East Fence Line |
|
The eastern fence needed to be replaced. This fence line gets a lot of drainage from uphill...the wood was in terrible shape. In the lower corner, the shrubbery and dogwoods had become overgrown and had to go. |
 |
After chopping the bushes back there was still much to do...roots had to be removed. |
 |
Here the area has been worked and the French drain is being relocated and retrenched. |
 |
| Cindy and I decided that we would remove the old fence a couple of 8 foot rail runs at a time. We sank posts just inside of the old fence.
|
|
While digging a post hole, Cindy saw dirt move on the knock-off board and it turned out to be a mole. A quick strike from a 2x and he was a confirmed kill. |
 |
News of my prowess as a mole masher made the rounds in the neighborhood and the 260 Cabal presented me with a commemorative
t-shirt.
|
 |
We also had to fight off vicious snakes... |
 |
We pulled the old fence out in sections, dug up the old 4 x 4 posts...removed the old fence and transported to the dump. We then put up rails onto the new posts. |
 |
"ThunkaWunka," the venerable framing gun, had been having some problems maintaining air pressure...and it suddenly gasped and had a final blow out. Upon removal of the top plate the items in the picture fell out...a terrible death for a noble tool. It had sunk many a nail for me. |
 |
The new framing hammer made things go even faster... |
 |
We continued doing two sections at a time right down the fence line. |
|
The fence half completed...shows the stair step downhill construction. |
 |
Eastern fence, the finished side from the neighbor's property. |
 |
The full line, viewed from our property. |
 |
The Watershed |
|
The French drain line was exposed when we removed the shrubbery along the fence line. So we dug out a trench for the drain pipe. |
|
We then put up the new rear fence section above the water shed. |
 |
On the creek side of the new fence a number of large stones, concrete blocks and dirt were placed to prevent erosion. |
 |
On the yard side, we secured silt fabric to hold top soil in place... |
 |
Top soil was placed over the fabric |
 |
Temporary stone diverter dams were made with Rumblestones. |
 |
The entire water shed run was leveled out with top soil and all was ready for the sod...it would be ready for pickup in a couple of days. Rain was in the forecast but we felt that the diverter dams would maintain the area. |
 |
However, we had an overnight deluge...the county received 8 inches of rain in two hours...we had white water rafting available down the water shed...the silt fence fabric and the Rumblestones held some of the top soil at the fence but most of it was gone... |
 |
...the French drain pipe was exposed and we had to start over. |
 |
So we had a 24 hour window to put down top soil and sod...started with a yard of soil... |
 |
After off-loading the top soil, it was off to pick up a pallet of St. Augustine sod. |
 |
We then off-loaded the sod into the trusty yellow cart for delivery to the back yard... |
 |
Sod was placed up to the Rumblestones... |
 |
At the end of a long day the sod was in place along the French drain water shed. |
 |
