Finally a Fence!

Since this last week was Spring Break for me, we took some time (and tax money) and built a fence for our backyard. It is a six-feet-tall wood privacy fence and is designed to keep critters and people out of our yard, and to keep Clara in assuming she ever gets past the not-quite-crawling stage she is currently in.* Thanks to a friend from the ward who knew what he was doing and a four-hour rental of a two-man power auger from Home Depot, we got all the post holes dug (through roots, rocks, bricks, asphalt, and even some dirt, believe it or not) relatively quickly and were able to cement in 13 4x4 pine posts and two 6x6 posts (for the two six foot wide swinging driveway gates). All in all, we put in three gates and about 140 feet of fence. Crystal was a genius, as usual, and figured out a way to use mostly pre-fabricated eight foot long sections of fence, so we mostly only had to put up the posts, let the cement dry for a bit and then screw the panels on. It turned out really, nice, as you can see in the above picture. We are hoping to have less cats, dogs, raccoons, possums and wandering humans in our yard now, as well as have a secure area in which to build a garden.

We are also very grateful that the weather was nice for the four days we spent on the fence, with sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s and 60s. It was perfect weather for working outside, not too hot and not too cold. I should also thank my brother, David, for letting us use his tools, just as he did when we took out all the trees 7 months ago in preparation for this fence. The fence line you see in the picture above is right in the spot where there were about six large trees. We luckily didn't have to dig a fence post through any of the stump bases we had ground down, but we did have to saw through a pair of 4-inch roots, which took some thought and muscle, for sure.

Now, we have a closed-in yard and interestingly our property looks bigger now that it is enclosed; it kind of feels like we have a whole new yard. I can't wait to start cooking on my barbecue pit again!

*Clara's newest mobility trick is to roll over onto her tummy whenever I am changing her diaper, and then she tries to scoot away, laughing because she doesn't have any pants on. She thinks it is a hoot; I think it is incredibly cute and kind of frustrating.


Finally, this last picture shows the rear fence before the gates were put on. I think Crystal did a good job of capturing me while I'm working. I really like this picture.