The Big Fence
Dec. 12th, 2004 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laura_seabrookI spent about 5 hours in the backyard yesterday repair the side fence. Now, this is "my part" of the side fence. It's made up of recycled pailings, tin sheets, old doors and gates, 'copperlog' style posts and an awful lot'a hexnuts.
Part of this however looked like it was starting to fall apart, and another bit like it was leaning dangerously. I "un-screwed the hexnuts" on two sections and removed all the corrugated sheeting, then dug out a post that was rotten throughout, and dug a large hole. Well, it was as deep and large as I could make it. The soil here has layers of coal and clay just under the surface, so the digging was hard work, even with a "spud bar" (a log metal spike with a flat bit at one end), a mattock and other tools.
I manage to put in a new post, anchored by a crossbar and screwed in (aren't hexnuts great -- they can screw straight into wood) the panels, then broke for lunch. After watching "Prophecy Girl" (last episode of season 1 of Buffy) and an episode of Stargate on the TV, I went back to work. This was just as hard and sweaty. I had to remove an old panel and put on a new one, add extra panels to a section of the fence that Pegasus's ball goes over, and finally add a new panel to seal off the fence from next door.
The whole day was hot, humid, and the cloud cover only stayed long enough to tease me. But better yesterday than today, with no cloud cover at all.I'm not very good (as in neat and tidy) at D-I-Y stuff, and the fence might look like it belongs at the back of "Dad & Dave's" farm, but it's solid, and will stay up (hopefully).
Felt totalled by doing all that, and apart from an Hunter Apana committee meeting will stay at home out of the sun today.
Part of this however looked like it was starting to fall apart, and another bit like it was leaning dangerously. I "un-screwed the hexnuts" on two sections and removed all the corrugated sheeting, then dug out a post that was rotten throughout, and dug a large hole. Well, it was as deep and large as I could make it. The soil here has layers of coal and clay just under the surface, so the digging was hard work, even with a "spud bar" (a log metal spike with a flat bit at one end), a mattock and other tools.
I manage to put in a new post, anchored by a crossbar and screwed in (aren't hexnuts great -- they can screw straight into wood) the panels, then broke for lunch. After watching "Prophecy Girl" (last episode of season 1 of Buffy) and an episode of Stargate on the TV, I went back to work. This was just as hard and sweaty. I had to remove an old panel and put on a new one, add extra panels to a section of the fence that Pegasus's ball goes over, and finally add a new panel to seal off the fence from next door.
The whole day was hot, humid, and the cloud cover only stayed long enough to tease me. But better yesterday than today, with no cloud cover at all.I'm not very good (as in neat and tidy) at D-I-Y stuff, and the fence might look like it belongs at the back of "Dad & Dave's" farm, but it's solid, and will stay up (hopefully).
Felt totalled by doing all that, and apart from an Hunter Apana committee meeting will stay at home out of the sun today.
