A Fence!!!!

Thank you so much to Mom and Sue for coming all the way down here to help us build a fence. It was awesome. Here's the story...

It all started on Saturday morning, when it was frigging hot out. We went to Lowe's and bought all the stuff (a big grill, 7 bags of concrete, 12 2x4s, 14 fence posts) and loaded them into the truck.

Then the fencing was brought out (oh boy...)

Then we waited for another half hour in the sun for a manager to come and open the gate (efficiency experts, the Lowes managers are not). Eventually we loaded it all up and hit the road for home. Oh, did I mention that Chad flew back from Boston at 5am and was passed out at home during all of this?

Anyway, by now it's 90 degrees and sunny and it's time for digging holes and sinking posts in cement. Chad joined us, and the system was pretty much mom and Rachel (who have excess energy) dug the holes and Chad and Sue (who have enough patience to do this right) set the poles. We had 14 holes 2 feet deep each, except for the one where mom got a little excited and went down 3 feet.

We had one small setback that involved digging into a bees nest (it's hard to take pictures of swarming bees, sorry you can't see it). Oops. But thanks to modern chemistry (aka pesticides) we were able to quiet them down enough to remove the nest and get the pole in. Miraculously, not one of us got stung.

It was sweaty work for all. At the end of the day, while Sue and Chad set the last few poles, mom and Rachel tried to install the grill. Unfortunately, our natural gas hookup is approximately 800 years old and uses entirely different sizes than we were expecting. So we said screw the grill and had pizza for dinner.

Now on to Day 2: rain. Boo. But because we're insane, we installed all of the fencing (this involved carrying the 6 x 8 panels over, holding them level (which often required digging trenches), and screwing them to the posts. Oh, did I mention it was raining? This is why we don't have many pictures. The rain let up long enough to saw the pieces we needed to, and eventually all the fencing was hung. Mom still had some energy so while we were finishing up the fence she dug us a garden (amazing, I know!).
We tried to find the right pieces to install the grill, but no dice. Maybe a smaller store (that wasn't open on Sunday) will have the pieces we need. But even if it takes a few days to get the grill working, the weekend was a total success. Our fence looks so awesome!!!


Also there are a few more pictures. Enjoy!