Project Fence Line
As you all know, there is ALWAYS something to do at Almosta Farm. The latest project to get under way is building a fence along the south property line. This is a huge task! There would be no way for me to do it at this time without the support and help of my terrific family (as usual).
John Hawkins, (Alan's boy - one of my sweet nephews), and my precious boy Nolan came up this past weekend. They took time off of work and sacrificed their personal time to come and get this project started.
John is a surveyor. He has been learning from his father since he was about 12 yrs old and now at nearly 21 yrs old he really enjoys the craft. He had Nolan be his spot man while he surveyed the property line and layed out points for the fence. It doesn't sound like a big deal but as with everything here at Almosta Farm there were some challenges.
Friday, the first day, was a perfect day to work on the project. It wasn't too hot or too cold. The sun was up and the ground was still just a little soft. However, we got in late from the airport the night before, (and then of course we had to visit). That set the tone for our first challenge which was waking up and getting out of bed! Needless to say, we got a late start that first day. Our next challenge was to figure out how the two boys would communicate 960 feet apart! Since my cordless phone works outside as long as you stay close to the house it was decided that John would use the house phone and Nolan would use the cell phone. That seemed to be working well. Then, just as the boys were on a roll, the equipment failed. A battery to John's equipment went dead and had to be re-charged, which we neglected to do the night before. "Oh well," we thought, "we got a good start today and can finish up pretty quickly tomorrow now that we have a system."
(yeah... right!)
Friday evening the wind started blowing. I don't know if I have ever spoken of the wind on the flats before. It is quite formidable. If I were to guess at how fast it was blowing I would say it started at about 30 mph and continued non-stop vacillating between 30 to 60 mph through Sunday. Saturday of course was the worst of it.
We did get up early Saturday and got started. It was nothing like the day before. The chilling wind meant warm, bulky clothes had to be worn. The boys could not hear each other on the phones because the wind would drown them out. The cell phone signal kept getting lost. John's equipment kept getting blown out of adjustment, which meant a lot of back tracking. ARGHHH!
But did the boys give up? NO!
They hunkered down and between the three of us we figured out a new plan. John moved his equipment to the side of the garage where the wind was blocked a little. We increased the point markers to 40 ft apart instead of trying to mark every 8 ft. Then, I stretched a string line and went along and marked the spots for the posts as the boys came behind me slamming T-posts into position. And by golly - we got 'er done!
All the T-posts are in place along the property line and it looks great! Beautiful straight line with straight, mostly even posts (off just enough to give the fence some character). Now I have a neighbor who will come and drill holes for the railroad ties and another neighbor who is going to stretch the fencing. This project is well under way :)
The boys and I finished the day by going out for a well deserved celebration dinner at Wingers. We had a nice meal and a great visit. Just a side note, I learned from the boys that Alan A has no business teasing Sasha and me about skinny dipping - I think you can guess what I mean ;)
Thank you boys for your loving support and help getting
Project Fence Line under way :)
John Hawkins, (Alan's boy - one of my sweet nephews), and my precious boy Nolan came up this past weekend. They took time off of work and sacrificed their personal time to come and get this project started.John is a surveyor. He has been learning from his father since he was about 12 yrs old and now at nearly 21 yrs old he really enjoys the craft. He had Nolan be his spot man while he surveyed the property line and layed out points for the fence. It doesn't sound like a big deal but as with everything here at Almosta Farm there were some challenges.
Friday, the first day, was a perfect day to work on the project. It wasn't too hot or too cold. The sun was up and the ground was still just a little soft. However, we got in late from the airport the night before, (and then of course we had to visit). That set the tone for our first challenge which was waking up and getting out of bed! Needless to say, we got a late start that first day. Our next challenge was to figure out how the two boys would communicate 960 feet apart! Since my cordless phone works outside as long as you stay close to the house it was decided that John would use the house phone and Nolan would use the cell phone. That seemed to be working well. Then, just as the boys were on a roll, the equipment failed. A battery to John's equipment went dead and had to be re-charged, which we neglected to do the night before. "Oh well," we thought, "we got a good start today and can finish up pretty quickly tomorrow now that we have a system."
(yeah... right!)
Friday evening the wind started blowing. I don't know if I have ever spoken of the wind on the flats before. It is quite formidable. If I were to guess at how fast it was blowing I would say it started at about 30 mph and continued non-stop vacillating between 30 to 60 mph through Sunday. Saturday of course was the worst of it.
We did get up early Saturday and got started. It was nothing like the day before. The chilling wind meant warm, bulky clothes had to be worn. The boys could not hear each other on the phones because the wind would drown them out. The cell phone signal kept getting lost. John's equipment kept getting blown out of adjustment, which meant a lot of back tracking. ARGHHH!
But did the boys give up? NO!
They hunkered down and between the three of us we figured out a new plan. John moved his equipment to the side of the garage where the wind was blocked a little. We increased the point markers to 40 ft apart instead of trying to mark every 8 ft. Then, I stretched a string line and went along and marked the spots for the posts as the boys came behind me slamming T-posts into position. And by golly - we got 'er done!
All the T-posts are in place along the property line and it looks great! Beautiful straight line with straight, mostly even posts (off just enough to give the fence some character). Now I have a neighbor who will come and drill holes for the railroad ties and another neighbor who is going to stretch the fencing. This project is well under way :)The boys and I finished the day by going out for a well deserved celebration dinner at Wingers. We had a nice meal and a great visit. Just a side note, I learned from the boys that Alan A has no business teasing Sasha and me about skinny dipping - I think you can guess what I mean ;)
Thank you boys for your loving support and help getting
Project Fence Line under way :)
I love you bunches :) TTFN :)
(Sorry, I just can't stop smiling!) :)
posted by Kathleen Hawkins at 5:51 PM
4 comments
