Three Tasks

The weatherman promised a chance of rain today, but we learned by watching the morning news that we will be lucky if we see one drop by later this afternoon.  That gave us the entire day to get some small tasks completed.

While screws hold the top of the brace in place,
tape secures the bottom section until Rick can
drill it from the other side.

The finished south gate with brace actually
is level and square.  My picture is off!

We started with the south side gate.  Like most things old, it had begun to sag.  Rick had sent for a crossbar piece of fencing to fix the problem, but of course it was hollow and thus incomplete.  To have a surface into which we could attach it to the door itself, Rick cut and then inserted a 1/2 inch thick piece of PVC board.  He cut the corners to match the gate, and then we drilled holes through the entire door and brace.  On the outside, all one can see is four more screw heads.  On the inside, we have washers and nylon lock nuts to keep everything in place.  Will it last forever?  Who knows.  For now, the gate is once again square and much more solid than it was when we awoke this morning.

Our new hook will keep the full gate open
when needed.

The second task we wanted to do today was to attach a latch to the gate so it would stay open.  Our lawn service always accesses the back yard through that south gate, and until now Chelly just propped the gate open with a large paver brick.  In doing so, however, we were really starting to scratch the bottom corner of the gate.

While we were shopping yesterday for the bolts and nuts for the brace, we also purchased an old-fashioned gate hook.  With a few well-placed screws, we now have an easy way to keep the gate open without further damaging the structure.  We will have to be gentle with it since the screws are not imbedded in anything other than a few layers of plastic fence, but it should serve its purpose if handled correctly.

The newly transplanted Areca palm now has a little
more room to flourish.

Our third task of the morning was to move the Areca palm that we planted a couple of weeks ago.  It was too far back in the corner, so we decided to transplant it before it got any larger and before it really took root.  Thankfully, we were able to move the root ball of the palm with no damage.  Now we just need to water each day so that it will be somewhat established before we leave for the summer.

Oh, and speaking of watering... how much faith do we have that we will see any rain today?  Well, we have been watering our new grass in the back yard all afternoon long. Enough said.