Puzzle enthusiast, Elmer Kehler, recently finished a 40,320-piece puzzle.
Kehler, from Steinbach, says it took him about 18 months, and estimates he spent around 700-750 hours on the puzzle.
He says he has been doing puzzles for most of his life.
“I just enjoy it because it relaxes me. I'm retired now, but when I was working it was a stress relief for me. I always have a puzzle going, usually between 1500 and 2000 pieces. I usually always have something on the table.”
Kehler thinks back to the moment he placed the final piece in the puzzle, noting his 15-year-old granddaughter, Sophie Fehr, was with him to take in the moment.
“She helped me bits and pieces along the way because she likes puzzling too, and so we had them for the weekend, and so between me and her, we put the last piece in together.”
The dimensions of the puzzle are 6’ 3” high, by 22' 3" long.
He did the puzzle in his basement and hosted a viewing of the completed puzzle in his garage.
“I just invited people from our church and friends and relatives that wanted to see it, so I had it displayed there on Friday from 3pm till 8pm.”
He says it took about half an hour to transport it from the basement to the garage.
“So I had to clamp it, turn it sideways, bring it up so it wouldn't fall out.”
Kehler shares what made him choose to take on this challenge.
“This is a Disney puzzle, it's 10 Disney scenes, and I've seen it online and during COVID I really, really wanted to do it because I'm also dealing with cancer and I was locked up for a while because of isolation and COVID, and I had my immune systems down, so I wanted to do something.”
Unfortunately, he couldn't find it during the pandemic, but finally, he saw it online and it was available.
“And I ordered it and it came out of Austria, so I started at Christmas of 2022.”
Kehler knows of a 60,000-piece puzzle but says he probably won’t take that one on since he doesn’t like the picture.
“And that's a big thing, if you don't like the picture of what you’re putting together, it's kind of difficult to get excited about it.”
He notes the 60,000-piece puzzle would probably be easier to put together than the one he just completed.
“Because it comes in 60 1,000-piece bags. This one came in 10 4032-piece bags. So it's a bigger puzzle, so a bigger puzzle always takes longer to put together.”