Three More Panels

If a person were to walk down the street just east of our house, he could look through the houses and see everything in our back yard.  As we add panels to our fence each day, our privacy increases.  With just two more panels across the back, passersby will no longer be able to see into our backyard.  That delights me both from a personal privacy perspective and from a security perspective.  Maybe that's why working so hard each day is rewarding.

We started early again today; however, the weather was not so damp or so cold.  A single sweatshirt without gloves or hats was all that we needed to be comfortable.  Since our neighbors to the south sleep later on Saturday, we decided to work first on the north corner.  The hole on the north side was still quite soggy, but it accepted the panels and post with no problems.  The panels across the back on the east side were a bit of a problem.  When we put in the bottom rail, it still rested on the stump end that Rick had sawed out yesterday.  We knew we would have to cut further, but rather than waste time just then, we moved on to the south side.

Rick had dug all of the holes yesterday, but the south side post fought us both in height and in north/south positioning.  Rick worked for quite a while to get it positioned correctly, and then when we poured the cement in, it tried to move back to its incorrect place.  Gr-r-r-r.  It is now in position, but the location is more "good enough" than it is "just perfect."

With just two more panels on the south side, we will be ready
to turn the corner to connect the fence to the house.

Back to the east side, once again the SawsAll in conjunction with a cold chisel and a large demolition mallet removed the offending remainder of the stump so that the fence both would sit level and would have at least 2 - 3 inches of clearance underneath.  This post, too, fought us.  We thought that the north pole hole was soggy; this one was underwater about 3 inches.  We added stone and worked to get the post in at the right height.  Although it now is level, it is twisted just a bit to the left, so we will have to make some corrections with the next pole.

Two more panels to the right of the right-hand section
totally will block the view of our yard from the parallel street.

Rick was worried that we were putting the fence back too far on our lot.  We are trying to stay 3 inches inside our property line.  He measured once, and then measured again.  We are right where we should be.  The problem is not OUR fence but rather the chain link fence behind it.  That fence, over the years, has been greatly bowed out toward our property by the camphor tree just inside of it, just as our live oak tree has bowed that same fence toward our neighbors property further down the property line.  If I look at the chain link fence top, it looks like a giant silver snake slithering away.  Our fence is straight, and that is all that is important.

Our neighbor's crooked fence had us worried
for a few minutes.

One milestone that we reached today was to use all of the panels on the first pallet from Home Depot.  Our neighbor has a fire pit, so when we break it all down, he can burn it to get rid of it. One pallet down, one more to go!

The smaller of the two pallets of panels lies ready to be
dismantled and stacked into a burn pile.

Our progress has been great thus far, but we have discovered that the east side of the property is going to give us root problems all of the way.  Perhaps our three panels a day will have to soon slow down to two.  That's OK.  Each day's progress takes us closer to Gladys' private, "outdoor room." I can't wait to decorate it with flowers and bushes.