On the fence

Things I learned while building a fence:

• Any plan you had at the beginning will be trashed before you even start.
• A yard stick can be your best friend. 
• Measure twice, cut once is not enough; measure a dozen times and then measure again before you cut.
• There's a good chance the reason you got a killer deal on your lumber is because it's all the stuff they couldn't sell to anyone else. 
• A post hole digger is not the same thing as a post hole auger.
• Wet ground is not easier to deal with.
• Rhubarb plants have massive roots.
• Toddlers like to think they're helping by bringing screws to the builders two at a time.
• Posts will magically shift and bend out of place overnight, and the movement won't be noticeable until the fence is done.
• You will run out of the one size of wood you need the most, but will have oodles left over of the size you only needed a couple of.
• Cut wood soaks up water like a sponge.
• $3 work gloves protect your hands from splinters just as well as the $20 do.

In the end, building a fence with Keith and his parents was an experience. It wasn't great, it wasn't horrific, but I know now the process of it. After three days, we're mostly finished - only two gates left to do up. Keith's on holidays for the rest of the week so we should be able to get them done up before he goes back next week.

I love how our yard looks now, though... it looks much bigger and tidier, at least until you see my very overgrown garden that's going to be fixed up this weekend. I like how we not only have a way to keep Maddy in the yard, but also added a lot of value to our property. We have a fairly large lot and are on a corner, in between 3 schools. Our sidewalks see a lot of traffic throughout the day, so having a fence up to cut down on some of the sound is nice.

Next up for the yard is doing up my garden. We're going to the garden centre on Friday to pick up the plants, seeds and soil to put them in on Sunday. I've got a general idea of what I want to do for veggies this year, but I'm still debating what to do about flowers. I have a lot of daisies that I'd like to move, but they're in bloom right now and I really don't want to risk killing them. I could always just do a variety of generic flowers - pansies, petunias, marigolds - but I'd also like to try more butterfly- or bee-friendly flowers in our front garden.  Decisions, decisions...

We're planning on spending a lot of time outside this summer. I'm going to attempt to coordinate my work so that I can actually do some of it (ie. embroidery) outside, while Maddy runs around the yard playing. Really, I'm just looking forward to having somewhere besides the house to spend the summer relaxing.