Only in Florida (Chapter 2)

This week started on the south side with just one shorter panel before we would have to turn the corner into the wall. That was all right with me because I was tired anyway, and we wanted to take time to figure out the gate panel for that side of the house.  How did this yard get so large?

The final south side panel shuts off our back yard from
the neighbors.

The gate panel turned out well.  We are pleased with the results, and because the company came up with a better design, we probably will not have to order out a cross bar piece to keep it from sagging.  We did, however, have to order out some extra U-channel pieces for the smaller panels on each side of the gate.  We won't be able to finish the gate ends of the fence until we come back from Wisconsin in January.

The  final short panel completely closes our yard off from the neighbors on the south side.  They are really wonderful people; we have no problem with them whatsoever. Gladys is shaped in such a way, however, that our entire Florida room juts our behind the main part of the house.  Since it has windows on all three sides, we have no privacy in that room at all unless we pull down the blinds.  By having the fence up, we will be able to let the sunshine and fresh air in but also have the privacy we desire. We also want to give their our neighbors the same privacy if they want to have friends over or to have a party in their yard.

After the backyard work was complete, we went to two different Home Depot stores to order the U-channels.  Then we purchased 30 more 6- pound bags of cement mix. A slight chance of showers was predicted for today, so Rick unloaded all 30 bags onto a pallet in our garage.  I wish I could have helped more, but 60 pounds is almost more than I can carry.

Another "Only in Florida" Moment: As a treat, we took a short drive downtown to see some of the Christmas lights. Only in Florida will a city decorate their lampposts with wrapped gifts under palm trees!

Getting into the festive spirit takes some adaptation in Florida.

Today we had no choice but to only put up two panels, and that was fine with both of us.  We will now change to two-a-day for the next two days.  A few roots gave Rick some trouble in the next east-side hole, but they were nothing that the SawsAll with a pruning blade could not handle. Even more challenging than the roots, sadly, is the orange clay that we are encountering about two feet down on the east side.  The clay is so sticky that when Rick brings the post-hole digger up, I have to take a garden spade and scrape it off.  The work is tedious and frustrating. Maybe I should mold all of the sticky clay together to make a Florida "snow" man.

The north side soil starts as black dirt but changes to gray sand about two feet down.  The sand is as easy to dig through as the clay is hard.  We have about four panels to go yet across the east back side and five on the easier north side.  We are just glad that two more panels surround our yard.

Our corner continues to grow on the north and east sides. 

This afternoon our shower contractor finally contacted us and came to see why we were upset with the shower.  He agreed to buy more tile and to fix the shower floor.  I am concerned because he wants to add another floor on top of the one already there, extending the drain to make the tiles look and fit better.  My concerns are that the floor will then cover another inch on the bottom row of tile, and that the drain is already extended and the tile contractor still will not handle the job correctly.  Sigh.  Sometimes we cannot win for trying...

We doubt that we will have the shower resolved for another month yet.  We hope to have most of the fence done before we leave for the holidays.  If we can come back and have nothing but the gates their surrounding panels to erect, we will be very happy.