It Was a Very Busy Friday - I Met My Newest Neighbor and Lots of Fence Photos

Yesterday, my "day off" was spent housecleaning from top to bottom and looking carefully at the fence - or lack thereof. My mind said to me, "It's Spring. It's time for some serious Spring Cleaning, and you've got the time today to get that done." So I pulled out the duster and the vacuum and started a major clean. I vacuumed every carpet from Sharon's Room to the lower den, even the steps leading to the sub-basement. I dusted like the Devil was spurring me on through flames, and I was pleased at the end of it. I didn't need to do any cooking, so filled my time with other household tasks and it was a good few hours. 

The fence is a cedar fence and we've had it up for 18 years, 
so it's actually done pretty well for all of those years. I love 
the way cedar looks as it weathers. 

I started my day by speaking with Alishia - she lives two doors West of me and DH had been admiring their fence, wondering who had made it. Well, I found out that her husband had made it. That really wasn't a surprise to me - he's runs a re-flooring business, so he's quite handy. It is a beautiful fence, but we can't exactly call and get an estimate on new fencing from him. She did promise to ask if he had any recommendations of firms to contact, but I had to leave it at that. 

Here's the culprit - rotted support posts. They're in concrete 
holders, but there's a watershed there, and they get runoff 
heading to the creek and simply have rotted away. 

Here's another section, again with the support post completely 
rotted out. There was no way for DH to get the fencing 
put back into vertical, so he just gave up and we have an 
18 foot gap in our southern fence until this can be repaired 
or replaced. 

I then went home and decided to take a serious look at the damage. Oy! Yeah, it's bad. Three six-foot sections have rotted out at their posts, so there's nothing holding them up at all. We have a drainage issue along that part of the fence. Everyone else's water sheets down to us at that point, and then continues across our property to the stream to our east. We can get a lot of watershed, so we'll have to see about getting some above-ground clearance for several of the panels when we get everything redone. 

Looking west, you see the semi-circular flower garden that 
DH built and started last year. The straight line in the upper 
left quadrent is the fenceline, extending to the horizontal 
fence at the very back of our Western yard. 

I had a chance to speak with my neighbor to the South. Laura came out to chat when she saw me looking at the fencing and taking photos of the area. We had spoken over the phone in the past when the county was notifying all of us of that public meeting regarding the watershed (our creek) last year. It was nice to finally get a chance to meet her. We talked for a bit and she offered us the use of her organic composting collection containers (which we probably won't take advantage of, but it was very nice of her to offer). Then we parted - she had a 2:00 pm zoom, and I had more things to do inside. 

Looking east from the western side of that new garden 
area, you see the remaining parts of the fence near our 
larger maple tree, before our properly takes a serious dive 
down towards the creek. That steep drop is where DH 
built our patio and the castle walls some years ago. I 
took Laura on a quick tour - showing her what DH had 
done with the garden and patio area. She was VERY 
impressed - and it is impressive. 

Our fencing company, Midwest Fencing, phoned me shortly thereafter and we set up an appointment for 11:30 am on Tuesday. I might have to switch that, however. Apparently DH has a 9:00 am doctor appointment that I had forgotten about. I doubt it will actually be a problem being there on time to meet with Derrick, but I'll call the fencing company on Monday and inform them that he might be running a little late. I'd rather not reschedule, but will if necessary. 

And here we are, looking right into Laura's yard. The two 
black items are her two food compost bins, and there's a 
small worktable to the left. Her house is actually cut off 
on the right side. The visible house is Bob's home, our 
neighbor on the lowest part of our property. 

So, that was the saga of my Friday "Day Off". Lots of cleaning, lots of inspection, chatting with a neighbor which was delightful, and I finally capped it off by playing an hour of Lord of the Rings Online. All in all, it was a good and very productive day. Have an excellent weekend, I'll be back on Monday morning to start another busy week up here in the not-so-frozen Northlands. Slave Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.