5000 Piece Puzzle

Call me crazy. I've loved picture puzzles ever since I was a little boy. Mom used to buy me puzzles manufactured by a company called Tuco. They were mostly a few hundred pieces, but I did them as early as age four. Over the years, I did lots more and thought 1,000 piece puzzles and then 1,500 piece puzzles were a big deal. Eventually, I did a 3,500 piece puzzle with my Aunt Bonnie at her house in California over one long weekend back in about 1981. That was the record, until recently.

A few years ago, I bought the one pictured below at a hobby store in Iowa City. It was made by a Spanish company and even came with instructions on how to identify and send in for missing pieces! I thought it would be a real challenge and fun for us to do up at the lake. Then it just sat on the shelf for a few years, because I knew it would take some time, and I could never quite work up the courage to actually begin.

Then last July, I finally broke down. Like Kathie said one day, "I think it's time." Below is a sequence of pictures showing the progression of work. Just turning all the pieces upright took considerable time.

I worried constantly about pieces falling off the table and getting lost to a vacuum cleaner or to Josey deciding to lick them up (something she was not too likely to do).

Eventually, and alas, I discovered that I should have measured the size of the table instead of making the assumption that it would fit. At 157 cm (~62 in) by 107 cm (~42 in), it was just about four pieces too wide, and so I was faced with trying to move it to another location (the ping pong table was the only real alternative and not a good one). I eventually came up with the idea of slipping some thin aluminum sheets under one edge. That worked reasonably well and saved the day.

I worked on it during our visits here from July through October. Then we went home for the holidays. So, the puzzle waited patiently during November, December, and early January. This is what it looked like when I resumed working on it about 10 days ago.

I finished it two days ago, with some contributions from Kathie and miscellaneous guests. Henry even found one piece, as I recall. In the end, no pieces were lost, though there was a close call with one piece. I almost hated to put it back in the box, but that is where you can find it now. I think I won't do another one so big anytime soon, if ever. Most everyone who saw it thought I was nuts anyway.