Alex and I fixed the fence this weekend. Whew. On Friday after work we borrowed a sawzall from his great-uncle the contractor. While we were there, Alex and his uncle made a play date to build birdhouses. First thing Saturday morning Alex and I set to work tearing down the rest of the fence and sawing off The Spikes. The sawzall made short work of those spikes. Yowza. I also have a pile of lumber - some new and some returning to the forest from whence it came - under a cedar tree. We pulled out all of the pressure treated lumber that could be used and then made a shopping list for Home Depot that included 70 fence boards and various other boards and brackets. On the plus side, I was able to replace one post without taking down the fence on one side of it, so my project reduced from 40 feet to 32 feet of fence. That's a good thing because we were at it until 7PM doing 32 feet.
This Saturday was supposed to be rain free with rain starting on Sunday. This time of year you just never know when it is going to start raining and not stop until June, plus it was overcast and threatening rain all day, so I was motivated to get the fence done. Apparently I was not the only person trying to cram in just one more summer project because Home Depot was busy. There were people loading trucks all over the parking lot. The old fire truck earned its keep this weekend because we filled it with new wood and hauled it up the hill to our place. Our new tool purchase this weekend was a power compound miter saw which turned out to be fantastic. I should have bought one a long time ago.
Alex and I set to work building away after a quick lunch. As always, the cats were out there keeping an eye on the progress. Every time I screwed in a new piece of the fence structure George the cat would come over and stand on it, sniff it, and see if it was up to spec. He scratched the new posts, to make sure other cats knew they were his, climbed some trees, raced around, and generally had a great time until I started using the miter saw. The cats didn't care for that - too noisy. Alex and I loved it, though. Nice, straight cuts and quick, too. We set up a kind of assembly line when we got the structure up and we started cutting and fixing the new fence boards in place. We finished and Alex declared that it was time to eat at around 7PM. Sometimes, it takes longer with Alexander's help, but he likes to try out the power tools and his own hammer and screwdrivers. Mostly, though, he was a good help and we both felt like we accomplished something. I offered to take him out to eat as a thank you for all of his help, and he picked McDonald's - so he could play with other kids in the indoor playland. Can you believe it? I was fairly wiped out and he wanted to run around like a monkey. Alrighty then. Off to McDonald's we went and he played hard for an hour.
Sunday morning I let Alex watch cartoons and I loaded all of the rotten lumber into the firetruck. Just as I finished the rain started. We drove it over to the dump and the line-up of trucks was something to see. Once again, everyone was finishing that last summer project. Alex is always bummed out when we go to the dump because there are big signs that say that kids can't get out of the vehicles. He really wants to help throw stuff out of the truck and see the bull dozer working. Anyway, we finished that and returned the saw, so The Fence is ready for the winter. I am sure that next Summer there will be more sections to replace, but for now it can perform its primary duty of squirrel highway. They love to run along the top of it on their way to burry peanuts in the yard. Other than that, it doesn't really keep anything in our out. Racoons, possoms, cats, etc. just go right over like it wasn't there. It looks good, though.
This Saturday was supposed to be rain free with rain starting on Sunday. This time of year you just never know when it is going to start raining and not stop until June, plus it was overcast and threatening rain all day, so I was motivated to get the fence done. Apparently I was not the only person trying to cram in just one more summer project because Home Depot was busy. There were people loading trucks all over the parking lot. The old fire truck earned its keep this weekend because we filled it with new wood and hauled it up the hill to our place. Our new tool purchase this weekend was a power compound miter saw which turned out to be fantastic. I should have bought one a long time ago.
Alex and I set to work building away after a quick lunch. As always, the cats were out there keeping an eye on the progress. Every time I screwed in a new piece of the fence structure George the cat would come over and stand on it, sniff it, and see if it was up to spec. He scratched the new posts, to make sure other cats knew they were his, climbed some trees, raced around, and generally had a great time until I started using the miter saw. The cats didn't care for that - too noisy. Alex and I loved it, though. Nice, straight cuts and quick, too. We set up a kind of assembly line when we got the structure up and we started cutting and fixing the new fence boards in place. We finished and Alex declared that it was time to eat at around 7PM. Sometimes, it takes longer with Alexander's help, but he likes to try out the power tools and his own hammer and screwdrivers. Mostly, though, he was a good help and we both felt like we accomplished something. I offered to take him out to eat as a thank you for all of his help, and he picked McDonald's - so he could play with other kids in the indoor playland. Can you believe it? I was fairly wiped out and he wanted to run around like a monkey. Alrighty then. Off to McDonald's we went and he played hard for an hour.
Sunday morning I let Alex watch cartoons and I loaded all of the rotten lumber into the firetruck. Just as I finished the rain started. We drove it over to the dump and the line-up of trucks was something to see. Once again, everyone was finishing that last summer project. Alex is always bummed out when we go to the dump because there are big signs that say that kids can't get out of the vehicles. He really wants to help throw stuff out of the truck and see the bull dozer working. Anyway, we finished that and returned the saw, so The Fence is ready for the winter. I am sure that next Summer there will be more sections to replace, but for now it can perform its primary duty of squirrel highway. They love to run along the top of it on their way to burry peanuts in the yard. Other than that, it doesn't really keep anything in our out. Racoons, possoms, cats, etc. just go right over like it wasn't there. It looks good, though.
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