Tearing down fences

Here's the backyard gate at my mom's. It's been here nearly 50 years and it's no longer straight, doesn't really close, get's caught on the edging of the flower bed. This view is from the back yard.

Here it is from the front yard, propped open with a wire connected to the tree.

Here's the gate from further back with some of the stuff that's accumulated there. My mom likes to recycle. The Greeks did say, "Everything in moderation." But my mom could always find something here or in the garage that would suit what was needed.

Here's part of the same picture (right) and to the left you can see the ivy that covers the fence that goes between my mom's house and the neighbor's.

This picture is from yesterday, when Brian the WLA bikeguy, who also turns out to have carpentry skills and experience too down the fence and then later took down the dead tree that had been leaning against it.

Today we got some wood for new fencing.

And lumber for posts and cross posts.

Brian got some cement and post holders and got ready to put up four new fence posts.


The fence the ivy had covered came down. About 18 inches of soil had accumulated on the hill above and behind the fence. So Brian put in this treated wood to hold that up and keep the fencing from leaning directly against the wet soil.



So that's where we are after two days. The fence between the front and back yards is gone. The gate is gone. The cement for the posts is setting. It's nice to have someone who knows what he's doing and I help out as needed. Mainly today with the Visa card at the lumber yard. Brian had estimated $400 in supplies and when it was all totaled at the cash register it was $385. That's pretty good. There are still a few things - hinges, gate hardware - to get, but it shouldn't be much above $400.

Homeowners get a once a year extra pickup from the city solid waste department, so Monday we'll have a lot of extra piles of garden wastes, wood, and tree trunk.