23 December: south fence, day four

Thursday, 23 December 2021

At home

A rainbow from the north window greeted me when I opened the curtains.

We’d had rain, thunder, lightning and wind yesterday and last night.

I moved more plants into the greenhouse because of the predicted 23F nights coming up. I could put more in on the floor. And just might.

We got to work on the south fence project, meaning Allan doing the carpentry and me clearing the way. The grass path makes for a soggy walk out there.

View in from the gear shed side, looking west:

Fence to the right of the photo is getting moved south, except for the section with shutters.

I realized the section decorated with shutters would keep the deer out without a wire panel and, because the panel had a seam where one section joined the next at the first inner post, suggested to Allan it be peeled back and used to fill the first new east side fence expansion. I moved a log pile to make room (second time I’ve moved it since we started this project).

Allan sawed a big trunk that was in the way of the east fence. Sometimes we really need a big chain saw (that we do not have; neither of us want to use one).

My long ago partner Bryan’s brother had an accident of a chainsaw kicking back at his face that earned him the nickname “Chainsaw Runnings”. True, he was using a chainsaw to cut a skylight in his house at the time. But I digress. Allan got the trunk cut and pried out.

Allan successfully peeled back the wire panel, which is good news as we are going to try to re use all the wire panels from the existing south fence.

Not worms, those are the staples he pulled to move the wire.

Meanwhile, I used the small chain saw and the great little Corona hand saw to cut some willow branches that would get in the way as the south stretch of the fence gets built. I gave up on the big trunk, below, that was our willow arch till the surveyors pushed it down too low. But if it comes out, there will be much less of a tangle to build around.

This is after I’d cut some smaller ones to make the way clear.

I finally took the time to cut to the ground all of the salmonberry stems that the surveyors had hacked and uglified (on our property). Now I won’t get so steamed every time I am out there. The same went for willow branches on our willows that they hacked with no thoughtfulness or design skill.

All of the holly that I cut to the ground last spring is back, of course, and some of it is outside the fence so it won’t be my problem.

I brooded over the eighty years old (at least!) frog habitat where the river shore used to be…

…where water gathers for six months and the spring peepers sing their loud chorus and then the tadpoles swim…

…and I hoped it would be preserved if the sports building is built, because to build a facility for youth by destroying frog homes seems contradictory to me. Kids love frogs, don’t they? What child wouldn’t want to save their home? The building one block east was constructed with a deep ditch next to it which still provides frog habitat.

The meander line ditch was preserved by the community college building one block east:

But the plans for the new building show it plopped down right on top of frogland.

Denny and Mary came for a holiday gift exchange. I showed them where they could come round with their vehicle near the gear shed to see what we were doing on the south end. They were impressed with Allans work on the front fence, finished, and the back, just begun.

When I ran out of pruning, I went to the house and the leaf mold pile and moved three wheelbarrows full of leaves to the front garden to mulch three Melianthus and the plants that I had shifted around the east front garden all too recently.

Allan remained on the fence project, inspected by Skooter, till dark and got the east side done.

Wire of different heights went into this furthest corner…because that is what we have on hand.

It’s different.

Next workable weather day, while Allan runs the fence along the south, I’ll have a project of making a stop the eye feature on the east end with some branches. I look forward to it.