Wyoming Catholic Cowboys

Saturday, February 7, 2026

Ruth's Handrail

Second to my dislike of dysfunctional gates are loose handrails. I visited Ruth Straessler the other day, only to discover that both of her handrails were rusted off at the concrete. Unacceptable.

So Darin and I came over and got to work. We pulled one off at a time and fixed it, so no one who came to visit was without a rail to grab.

Here's the problem. The square tubing set in the concrete rusted out the metal. And on this side, broke the corner of the step off too.

Tubing almost always get's moisture trapped inside of it. If it has nowhere to go, it'll bulge the metal out when it freezes and eventually rust away.

Our answer: replace the rusty tubing with some pipe and make a mounting plate with a hole in the center so the moisture inside the tubing has somewhere to go.

Tack on the pipe and then the mounting plate.

Then weld them up.

While we were at it, we cleaned the old rail up.

And gave it a fresh coat of Hunter Green.

Then hauled them over and remounted them to the deck posts.

Mounting to the concrete was the main job. Good hammer drilled holes and some self tapping screws and they were set.

On the broken side, we just kicked the rail over a bit and still got three good screws in.

Everyone's happy. Especially Ruth.

The Lord says, "Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father" (Matthew 5:16). Ruth does so much for our Church, it's time we do some good for her in return. Little does as much good for the Kingdom of God than somebody joyfully using their gifts to serve God and one another. Ruth Straessler is a master at that. We're just following her example. Ranch on.