because I didn't get to see the peavey put to work.