Picket Fence - Part 1

 

Over a year ago, a decision was made to replace the aged, yet beautiful, picket fence that surrounds a  portion of the vegetable garden on The North Forty.  See The Picket Fence.  Pickets were purchased and preliminary construction plans were hatched. Then, for one reason or the other, the pickets spent their summer reclining on the back porch and the construction plans were shelved.

Fast forward to Spring 2013.  Entire sections of the tired old fence collapsed and had to be removed.  The beloved fence had become something of an embarassment.  It certainly was not doing the job for which it was intended. 



I am happy to report substantial progress has been made on construction of the new fence, though not without a fair bit of dissension and a temporary mutiny within the construction crew ranks. 

These innocent enough looking pickets just about caused the project to be postponed til 2014.  Better Half did not like the point at the top.  He wanted to round off each picket like the old fence pickets.  I, however, did like the point and suggested we add the circular cut out for a bit of whimsy, hoping Better Half would change his mind about lopping off the top of the pickets.  He did.  After making a template, he set up a workshop of sorts on the back porch to laboriously cut the hole into each of the 100 plus pickets. 

 

 

As we worked, I could sense a little frustration emanating from him.  OK, a lot more than a little.  He was all for plodding along, and even suggested that a cigar might be nice as he worked.  I, on the other hand, viewed the whole hole-cutting project as an assembly line process, one to be dispensed with as quickly and efficiently as possible.  He glared at me quite frequently and then dismissed me from the project.  So, I snapped a few photos and stormed into the house, with words to the effect, "Build it yourself." 

 

When the actual building commenced this past weekend, I busied myself on another part of The North Forty, keeping a watchful eye on the goings on.  Better Half set up his saw horses and tools, and carried the lumber to the site.  He peppered me with questions about the fence, to which I made scant reply.  Finally, I rejoined the project when he told me he couldn't build the fence without me.  Sweeter words were never uttered, that and "I'm sorry."   

 



 

So, we set about building the fence, stringer by stringer, picket by picket.  We built one side.  Then we disassembled a little bit of what we built and rebuilt it.  Then we took another look and disassembled almost all of it and rebuilt it again.   We are satisfied, finally, with the first side.

We plan to tackle the remaining two sides of the fence in the coming weekends.  I surely hope the fence building proceeds more peacably and easily than the prior two weekends.  Fence building is hard on a marriage.   I tried to rein in my urges to speed Better Half along.  By the third rebuild of the fence this past weekend, even Better Half himself was speeding along assembly line fashion.

Here's a close up of the the new pickets.  They will look a lot better once they've got a little age on them.  The fence will turn a nice silvery grey, and with time, grow some great green lichens.

If you were a tiny lettuce leaf, this would be your view of the new fence. 

More to come.