Getting Back in the Swing of Things

I owe all of our readers a HUGE apology!!

LIFE took a dramatic turn for me last year after a car accident.

I've mentioned it once or twice that I needed to stay off of my laptop and take long breaks from all blue screens (which is just about everything we've come to rely on). It doesn't seem like I've ever gotten back fully into the swing of posting and blog upkeep. Hopefully that will change as we bring some new authors on board to host and new authors for you to get to know.

I'M feeling much better than a year ago. But in order to get that way I've been spending a lot of time outside AND traveling. What have I been doing? I mentioned that Tim & I bought a travel trailer for our 30th wedding anniversary. Well...in order to get it in our yard we needed a larger gate. And...to get a larger gate we had to build a new fence. 

THIS PROJECT has taken a huge amount of my time in order to cut the estimated cost from $9,000 (for this half of the fence/gate) to around $4500.  We re huge do-it-yourselfers and the results are awesome. I will pat myself on the back for doing a lot of the trimming alone since my husband has been traveling (a lot!). 

Step One: Clearing 200 feet of bushes and trees.We hauled around 55 truck loads of brush away. The Japanese ligustrum bushes touched the ground and had to be cut back about 8 feet (and then cut to a 16' clearance for the new trailer).

The picture on the left is after I'd already trimmed the first time. Then I raked over 20 bags of leaves. It took three days with a chainsaw to get the trees cut down and back.

AND...the outside of the fence had to be trimmed twice up to 14 feet. (psst...that's 400 feet of trimming.

Step Two: Twenty-two fence posts. 

Yes, we dug them and set them into the ground.

Here's a fun piece of advice. Buy a used auger to dig the post holes. It's cheaper than renting and when you're finished...you can resale it for about the same price.

Step Three: Ground prep and adding 200 edger stones that the fence sets on. Yay...my job!

Step Four: Frame work and pickets

We paid extra to buy the pre-stained cedar. In the long-run it was almost the same as if we'd bought the stain. BUT BUT BUT time wise it was a life-saver. I did retrieve and stain all the cedar for the top cap.

Step Five: Prepping the trailer pad for gravel. This is 14' wide and 70' long. I am the proud owner of a small tiller now. It was so much faster than trying to rake all this dirt level. The gravel will arrive after we have the cement poured at the gate.  I then laid the second set of edger stones so the gravel won't wash into the yard.

Step Six: Clearing dirt for the new driveway entrance... We hired a stump removal company to shred the stumps and roots for the actual 12' drive/gate.Originally we planned to use stone pavers, but it's a little steeper than we thought. I moved the dirt to a low spot in the yard (we used to have an above-ground pool). We'll be ordering a truckload of dirt to fill it in.

~HALF OF MY NEW FENCE ~

We'll be working on the other half of the yard when it cools down. >>grin<<

MY APOLOGY BLOG has a giveaway.  Just leave a comment to be entered. Winner's Choice of one of these great authors: