Field Note: Jake's Arch

The photo came in over email around 10 at night. The subject line was 'for your field notes' and the message just said, 'Built this for my mom's backyard last weekend, you might like it.'

The arch is eight feet tall, maybe four and a half wide at the base, and every piece of it came from rebar Jake Morales pulled off a demolition site where his brother works. He cut, ground, and welded the whole thing in a friend's garage over a Saturday. There's a crosspiece at the top shaped like the curve of the mountains behind his mother's house, which Jake drew freehand.

We wrote back and asked if we could post the photo. He said yes, and sent us two more: one of the arch with morning glory starting to climb it, and one shot at dawn with the sun coming up through the steel.

Jake is the recipient of one of our Q1 welding scholarships. We didn't know that when he sent the email. We found out a week later, when his name came up in a stack of applications.