Pat's Patunia Patch: Our Project

When we moved from our old house, with it's private wooded yard, into our new house with it's wide open backing up to neighbors yard, we decided that a fence would be a nice thing to have. The neighbors to the East had one already, so it would only be in the back and on the West side. We'll do it right away!....not. Five years and some very busy summers later, we decided that if we were going to do it, this was the year. After lots of measuring and figuring, just over a month ago the supplies were delivered. Yikes!

There were pickets on a pallet....say that fast a couple of times.

Our new fence is a Gothic style cedar picket fence. Not for privacy as much as for a sense of boundaries. And that is the style the neighbor has. This pallet of pickets and the pile of other lumber all had to be hauled by hand to the backyard. We wore a path with the wheel barrow.

While we were at it, it seemed like a good time to dig into my new perennial garden project....it's lined with these edger bricks. Nothing like taking on a couple of jobs at once! The edgers had to be moved into the back yard by hand too. Have I mentioned my back ache?

We hadn't built a fence before, so we had to figure it out along the way. Measure yard, figure out how many posts, how many supports, how many pickets. Dig holes, cement in posts, add rails, add pickets. Maybe I should just show you the finished product and be done? Then what would I blog about?

Today's blog is about digging the holes. We had 25 posts to put in, didn't know what we'd find for soil as we dug, and decided that renting an auger was the only way to go. Eric decided that it was worth the extra cost to get a one person auger instead of the two man....could idea since the other man would have been me.

Nice auger Eric! What is it about big tools that make guys smile?

Eric had found the boundary stakes, measured twice to make sure, marked where all the holes were to go, and got started. Ignore the loose string that had been used to make sure things were straight....once things were marked the string was untied but not pulled out of the way. :-)

The auger was a gas powered hydraulic beast on wheels. He'd line it up, fire it up, and slowly push it into the ground.

Down, down, down....then up again to move away some of the dirt so it wouldn't fall back into the whole.

The pulling it back up was the hard part.

It was a heavy beast.

Move the dirt and do it again....holes for 25 poles.

The corner posts had to be deeper so an extension had to be put on the bit of the auger.

Even though Eric was using a machine, it was hard work! We found out that we have a lot of heavy, sticky clay under our lawn.

Looking good Eric....only about 21 to go! I think he was wondering what time the boys got home from school so he could get some actual help with the job.

A few hours later the boys did get home. Eric convinced Brian that digging holes was a lot of fun, and he talked him into helping! Brian was pretty interested in the mechanics of the whole thing, that helped. What is it with guys and big tools??

Push, pull, move the dirt, repeat....

Eric appreciated the help. I appreciated seeing the two of them working together. When did my boy get so big?

Why is it that when they are finally big enough to really help they move off to college or something?

We do have a regular shovel, but the little ones were just the right size. Brian, Billy and I dug a little garden with those shovels when they were little....Brian was very worried about harming any worms....it was so cute....wait.....back to the fence post holes. I forget where I am sometimes.