Orchard Fence (aka Phase 1)

Fencing is one of those projects that I have always envisioned in my head going a certain way.

Dig a few holes.

Put up a few poles.

Hammer a few nails.

Badda Bing, Badda Boom and you're done!

Apparently that is not how it really works.

Who knew! (Don't answer that!)

First there is the measuring, marking and figuring out what supplies we needed. That was the easy part. The hard part was forking over the cash to pay for those supplies. Who knew wood was so expensive! (Again, don't answer that!)

Lucky for us, our neighbor loaned us a hole digging tool (I have no idea what it's official name is!). Luckier still was the fact that Mark's friend Paul was over because this hole digging tool was a two-man job and since it was fairly heavy I wasn't exactly jumping up and down with joy at the idea of helping Mark with it. We put Paul to work and told him he had to visit at the same time. (Friends Beware! This is our new policy - work while visiting! We have lots of work so be sure to come and visit!)

"Hey Paul! You ready! Here we go...So how's the new job going?"

"Lift! Lift! ...So how's the wife and kids?"

"And rest! So what do'ya think of those Miami Heat?"

In close to 10 minutes they had all the post holes dug and ready to go. Swa-eat!



Paul had to take off after a little while and Mark and I got busy putting in some posts. My job was to level the posts on all sides (no crooked fences around here!) while Mark shoveld in dirt and rock. Halfway through filling the hole, we would stop and pack the dirt and rocks with the handle of the shovel. 

Mark got a few phone calls while we were out there, so while he was busy I raked some moats around the orchard trees to keep the water in better. I had already pruned them for this year and staked them down to help them in the wind. They are my tree babies now!

Don't I look professional? I should quit my day job and become a professional leveler... never mind the fact that a 5 year old could do it. We were all out of 5 year-olds around here and the boys were busy with other projects so it was up to me to do the easy jobs. 



Once all the posts were in, it was time for top and front facing board to be put in along the very top of the posts. This meant more measuring, more leveling and we threw in some ladders, cutting and drilling with screws.

This is my first ever blister-on-my-thumb. Not a good place for a blister! This little sucker was stabbed, scraped, poked, prodded and torn open more times than I can count. And that was all in the first hour after having it. This picture is when it still looked halfway clean and decent. By the end of this project is was so gnarly that complete strangers were commenting on it and family members were expressing concern. (Mark remained uninjured during this part of the fencing project but wait until I show you some pictures of what he did to his head when I wasn't around to help him earlier!)

Here is Mark trying to put on the last board all by himself so that I can snap a picture. Once this was done we began to get ready for Phase 2 of the fencing project.

Before we implemented Phase 2, Mark whipped out his new-to-him rototiller. Now Mark is the  guy  who scours Craigslist whenever he can, looking for that "steal-of-a-deal" on things like tractors, four-wheelers, lumber, and lawn tractors/mowers. And until recently - rototillers. A couple of weeks ago he showed me an ad on Craigslist and asked if I thought it was a good deal. It was an older red-colored Troy Bilt rototiller just like the one his parents had when he was growing up (they still have it in fact) and the person selling it was only asking $200.oo for it. Mark was pretty skeptical at that price thinking that it probably didn't even run but we went ahead and called the guy to make an appointment to go see it. Turns out he wanted it gone as soon as possible so we drove to Stanfield that day. The guy told us how he had never really used it and that he didn't even really know how. (Mark had to show him how to put it into reverse). We snatched it up and Mark was as excited as a kid in a candy shop. Apparently that was a great buy - Way to go Honey! (The family that gets excited together, stays together, right?)

This is a picture from halfway down the driveway. The orchard is located to the southwest part of the house on the creek side.

After Mark tilled up the dirt in the orchard and around the outside of it, we had to recheck the posts and make sure they were still level and in the ground nice and tight. 

(Just for David - the tractor is our friend Pauls and the other tractor that has been featured in previous posts belongs to our friend Tyler. We have really good friends!)

Now we were ready to begin Phase 2. Last fall we were given a bunch of used chain link fencing. We had a roll of close to 150 feet of 6 foot chain link and 2 smaller rolls of 5 foot and 4 foot. Have you ever worked with chain link? It is heeaavvvyyy....I'm taking like power lifting kind of heavy. Also, it is loosey-goosey. Flopping all over the place and not doing what it's supposed to. I'll go into more detail in my next post - Phase 2.