Saturday, 8 January 2022
At home
Allan installed the last four 2x4s, three of which were tricky: one extra long and two had to be placed differently because of willows.
I had put six blocks of coir in dustbins full of water to soak, two days ago. But the lawn is too saturated to run a wheelbarrow over it to take fluffed up coir out to the willow grove garden beds. The same was true when Roxanne and Veda of The Basket Case Greenhouse delivered ten bags of nice dark hemlock bark. A wheelbarrow cuts a deep groove in the lawn at this time, so we stashed them next door for now.
Cold to the bone, but determined to show weather solidarity, I accomplished little but chop up some branches to make yet another debris pile, along with occasionally holding the measuring tape. I also did some measuring myself and figured out that we are getting not 800 but more like 1000 more square feet of fenced in garden to plant up without losing plants to deer.
In the course of chopping debris, I wanted to move a big and heavy Y shaped piece of driftwood to hold up a smaller willow arch. I could not figure out how to get it under the big arch. Allan did.
But then I found it too heavy to wedge into place. I miss the strength of youth. It can wait for later…I did not not want to ask for help and interrupt the fencing progress anyway further.
I thought the best tactic for starting to put wire panels on the fence in the late afternoon would be to focus on filling in with scraps the two areas where willow tangles make it complicated. Then we’d have all day tomorrow to do more normal wire panels. Allan disagreed and dismantled some existing fence to do a large panel at the west end.
It is a slow process to figure out how to reuse the existing fence because the posts for the new fence are a straight run rather than the staggered run around alder trees of the old fence. So none of the measurements are the same. I said I’d be happy (not really truly happy) to buy another roll of fencing, but Allan correctly pointed out that if we can use all the existing wire, we won’t have extra sitting around in our crowded shed-side storage area.
I am sure many of you gardeners know what it is like to have an outdoor storage pile of interesting ingredients that gradually rot, mildew, break, rust, or corrode before being used.
Allan’s last half hour (after I went indoors) was spent measuring and thinking about how the wire pieces will fit. I had also spent some time sitting and thinking in the cold air of the willow grove about how I am going to plant up the new garden and where the heck I am going to get soil on a budget. (That’s why I am soaking the coir: it will expand on the soil that I have.) I do have my eye on a pile of rubble and sandy soil at Susie’s house, and as soon as the fence is done and we can make a dump run to have an empty trailer, we will go and get it.
I’m hoping, probably illogically, that we can get all the wire from the old fence moved to the new fence tomorrow, and block off the gate areas to keep the deer out, so that I can actually return to garden preparation out there (in better weather!) while we still have a month of staycation left.
Hi Skyler.
Alan’s logical mind reminds me of my husband before cognitive challanges changed him: Alan wasn’t a “cheap scottish electrical engineer” (my husband’s self description!) before he became a gardener, by any chance?
You both make such a good team and I’m enjoying your fencing adventures.
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You will be entertained to know that Allan has a degree in civil engineering! He did not persist in that career because office work was not a good fit.
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I am also so sorry that your husband has had cognitive challenges.
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We finally had to take a trip to the city recycling yard with our ingredient piles because they were providing nesting opportunities for rats and wasps. It is hard to let it go, especially when you were raised to hold onto, and re-use, everything.
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When we moved in 2010, we took load after load to the dump of materials that Robert had collected and not used. And he did upcycle a lot of stuff, too.
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Good luck getting what you need at a price you can afford. That is ever my problem.
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If a certain ex president had seen how good you are at building fences, he would have been very envious.
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“I am sure many of you gardeners know what it is like to have an outdoor storage pile of interesting ingredients that gradually rot, mildew, break, rust, or corrode before being used. ” – You bet I do! 🙂
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🙂
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