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Post by leatherneckpa on Apr 1, 2012 18:33:40 GMT -4
I have gotten all of the fence posts sunk. Today I managed to single handedly install the 4' vinyl clad fence. It wouldn't be that tough, if there were two people.
I jury rigged a fence stretcher by bolting it between two pieces of 2"x3". Then I used a couple of ratcheting tie-down straps that I normally use for transporting my motorcycle. I put one around the top and one around the bottom of the stretcher and ratcheted them down tight. Stapling it down to the posts was easy with my pneumatic stapler. Tomorrow I will go get the boards we're installing on the front of the fence. Photos to follow.
I'm going to have to build a new gate too. The sturdy gate from the old fence is too narrow.
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Post by nhlivefreeordie on Apr 1, 2012 22:57:28 GMT -4
Productive weekend for you.
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Post by leatherneckpa on Apr 3, 2012 7:51:42 GMT -4
Too cold to go out there and work this morning, an even 32ºF. It should warm up nicely though, and I'll be able to go out and work on the garden fence again this afternoon.
I just got my scores for the Praxis licensing exams I took for General Science and Biology. I passed, surpassing the national average by several points on each. I can now add these two new certifications to my teaching license, WHEN Harrisburg finally gets it to me.
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Post by nhlivefreeordie on Apr 3, 2012 8:24:24 GMT -4
Congrats Mike! Never expected any less from you. It is chilly out this morning. I mowed the lawn again for the second time this year already. Transplanted my germinated Amish Paste tomatoes into 4" pots and they are now in the light rack where they get 15 hours of "sunlight" a day. Today I am bringing out all of the hose reels and other assorted yard stuff up from the cellar. Taking the wood rack that sits on the porch apart and it goes back down cellar. After that, I just may be able to go play with the detector for a while. Had a couple of neat finds in the back yard while getting my fix for a few minutes. I have a feeling there is lots more here. But the two neat things I found were a solid brass tea caddy spoon from Scotland, it has been dated by the local historical society to the mid 1800s. The other item really floored me, I thought I had found a civil war jacket button, but thought it odd since we are quite a distance north of Gettysburg. Well the local historian said it is a military button, but it isn't civil war, because of the design of the shield on the eagles chest, he said it is from the French and Indian Wars and dated to the 1780s!!!!
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Post by leatherneckpa on Apr 3, 2012 11:13:18 GMT -4
Super finds! Especially that button.
Well, it's warmed up enough that I am going to go outside and play with my fence some more.
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Post by leatherneckpa on Apr 10, 2012 10:59:11 GMT -4
Boys, if this place doesn't come back to life soon I may have to go hang out at "that other place" after I check to see if there's any doin's here.
I got the fence finished. And I am tickled to death with it, especially the gate. Pics to follow.
Right now I am building new garden boxes for inside it. Cindy decided that she wanted new beds, 2x12 treated lumber beds. She saw them in some magazine or other. So that's what I'm building, with my own special touch. Pics later today, after I get the next two set in place. It took me an hour and a half to measure, cut, and drill the pieces to assemble the two. In a few minutes I'll go out and put them together. The real challenge is going to be figuring out how to account for the slope of the land between them, as they are going to be tiered. You'll understand better when I show you the photos.
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Post by nhlivefreeordie on Apr 10, 2012 11:48:34 GMT -4
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Post by leatherneckpa on Apr 10, 2012 17:52:17 GMT -4
Alright, well, as you all know Cindy wanted a new garden fence. And the best way to make sure you keep mama happy is to let her pick it out/design it. I found about a dozen different ideas on the net and asked her to pick and choose what she liked or didn't like. She opted for something like this fence, but the one on the net had three boards across the bottom and she only wanted two. I'm especially pleased with the gate. I did the same thing I usually do, I overbuilt it and I built it like furniture instead of like carpentry. In these two photos you can see that I used half-laps to reduce the thickness of the gate and to add strength. And then I used construction adhesive in all of the joints to hold it together. I don't know if there is limit to the size of a post, so I'll start a second one now.
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Post by leatherneckpa on Apr 10, 2012 18:04:26 GMT -4
When it came time to build boxes I really wanted to maximize the planting space. Cindy had seen boxes made from 2x12 treated lumber somewhere and that's what she wanted. To make the most of the space and come up with a strong corner joint I opted to cut what is known in the cabinet trade as finger-joints, or box joints. They fit together easily. I pre-drilled each finger so the nails wouldn't split them and then I drove one nail through each finger and into the end grain of the mating board. I would not want to be the person who tries to take them apart. The only way to do it would be to cut them apart. We only had a small space available, 16' x 26' or so. I didn't want to go bigger because I'd be robbing the girls of space. Instead of wasting space on wide paths I decided to reduce them as much as possible. This allowed me to add 2 beds measuring 2' x 10' along the chain link fence and two more beds measuring 2' x about 8' along the back fence. These can be used for vertical growing plants. You may have noticed that back fence isn't exactly on the level. In fact, the second box rest on top of the first box, which means there is an 11" rise over the course of that 8'. And to make matters worse, it's not the same rise front to back. But I think it looks pretty good. On this picture you can see how I cut two wedge shaped pieces (actually you can only see one, but the other one is there, trust me) to support the main frame of the bed and to keep the dirt in place. Tomorrow's job is to transfer that load of mixed soil from my truck to these four beds. I do not believe it is enough to fill them though. If I finish early enough I'll start on the four 4' x 8' beds that are supposed to fill the open space you can see. My total available space was only 400 sq ft. I will have managed to squeeze in 200 sq ft of planting area, and that's with wheelbarrow access to every bed.
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Post by nhlivefreeordie on Apr 10, 2012 19:29:13 GMT -4
Looks excellent Mike, that sure is making good use of your space.
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Post by leatherneckpa on Apr 11, 2012 7:07:23 GMT -4
Thanks Wayne. I don't have much choice. I don't have a lot of space to work with, have to maximize it.
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Post by nhlivefreeordie on Apr 11, 2012 8:14:50 GMT -4
That sometimes is better than having a lot of land and having things scattered all over. I am slowly turning over what I thought was a huge backyard into a place where lots of different things grow. It does get a bit overwhelming though trying to keep track of everything.
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Post by azlonerider on Apr 11, 2012 10:05:30 GMT -4
Looks good Mike!!
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Post by Martin on Apr 18, 2012 21:00:39 GMT -4
I don't think I'll be able to have much of a garden this year. My breathing has been so poor lately that it recently led to a 1 AM trip to the emergency room. I think I'm going to have to scale back to a fraction of what I planted last year, and that wasn't an abundance! LOL
Bummer!
~Martin
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Post by nhlivefreeordie on Apr 19, 2012 9:52:44 GMT -4
Martin,
Are the breathing problems resulting from the Lyme disease or allergies?
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