En Garde

I apologize for the late post but this has been a crazy week. It is probably going to be a shorter post this week; I haven’t really had much time to sit down and relax, let alone record a podcast or write a blog post. I hope to be able to make some time this week to write another post on the usual day but that might be overly ambitious. 

I have definitely met my quota for trying new things this week, however, as we are attempting to install our vinyl fence ourselves. When we first ordered the fence, I, being young and naive, thought it would take a single weekend to finish the project and it wouldn’t be a problem. Much older, wiser me has realized it is going to take way longer than that. Each hole we dig seems to pose a unique challenge that we have had to solve in order to proceed. After the first weekend we had five of the thirty two posts installed. 

Things are speeding up, however, as we develop a system and fine tune the process we use to dig the holes and install the posts and panels. I don’t know exactly how long it is going to take us but I know one thing for sure: I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of all of my friends who have reached out and come over to contribute to the project. I am so grateful that I have friends that are willing to give up their time and energy to help me complete a project which I was in a little over my head.

I had dug holes before for posts and it wasn’t that bad, especially if you have an auger. I figured this wouldn’t be any different but I was very wrong. The auger has to stop every few inches so we can add water to the hole and break up the soil with a pry bar because when the hole gets dry it just turns into a little pottery bowl that the auger can’t dig through.

The difficulty is compounded by the fact that the soil is also incredibly rocky and they are not small rocks. Any time we hit a decent sized rock we have to stop, pull the auger out, and work at it with the pry bar until we can get the rock out of the hole. 

We even had to rent a jackhammer at one point.

Overall, it has been an incredibly challenging experience but it has been well worth it. Despite the difficulty we have kept our spirits up and have been able to joke about it and turn it into a fun experience. There is also something different about doing things like this myself that gives me a sense of satisfaction. I get to look at our work at the end of the day and be proud of everything we accomplished. I really couldn’t have done it without my friends and I am going to owe them big for this one.