good fences, good neighbors make
27 OCTOBER 2010
If only every day were as kind as that one. The morning air was fine. Leaves spiraled downward from the bluest of skies. And the sun was there too. As the mushroom hunter says: “conditions were good.”
So The Old Man and I went to work on setting about 30 feet of fence, carefully marking the line where my neighbor Guy and I had walked earlier. The fence begins at the eastmost corner of the house, and runs to a large silver maple tree (Acer saccharinum) that must be at least as old as the house. Probably worth seeing if there's any sap in that tree...
A day like that deserves a few challenges, to say that we encountered some roots would be a vile understatement. The post nearest the tree was only sunk about 12” deep due to the coarse woody tubes that ran on all sides of our hole. So we had a go with the shovel, then with the prybar, then the post-hole digger (pronounced “postal digger”), and finally with the sawzall. I think the score by the end of the day was probably big roots—5; sawzall—2. However, we were able to anchor the end rails into the side of the tree for some added stability. The rest of the posts were happy to go down 30 + inches deep.
Now its a bright color on one side of the garden, that I hope will turn gray and stay put over the years. For now all I can say is – sure smells nice!
If only every day were as kind as that one. The morning air was fine. Leaves spiraled downward from the bluest of skies. And the sun was there too. As the mushroom hunter says: “conditions were good.”
So The Old Man and I went to work on setting about 30 feet of fence, carefully marking the line where my neighbor Guy and I had walked earlier. The fence begins at the eastmost corner of the house, and runs to a large silver maple tree (Acer saccharinum) that must be at least as old as the house. Probably worth seeing if there's any sap in that tree...
A day like that deserves a few challenges, to say that we encountered some roots would be a vile understatement. The post nearest the tree was only sunk about 12” deep due to the coarse woody tubes that ran on all sides of our hole. So we had a go with the shovel, then with the prybar, then the post-hole digger (pronounced “postal digger”), and finally with the sawzall. I think the score by the end of the day was probably big roots—5; sawzall—2. However, we were able to anchor the end rails into the side of the tree for some added stability. The rest of the posts were happy to go down 30 + inches deep.
Now its a bright color on one side of the garden, that I hope will turn gray and stay put over the years. For now all I can say is – sure smells nice!
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