Bad fences make good neighbors

There was a fence there when we moved in almost two years ago. Actually two fences, one shaky thing with horizontal boards with a knee-high gap along the ground on the north side, facing Joe and Brenda's yard across Plum Street, and another pretty solid split-rail fence on the south side bordering Bill's back yard. Neither one was aesthetically pleasing or solid enough to contain a dog.

Our first summer in the house, I made a point of reconstructing the northside fence, adding extra posts, cutting the 12-foot horizontal boards into 6-foot verticals, moving the gate, extending both ends around pine trees, and adding a second gate from the carport. It became a creative challenge to re-use existing materials (call it a freegan fence), and while the result is far from perfect, I guess it will do.

In our second summer, it is clearly time to enclose the south side with a similar "privacy" fence, substantial enough to keep Dali the dog in the yard without a chain and enough of a visual screen so we don't necessarily see everything Bill is doing and vice versa. Not long ago, the plan started to gell, and this week I began putting posts in the ground for real.

The plan calls for more six-foot fence along the front portion of the south side closest to the house, with a stretch of 4foot fence toward the back, where the vegetable garden, garage, and woodpile form a kind of utility area. So far so good. I've had quite a bit of scrap lumber stacked back there since we (actually Gven) completely re-did the living room and dining room walls and floors. Now I get to re-use those materials, waste not want not, and get a new fence out of the deal!

My inventory shows that there's just enough lumber for the 4-foot section, and then I'll have to go buy some boards. Last weekend a small miracle occurred, and as I was driving up Indianola Ave. visualizing the 4x4 posts I would need, I saw one lying by the curb - a brand-new 8-foot fencepost waiting for me to toss it in the truck and take it home. So, irrationalist that I am, I think I'll hold off on that trip to Bargain Outlet and see if I can come up with (creatively visualizing now) about 160 6-foot 1x6s in need of a good home.