Monday, July 18, 2011

Musings on a Picket Fence



I had always dreamed of having a white picket fence surrounding my home in the country. So when I finally got a home in the country, it had to have a picket fence.



The prospect of a fence was pretty dismal when I surveyed my new home in 2001 and saw 4x4's cemented in the ground at the property line with chicken wire stretched over them. This was really the country, I thought, and started planning and plotting how I could get rid of the chicken wire and livestock gates and put in a real picket fence.



Fortunately, my son and his fiancee announced in 2004 that they would like to get married in our backyard, so I had approximately 10 weeks to make the fence happen.



Over the following weeks, I cut off the 4x4's, removed the chicken wire, painted the posts, bought 8-foot sections of picketing, and starting nailing brackets and putting the fence together. Then came the job of paining the fence white--a 90-foot section takes a lot of time to paint on both sides. But I did it! I finished one week before the wedding.



Over the last 7 years, the fence has held firm, and I touch it up every two or three years (this looks like it will be the year to do this). I love this fence, and it has stood firm against the weather and still delights me after all these years.

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