Putting the “Labor” in Labor Day

We were originally going to try and go camping this weekend, but we couldn’t decide where to go, and we didn’t want to fight the crowds or traffic, and then we found out from our neighbor that we could start building our fence sooner than previously expected. (I really don’t know the details…. I’m just the unskilled labor in this operation.) So we decided (I use the term “we” liberally here) that we should just go ahead and use the long weekend to build a new fence. (How hard can a fence be, right? Ha!)
We spent most of yesterday napping scoping out the project and purchasing materials, and then today we put in the first 10 posts. I was actually REALLY EXCITED about this project because we’ve been talking about putting in a fence for a few years now, but the logistics of it (surveying the property, getting buy-in from the neighbor, etc) just seemed too complicated and overwhelming. But then recently our neighbor decided to sell the place (he’d previously been renting it out) and so he’s been around doing a lot of work on it, and he’s actually cool with the fence idea AND willing to split the cost of materials with us. Sweet!
So, like I said, today we set the first set of posts, and it’s really not that hard, but it does involve a lot of measuring, and re-measuring, and dealing with fractions (Quick! What’s 71-1/2 plus 1/2 of 3-1/2?). (I double and triple-checked every measurement we came up with, especially after I realized we’d set one post using the side of the measuring tape that measures in 1/10s of an inch (!!!).)
But. We did it (T really did all the work), and tonight we are THIS MUCH CLOSER to enclosing our little backyard and distancing our house from the neighbor’s house, which is literally like 10 (or maybe 15) feet away.

Hopefully I’ll have more progress photos to post tomorrow!