Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Hey ho, lets go! (fence gone!)


Lucy, donning the Ramones t-shirt and our motto, Hey Ho, Lets Go! (She was playing peek a boo, so hard to capture)

Last week I finally decided I could handle taking the fence down. The delay for leaving the old, rusty 6 ft tall chain link up was that it had some use by way of keeping the dog in. And a boundary for little toddler, although she's three now.  And my son, he liked kicking the soccer ball against the fence. And me, I just wasn't sure what to replace it with. The 6ft tall fence was like a prison and cut off a portion of the yard so there was no doubt it would come down, but without a plan, I delayed. Until last week. The only dilemma, still no plan for keeping dog in. A natural and short post and rail fence would homey, but I have a rock retaining wall ledge a few feet beyond fence, so its kind of weird. But put on a temporary lay off,  taking the fence down seemed like a good thing to do.


After I rolled the fence back 15 feet, I realized how heavy this was going to get and that it was way beyond a one person task. Having no use for the fence, I listed it on craigslist, for Free.  (Thanks to this other, somewhat popular blog, Young House Love. Maybe you have heard of them? wink, wink. I say in jest! Their enthusiasm is infectious). A few years ago, when I first discovered their blog, I remember reading about their plant removal system, listing free plants on craigslist. Bring your own shovel. Marvelous!

My ad went more like "Bring your own metal cutters" - I use craigslist once in a while, with some success. I was floored with the response for the fence though. I figured I had a few days to cut the grass away from fence and make it easier for someone to take.


Dug out, rolled up and stuffed in the trunk of his sedan ... that may have been the trickiest part. Gone with in three hours of the listing going up. 3 hours and my week long task was done. The free fence giveaway was definitely worth the labour. And he was a very pleasant guy on disability in need of a back boundary fence. I helped of course, in between fielding all the other calls and reorganizing pick up for my kids.

Since it came out, I've been pulling out the bad grass and long roots, mixing in some organic soil and compost and readying this 10 foot section for our natural fence line / beans. (Did you know 10 feet is the typical distance between chain link poles - I didn't and had advertised 33 feet with my 3ft step measuring.  He actually got 50 feet of fence.)


The poles, I kept for the time being. They are cemented in and easy enough to dig out later on, after I live with this new open space I now have.  The first pole, closest to the house will go, opening up the entrance. But I need a metal saw to cut the horizontal bar.  Ill plant the morning glories beside the two outer poles, to hide them. And each 10ft section has a purpose too... beans will fill in one section, a soccer net will go in the next, the flower garden will fill in between section #3 and the tire swing and hopefully a gate arbor in the last section.  Another motive for getting rid of the fence was to open up the back of the yard in order to have easy access for the lawn mower. The past three+ years I have had to haul the lawn mower up three stone steps. A pain. Tried out my new entrance today and so much easier.

Other exciting things around the garden; this little Hyacinth stuck in the middle of a Hosta. And Pear Tree blooms! I planted the tree two years ago, and this year we are gifted with blooms!

The tire swing up (although I have to switch out the rope with some nylon rope, that I ended up using for the beans). And the day lilies are coming up.

Little pots, little seeds, soon to be our bean fence.


Breakfast anyone? On the weekend, we enjoyed breakfast, al fresco, in  our evolving back yard. I see many more of these in the future.


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