Finished Fence!

 Yesterday we actually took time to finish the fence by hanging the gate that Rick made a few days ago.  The fence is complete.  We wanted to finish so that we could get the fence inspected and close out the permit before winter and before we return to Florida.

This small gate on the north side of the house
completes the enclosure of the back yard.

Rick called the Permit Office this morning.  They will send an inspector out tomorrow.  We do not have to be home, and we do not have to present him or her with any paperwork to be signed at the end of the inspection.  We were told that if he or she approves the fence, we simply will not hear from the Permit Office again.  Wow!  Is that ever different from the process used in our town in Florida where one HAS to have the paperwork hanging outside for the Inspector to review and sign if you have done EVERYTHING absolutely right.  If not, the job gets tagged until all of the incomplete or unacceptable parts of the project are corrected.  

We don't think we will have any problems with this Wisconsin fence. We are well within the boundaries of our property, everything is plumb and true, the fence is neither too high nor too low, and the permit will stay properly displayed in the front window.

So what does my hard-working husband do when he finished hanging the gate?  He "watched" TV to relax.  I think it worked!!!

Now I know why Rick did not "fast forward"
through the commercials.

Gate Two

 We have reached that point in the summer where we have started to look at what projects need to be completed before we return to Florida for the winter.  First on our list was the second gate on our fence because that will complete the construction, and we then can get the fence inspected by the city.  If we do not get it inspected this year, we will have to take out another expensive permit next year to get the project approved.  That expense we can do without.

Rick dug the second of the two holes we needed for the posts yesterday.  While the Packers were winning their first football game of the season against the Minnesota Vikings (43 - 34), Rick took that opportunity to go to Home Depot to get the last few bags of concrete that we needed.  He said the store was almost empty when he went there, so he was in and out without getting near anyone else.  The same held true for Menards when he went inside to pick up some boards to slip inside the posts.  The boards are necessary so we have someplace to screw the gate hardware into when we get to that point.

The yard is set up and ready for us to mix the concrete for the
posts for Gate Two on the north side of the house.

While Rick put the boards together this morning and got them into the posts, I set up the back yard for our task at hand.  This whole thing would have been much easier if we could have used the existing end post on the fence; however, we discovered earlier when Rick originally tried to dig the hole next to the house  opposite that post that we had an eight-foot ground rod for the entire electrical system for the house in the way. Plan B called for us to dig TWO holes, to bring the gate a little closer to the back yard, and to find underground areas that would accept both posts and cement with nothing in the way.

Adding this north gate will completely enclose the back yard.

Since we had been through this routine over 50 times before (counting the posts we put in for the fence in Florida and for the fence here in Wisconsin), we did not have any problems today getting both posts into the ground and secured with cement.

Rick checks the level to make sure that both posts
are the same height. (Note the clothing: we started with
temperatures only in the low 60s this morning.)

Of course, getting the posts to match the height of the existing fence, and then making sure that the two posts we put in today also matched each other in height took a little time.  Thank God for four-foot levels!

In the end, we now have two posts ready to support Gate Two.  The posts will have to sit for about a week while the concrete dries.  That will give us time to assemble the gate.  

The two posts are plumb and parallel. Now they
just have to dry in place before we hang the gate.

Once Gate Two is hung, we can call the inspector to get the city's approval of our Wisconsin fence. That will take one huge project off our "to do" list for this summer.

Gate One

After we returned from a busy four-day weekend at Stephanie's house (where Rick did too many projects!), we decided to keep going by working on our fence.

We tackled the south side gate because that opening exposed more of the back yard than the north side.  This was one of those projects were the measurements and the actual build just would not coordinate.  We built the gate twice, finally taking parts of it and cutting them down since the math said to do so.  In the end, we should have left well enough alone, and the gate would have fit tighter.

The gate swings into the back yard, so that we can hook it to the fence
when we need to hold it open.  The sloping land made the installation tricky.

Once built, the gate was very heavy.  It gave us a struggle to get it in, and we still have work to do on it.  Because the landscape really slopes from the house to the neighbor's yard, we had to dig out the ground behind the gate just so it would be ground level in the front and have swing room in the rear.  We still need to slope the landscape down so that we can sod it before winter.

From the inside of the fence, this picture shows
the landscape work that awaits us so that the gate
will have a proper swing range while the yard 
remains walkable and mowable.

The digging and yard work will have to wait for a cooler day.  Rick went to physical therapy today, and the therapist told him that he overdid the work last week, and that he must totally rest this week.  That's OK with me.  If I feel ambitious, I may go out and remove some dirt.  If not, then the dirt has been in that position for many years, so I am sure that a little more time resting were it is will make no difference.  Eventually, it will be finished.  

We both need a rest.

Fight to the Finish

 We wanted to build a short section of fence today from the house outward so that we could eventually put in a gate on the south side of the house.  This project fought us all the way.

The weather forecast for today called for brief showers in the morning that were supposed to clear by 9:30 a.m.  That was fine; we figured that we only needed between two to three hours for the job, so we still would be finished by around noon.

While we waited for the shower that woke us up to end, we spent the time assembling the ingredients for beef stew in the crock pot.  Dinner started cooking, so we ventured outside to set up the tables, cement mixer, posts, and other tools that we needed to build the fence.  

Then we watched the sky darken, and we heard the thunder start to roll in.  We were getting a little wet by the time we threw and secured tarps over our work stations.  The weather was the first element to fight us. It would pour, then clear, and just as the sun peeked out from behind a cloud, it would start to pour again.  The rain continued, on and off, until about 2:30 in the afternoon.

Once we got back outside, the first hole that Rick had dug a couple of days ago seemed not deep enough.  Yes, we had put stone in the bottom, but it still was not quite right.  Out came the post hole digger -- again-- as we struggled to pull up dirt and stones from the bottom. 

Once we had the first pole set in the first hole, we moved on to the second pole.  Due to elevation changes in the side yard, getting that post lined up with the first was not easy.  A sloping lawn and setting the posts in the holes was the second element that fought us.

The fence panels and upper rail fight us as the
work area in the side yard peeks out from behind it.

Before we could cement the second post into place, we had to put in the lower rail, add the upper rail, and build the slats between the two.  Assembling the actual fence panel was the third element that fought us.  Since we had to cut the upper and lower rails short, we had one end on each that no longer had latches to help it stay in place. One or the other kept pulling out, and fitting the panels in between took us two tries before we could get everything in place.  By this time, we were both tired and uncomfortable as the weather was turning hot and humid.  So once again, the weather continued to fight us.

Looking from the back yard, the fence panel
finally is complete. We left an area wide enough
for a riding lawn mower or other large items 
still can have access to the back yard.

We finally finished the project about 5:00 p.m.  By this time, we both were exhausted, so that state of being was the last element to fight us.  We had to force ourselves to clean up the worksite since more storms and heat are expected for tomorrow.  We knew that if we did not pick everything up today, we would face a soggy mess tomorrow.

View of the fence from the front yard.

Once we add the gate, we will have more
privacy in our back yard.

In the end, we have the fence on the south side of the house in place.  If it rains tomorrow and we feel like working, we always can back the truck out of the garage and build the gate for the south side in the shaded and dry garage.  If we do not feel like working, so be it.  Tomorrow is Sunday, and I am perfectly content to let that be a day of rest.

At It Again

 While Rick has been not-so-patiently waiting for his foot to heal after Achilles surgery, we have been able to take a short break.  I have tried to keep the lawn mowed, and I have transplanted a few flowers and trimmed the back bush.  Other than that, tending the new trees and watching the grass grow have been the extent of our work. However, now we are back at our yard work again.

Last week, we took a trip to our neighborhood nursery and learned the they had received a fairly respectable shipment of new sod.  Since we badly needed sod to fill in the dirt "dump site" on the south end of our property, we took a deep breath and purchased 28 rolls of sod.  Rick had already raised the flower garden to its proper height, so we had the room to fit in sod above black dirt that we had trucked in a couple of weeks ago.

The new sod fills quite a bit of space.  
Rick "tucked in" the edges the next day.

We spent most of that day laying out the sod, only to find that we still were about three rolls short.  Rick returned the next day -- now that he can drive again -- and purchased the necessary sod to finish the job.  The yard looks so much better now that we do not have a dirt patch next to the flower garden.

Earlier this week, we drove to Appleton to Lowes to purchase a fence post that we needed to complete the gates on our fence.  We knew that we would not be able to complete the fence until August, and suddenly, August is here!  With the new post in hand, we thought we were ready to begin the gates.

The north side of the house will require less work (we thought), so we decided to start with that side.  Rick started to dig the hole for the post only to discover, after going down about a foot, that the ground wire and rod to the entire electrical system of our house is buried right were we wanted to put in the post.  Moving the post either forward or backward from that point would have made for an off-balance, angled gate.  That would not be good.

After three alternatives were contemplated, we decided that the only way we were going to successfully put a gate on that side was to install two posts so that we can move the entire gate structure back from the original end of the fence.  While that is not an ideal choice, it will look the best and work the best for our needs.  The only problem?  We need yet another fence post!

The layout of the posts for the fence panel and
gate are tricky as the house is not parallel to the
yard layout or fence. Both holes are dug, awaiting
dry weather and cement.

We both were up at 5:00 a.m. today.  I had an early morning blood test appointment, and Rick just could not sleep.  By the time I got back from my appointment, Rick had already dug the first hole on the south side of the house for our south gate.  I do not feel well at all today, so I am afraid that I was not much help. 

Rick promised me that he would only dig one hole a day, and would go no further.  Of course, while the weather is still nice today, he wanted to dig a second hole and to cement in both posts.  Since he does not have the posts filled with the wooden structures needed to support the gate hardware, and since he had already done more with his still-healing foot than he should have, I refused to even consider hauling out all of the tools and machinery needed to pour concrete.  Rain is predicted for the next three days, so the posts and their concrete will just have to wait.

Fresh, free produce, anyone?

The good news about our other "yard work" is that our patio garden is starting to give us results.  We have picked (and eaten) one green pepper.  Two more are growing on the vine.  We also have harvested so many salad tomatoes (three different kinds from four plants), that we both are tired of eating so many.  Maybe the latest bowl will have to go to Lindsay or to the neighbors. Good thing our zucchini plant did not grow this year!

Rain and Heat

The good news is that we have been getting lots of rain here in Wisconsin, so we water our new trees each day, but sometimes God does the job for us.  When we planted the trees, the Nursery gave us some foul-smelling mushroom compost to add to the holes around the tree roots.  The trees seem to be very happy 'shrooming, because they are growing very well.  The back tree is sending out new branches all over, and the front tree is full of blooms.

The bad news is that we learned yesterday that our air conditioning in Florida has not been working since June 16.  Our nephew Jon checked the house yesterday, and the temperature inside was 87 with a 76% humidity.  We always set the thermostat at 80 while we are gone with a 50% humidity. High temperatures and high humidity are the perfect combination for mold to grow, so this is a problem we need to address.

Thankfully, we have wonderful relatives and neighbors.  Our neighbor across the street got the key from Jon, and she will let the repairman in today so he can repair the system.  We both are bummed about this because we replaced the entire system only two years ago.  This should not be happening to an almost new HVAC system!  We will learn later today how extensive -- and how expensive -- the repair will be to get the system running again.

Sigh.  I guess we have to take the good with the bad in home ownership.

New Trees

A coupe of weeks ago, Rick and I were watching TV when we saw something strange out our front windows.  The winds were calm, we had no rain or storms, yet we both watched in disbelief as one of the three trunks of our Ivory Silk Japanese Lilac tree fell in slow motion to the ground.  The trunk was rotten, and the tree finally had lost its battle with gravity.

Our Japanese Lilac literally hits the dust.

We paid to have the other two trunks of the tree removed from the front garden, and yesterday a company came to grind out the stump, so today we went tree shopping.

We tried a nursery new to us in town, and we came away with not one, but two, ornamental trees for the yard.  (That's what happens when a person cannot make up his or her mind as to which tree to choose!)

The tag shows the Limelight blooms.

The Limelight Hydrangea will soon be in full bloom.

For the front garden, to replace the Japanese lilac, we purchased a Limelight Hydrangea tree. This tree is just starting to bloom, and it is supposed to hold its blooms into the fall.  The blooms start as jade green flowers that turn to pink and then to burgundy as the seasons change to fall.  The blooms will remain a rust color throughout the winter and can be trimmed off in the spring.  The tree will only get to be about 8 feet high, so it will be a pretty, compact tree for our front garden.

A promise of what the tree will look like when it is full grown.

Right now, the tree has a long way to grow!

The second tree we chose is a purple Dwarf Korean Lilac tree.  Years ago we had a small tree in the back yard that fell onto our back porch during a straight-line wind incident.  Ironically, when we chose where to plant this tree, Christopher dug down a few inches and came upon the rotten remains of that long-ago tree.  It seems our eye always picks out the same place for trees in the back yard.

This tree, too, is small and colorful.  It will get to be about 8 feet tall and will bloom in the early spring.  The nursery owner said that it is very easy to prune, so we can keep it in whatever shape we wish.  We can't wait to see it in bloom next year.

Very slowly we are getting our landscape into shape.  We need tons of dirt and sod yet, but the trees are a start to making the landscape look good again.

Last Minute Projects

While Rick continued to paint the back porch today, I decided to handle our purchases from yesterday by planting my container garden.

We wanted to get the porch treated lumber painted this year, now that it has had a year to dry.  Rick started yesterday with the south wall so we could hang the sun shades on that side once the paint dries.  However, since we are expecting 2 inches of rain tomorrow -- and no sun -- we will wait until Monday to hang the shades.  Why get them soggy when we do not have to do so?

Today he started painting the east wall of the porch.  If we do not get that job done before his surgery on Tuesday, I can always finish it later.

The perfect place for my lilac is in this corner.
It will get lots of sun but still be protected from
harsh winds.

We purchased a new purple lilac bush to replace the one that the tree service morons destroyed two years ago.  Now that the fence is up, I wanted the bush back in the same corner.  Rick dug the hole, and we now have a familiar sight when we look in that direction.  I hope that in time it will nicely fill the corner.

The yellow pot contains green bell pepper plants
while the metal tub from my Dad contains two
varieties of zucchini.

Next came my container gardens.  Since food prices are skyrocketing thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, I decided to expand my garden beyond my normal two tomato plants.  At Stein's yesterday, I purchased what I knew we would eat in different varieties.  We will see what grows the best.

Four pots with three different varieties of tomatoes will happily
grow on our back screened-in patio.  We'll see which pot produces
the most tomatoes.

As soon as I finish this blog, I am back outside to cut the grass for the first time this season.  Rick planted grass in the bare spots of the lawn this morning, so  I want to cut the rest of the grass before the rains tomorrow.  Tomorrow I can tackle my indoor cleaning and sewing chores.  No matter what, we both always find things to do. Only unimaginative people get bored.