We were serving at the Sunday church service at 9:15 this weekend. Which means getting all dressed up in a surplice and processing down the aisle and all that good ceremonial stuff.
Well, at 8:55 we were in the van sitting outside the equipment rental, to return the power auger. And at 9:00. And at 9:05 … they finally opened the gate, after Joe-Bob Yukyuk finished checking in all of the rental trucks parked on the street, yo-yup-yup-yo. And, of course, we were third in line, so it took another 5 minutes to get all checked back in, race to the van, race to the chuch … and we will managed to slip into the side pews before the end of the processional song, and sneak up to our seats by the altar before the readings. Still, not a good way to start the day.
After getting back from church and bruch, and putting both Katherine and Margie down for greatly-needed naps, I tackled cleaning up the mess from the previous day’s work (including all those cubic feet of dirt), re-laying the mason line, and basically getting everything ready for Doyce and Justin’s arrival.
They got there (post the game day events Doyce had to run) around 3, and we set off to actually getting the posts cemented into the post holes we’d dug the day before.
We used the dry-pour “Just Add Water to the Hole” Quikcrete, as well as the clever little post level I’d picked up. Doyce and I alternated on holding/leveling vs. bracing the post. We’d then pour in the concrete into the form, and Margie would add water. Justin served as both general gofer and Katherine Entertainment.
(Katherine was great, except for the inevitable moment when, in the middle of a bunch of people, all of whom managed to turn their backs at the same instant, she decided to ride her little car down the driveway — fortunately hitting a brick retaining trim at the bottom and doing a header there, rather than rolling into the middle of the street … Eep!)
It took about three hours to set the ten posts that needed doing (and, yes, we set all of them in concrete, though in theory we could have just done the end posts. But I’m a lazy man, so I’m willing to invest a little extra up front if it will mean that many more additional years before the fence needs to be replaced).
We went ahead and used cedar posts. Jim, the Father-in-Law, e-mailed back the day after I bought the materials to say his sources recommend using the pressure-treated wood for the posts, instead, but the research I’d done makes me thing the cedar will do as well in its own way.
So now we have a forest of posts — which already looks keen.
What remains to be done:
- Determine the height of the three rails on the main(east)fence.
- Install the rails.
- Install the rails/connectors to the fence on the NE property line.
- Install the rails/connectors on the corner of the east fence.
- Measure the space on the west fence.
- Trim down the existing fence panel there (temporarily removed), and mount it.
- Picket the east fence panels (including connectors).
- Build gates.
- Mount gates.
- Have a big party.
Actually, we may do the Big Party for the picket part of the activities, let folks come over, socialize, take turns putting up pickets, etc. That’s Margie’s idea. But that (and the rest of it, with the exception of maybe the gates) can also be part of Something I Do Each Evening When I Get Home for Half an Hour. There’s also a backup fence building day I have tentatively scheduled with Doyce that could be allocated to that (or, more likely, to the gates).
Pictures to follow Real Soon Now.