This week we have been working on our yard. A raised bed has been built. One section of potatoes has been planted. The big job however has been the fence. Back in the winter a large section of fence had come down. Maybe it was wind, or a huge branch, or just time taking its toll, but it came down. To be honest,we knew fixing or replacing the fence was in our future, the time to do it had just been decided for us.
We have been pondering the fence for a few months and put in a fence post here and there, but now we are against a bit of a time crunch knowing we have to get the post holes dug while the ground is soft. Digging post holes on an island is slow going. The amount of rock (and size of rock) you dig up is amazing. We have managed to finally get the vertical posts in for the section that came down, which is a third to a half of our lot depth.
Taking into account the sheer size of the fence, we have decided to try something less traditional with the fence build. We have decided to install new uprights and stringers. Meanwhile we have carefully dismantled the old upright fence boards and removed the nails. We are then replacing the old fence boards on the new structure . We are leaving comfortable gaps between each fence board so that as we need to reboard the fence in the future it will give us some flexibility depending on what we can access for fence boards.
We are a bit amazed at how great the old boards look on the new posts and stringers. Essentially we are recycling most of our fence. The cost for materials is minimal, it just takes a bit longer to build . Plus there is something quite atmospheric about an old fence. Now we will have an old fence that is standing upright rather than leaning over or on the ground.
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