Our goal was to put in the two poles for which Rick dug holes yesterday. Pop in the poles, put together the panels, get them all into place, and pour in the cement. Sounds simple, and truth be told, the process itself was. However, our building today took both more time and more effort than we had imagined.
Once again, we were blessed with sunny weather. However, the winds were gusting close to (if not over) 30 miles per hour, and the humidity was on the rise. Last week the weatherman talked about setting record lows, and today he was alluding to record highs. We were in the low 80s most of the day. The telling problem was not the heat but the wind. At one point, we put together a panel to insert between two poles. The wind came up and almost knocked me over because the panel acted like a giant plastic sail.
Each day gets a little better as we learn from our mistakes and find easier ways of getting the job done. We are getting into a work routine, as we knew we would. The first panel gave us trouble only in getting the posts set 91 1/2 inches apart and at the right height. In the end, Rick felt that the panels were a little loose between the poles, but it will be fine. We had to pull up the post a little, but by the time things were set, gravity had taken it down again by about 1/8 -1/4 inch. Our wavy yard is so uneven that nothing looks level, but this time I verified that the panels were within my tolerance levels.
The second panel was the one that went from the corner post to the post by the tree. This one caused a few more problems. It was too low, so Rick added some stone into the bottom. Oops. Too much stone, so out some came. For those of you who have never used a post hole digger, getting stone out of a deep hole with one is not an easy task. The pole took more time than we thought it would, but in the end we succeeded in getting both it and the panel set.
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| Three panels completed now hide most of the sheds in the neighbors' yards. |
Our dilemma is what to do with the space that is left. We have some options, but are uncertain if any of them are good choices. We can rise the lower rail to accommodate the roots of the tree, keeping the top even. The problem with that is how to fasten it near the tree since the root system will prohibit us from adding another post. We might have to bolt it to angle iron pounded into the ground, but then we have the raw edges of the cut panels to deal with unless we can somehow affix a post to the angle iron.
Another option is to buy some big plants like a Sago palm or ruffled fan palm and just plant them to cover the 41" gap between the fence and the tree. The problem with that is that the plants may not grow with so many roots in the area, and if the neighbors in the back ever take down their chain-link fence, then we have a gap in our fence through which dogs or other creatures can crawl.
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| The gap by the tree poses a 41" dilemma. |
A final option might be big earthenware pots into which I can plant something to hide the area. The pots would bring color to the area along with some greenery; however, getting the pots to sit flat in a very not-level area could be a real challenge.
The decision on what to do with the area will probably wait until the rest of the fence is complete. We need to do something before we have the fence inspected in the spring, so we cannot delay our decision too long.
Tomorrow, if the weather cooperates, we would like to add one more panel to the south side of the property, and then dig the hole for the pole in the northeast corner. We could really run into a lot of roots in that area (to say nothing of underground -- though now dead -- telephone wires. I am very tired tonight, so I am glad that we achieved what we did today. I have learned my lesson. I won't think that tomorrow will be easy, and I won't even begin to estimate how much time our plans will take to complete. Tomorrow will take care of itself.
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