Learning About Mother Nature

I am glad we moved in right before winter, because living in the house over the winter told us a lot about our yard that we didn't know. If we had moved in in the spring or early summer then we would have probably done some design things that would have been wrong for our yard. Lets just say we have a pond in the back yard when it rains, so our design for the yard has to include a seasonal wetlands area now. Have a look at some of our water issues.

When we moved into the house there is a list a mile long of things we would love to do to the house and yard. We had come up with a priority list of the most important thing that we wanted to start with. Well lets just say mother nature has a way of rearranging the priority list for you every once and a while. So this winter in the BIG storm that we had just after the new year, or fence blew down on one side. Luckily our neighbor is quite handy also, so we got out there and re-built our fence with him.

I think replacing the fence was on the list of things to do, but it wasn't near the top 3 thing to do this year. While re-building the fence there was a small tree that needed to be cut down so the fence could be nice and strait. So Mike went of to rent a chain saw and he though about our priority list and one of the things that was in the top 3 things to do this year was take down the Mulberry tree in the front yard. So Mike thought why not try and cut down the tree in the front yard sense he had to rent a chain saw for the small tree on the side yard that was in the way of the fence. I think he underestimated the work that it takes to chop down a 50 year old tree, and re-build a fence all in two days. :-)

So while Mike was tackling the tree, I was helping the neighbor build fence. My job was to plumb the posts, which I did that job really well and we have one straight fence because of me. I was being quite precise with the plumb job that the guys were telling me it doesn't have to be that straight its just a fence. Well if they didn't want it to be that straight then they should have told me to eyeball it not use a level to make sure thing were strait. If you give me the tools to do the job correct then I am going to do the job correct even if it is just a fence. Later on while studying for my exam, one of the questions asked "The most important factor in fence construction is? (wait I know the answer) Setting the posts plumb! Ding Ding Ding, that's the correct answer Marcy! Good job!

Take a moment and check out our new fence, even though it looks like old fence. The reason is we reused the good fence boards instead of buying new ones. The old ones have lots of life left in them the are just sun bleached from age. Plus we don't have a lot of extra money right now and paying for a new fence is expensive.