Good Fences...
To cap off my summer, I built a fence. L.'s cousin came down from Vermont and we worked together for three and a half days, building a cedar picket fence on both sides of our house. It was something that L. and I had been wanting done to the house since we moved in. The previous fence was a chain link fence that was designed to be temporary, to sit on the ground, but it had been lashed to iron re-bar with plastic ties. It also had privacy lattice lashed onto it with ties. It used to blow down in a stiff wind, until I removed the lattice.
L. and I had gone to L & L Fence Co. in Whately and bought the materials. L's cousin was supposed to come earlier in the summer, but had come down with a case of the flu. So he came this past week and we banged out the fence. We dug one hole with the post hole digger I had bought and then decided that the better course of action would be to rent a post hole auger. We got it from Aubuchon and it was gas powered with a hydraulic drive. It dug down great, but didn't remove the clay soil from the hole, so you still had to use the post hole digger. We tried to get the holes four feet deep, but mostly got them closer to three and a half feet.
We used 8' 4x4's for posts and cut them to a uniform height, once we measured them in the holes. We cut notches in the posts and hung the fence panels from the notches, using deck screws to secure them. Then we built a "z" gate and hung it. The gate on the side fence was our big error. Somehow the posts on either side of the gate ended up far out of alignment. The gate opens and closes fine, but it's not square at all with the posts or the fence line.
On the other side, where the asphalt from the driveway extended under the place where we wanted the fence to go (so we couldn't sink posts), we built a box to use as a planter and hung the gate from the garage. It's only a small span, about eight or 10 feet.
Our neighbors on the other side of the fence are very friendly and have two boys around A.'s age. The kids go running back and forth through our respective gates from one back yard to the other. Having a better fence there makes it all seem that much neater.
* On the title, see my post on Frost and his poem "Mending Wall."
L. and I had gone to L & L Fence Co. in Whately and bought the materials. L's cousin was supposed to come earlier in the summer, but had come down with a case of the flu. So he came this past week and we banged out the fence. We dug one hole with the post hole digger I had bought and then decided that the better course of action would be to rent a post hole auger. We got it from Aubuchon and it was gas powered with a hydraulic drive. It dug down great, but didn't remove the clay soil from the hole, so you still had to use the post hole digger. We tried to get the holes four feet deep, but mostly got them closer to three and a half feet.
We used 8' 4x4's for posts and cut them to a uniform height, once we measured them in the holes. We cut notches in the posts and hung the fence panels from the notches, using deck screws to secure them. Then we built a "z" gate and hung it. The gate on the side fence was our big error. Somehow the posts on either side of the gate ended up far out of alignment. The gate opens and closes fine, but it's not square at all with the posts or the fence line.
On the other side, where the asphalt from the driveway extended under the place where we wanted the fence to go (so we couldn't sink posts), we built a box to use as a planter and hung the gate from the garage. It's only a small span, about eight or 10 feet.
Our neighbors on the other side of the fence are very friendly and have two boys around A.'s age. The kids go running back and forth through our respective gates from one back yard to the other. Having a better fence there makes it all seem that much neater.
* On the title, see my post on Frost and his poem "Mending Wall."