Construction projects galore!
Constructing a fence
Ok I have tons of contstruction projects going right now. I've been working on my rental lately, but tonight I'm going to talk about my fence. Before I had a lousy wire fence that was pretty old and rusty, and generally nasty looking. We had puppies and they were very small so they were escaping through the broken wires here and there along the bottom. So this winter in the bitter cold I went out there and reinforced the whole thing with chicken wire. My fence is huge so it was a long and lame process of weaving wire into it and tying it to the fence with vice grips and old bailing wire. It made it even uglier.
Why I needed a fence
That stopped the puppies for the time being but they got bigger and this spring they were just climbing right over the top of the fence like little spider men. So that went on for a while and I just let them run around all over the place. I mean I'd go run them down and put them back in, chain them up etc, but you can't do that 24/7. So I'd let them run wild once in a while. Then one day someone complained about all the dogs I have and called the police. They came over and said I was only allowed 4 dogs and that I had to get rid of some. I blew them off but the dog catcher guy kept driving by all the time. One day I think he was just standing there and my dogs were barking at him so they just climbed over the fence to harrass him, so then I get nailed a 150 dollar ticket. I told the cops its bullshit and that he provoked them. Then they are on me about getting rid of some dogs again. So I told them I'd build a privacy fence and then nobody needs to know how many freaking dogs I have.
Construction begins
So construction began. First off I needed to remove the wire fence, yet keep the dogs contained. So I pulled out the old fence post using a tractor jack and a log chain, and then I would baracade an area off with some old doors and bricks, boards, whatever I could find. Then I'd dig a post hole and set an 8' treated pole in the ground and then set it in concrete. The next day you fill it back in with dirt and on you go. Once you have two up, you can hang a premade fence panel with some big long screws.
What a learning experience
Well I'd never really done much of this kind of work but I learned a few things along the way.
1. Get a post hole digger. I started out using a trench hoe thing or whatever its called. Its like a giant pair of pliars. This thing is worthless. I was telling my farmer friend about it and he said he had a hand post hole digger. This thing is like a big drill bit so I used it for the rest of the fence. It works really good and cuts through the dirt pretty fast. It can even chop through small roots. It makes a nice round even hole and holds the dirt well.
2. use an 8' 2x4 and screw it into your next post as you set it. This ensures its exactly 8' from your last pole and makes leveling it easier too since its stable.
3. Use a string and run from your corner posts to make sure your fence is straight.
Anyhow it took me 2.5 months to tear out the old nasty fence and build the new one. There were many tree roots that grew into the old fence and made removal of anything near it or digging post holes near these things almost impossible. I had one 8 hour saturday where I was just chainsawing and smashing roots out of my way with a big hammer and an axe. It was insane. But little by little I got the fence done. Here are some pics:
Here is the old nasty fence:
http://4drulers.com/joel/images/fence01.jpg
Here's how I remove the old poles. Some came out easy, others were impossibly hard to remove.
http://4drulers.com/joel/images/fence02.jpg
Heres a picture of the finished product. My yard seems huge now with a fence in it. Its insane how defining the edges make your yard seem much bigger than when its basically open.
http://4drulers.com/joel/images/fence03.jpg
Heres the view from the deck:
http://4drulers.com/joel/images/fence04.jpg
Speaking of the deck, thats my next project once I get this rental done :)
Ok I have tons of contstruction projects going right now. I've been working on my rental lately, but tonight I'm going to talk about my fence. Before I had a lousy wire fence that was pretty old and rusty, and generally nasty looking. We had puppies and they were very small so they were escaping through the broken wires here and there along the bottom. So this winter in the bitter cold I went out there and reinforced the whole thing with chicken wire. My fence is huge so it was a long and lame process of weaving wire into it and tying it to the fence with vice grips and old bailing wire. It made it even uglier.
Why I needed a fence
That stopped the puppies for the time being but they got bigger and this spring they were just climbing right over the top of the fence like little spider men. So that went on for a while and I just let them run around all over the place. I mean I'd go run them down and put them back in, chain them up etc, but you can't do that 24/7. So I'd let them run wild once in a while. Then one day someone complained about all the dogs I have and called the police. They came over and said I was only allowed 4 dogs and that I had to get rid of some. I blew them off but the dog catcher guy kept driving by all the time. One day I think he was just standing there and my dogs were barking at him so they just climbed over the fence to harrass him, so then I get nailed a 150 dollar ticket. I told the cops its bullshit and that he provoked them. Then they are on me about getting rid of some dogs again. So I told them I'd build a privacy fence and then nobody needs to know how many freaking dogs I have.
Construction begins
So construction began. First off I needed to remove the wire fence, yet keep the dogs contained. So I pulled out the old fence post using a tractor jack and a log chain, and then I would baracade an area off with some old doors and bricks, boards, whatever I could find. Then I'd dig a post hole and set an 8' treated pole in the ground and then set it in concrete. The next day you fill it back in with dirt and on you go. Once you have two up, you can hang a premade fence panel with some big long screws.
What a learning experience
Well I'd never really done much of this kind of work but I learned a few things along the way.
1. Get a post hole digger. I started out using a trench hoe thing or whatever its called. Its like a giant pair of pliars. This thing is worthless. I was telling my farmer friend about it and he said he had a hand post hole digger. This thing is like a big drill bit so I used it for the rest of the fence. It works really good and cuts through the dirt pretty fast. It can even chop through small roots. It makes a nice round even hole and holds the dirt well.
2. use an 8' 2x4 and screw it into your next post as you set it. This ensures its exactly 8' from your last pole and makes leveling it easier too since its stable.
3. Use a string and run from your corner posts to make sure your fence is straight.
Anyhow it took me 2.5 months to tear out the old nasty fence and build the new one. There were many tree roots that grew into the old fence and made removal of anything near it or digging post holes near these things almost impossible. I had one 8 hour saturday where I was just chainsawing and smashing roots out of my way with a big hammer and an axe. It was insane. But little by little I got the fence done. Here are some pics:
Here is the old nasty fence:
http://4drulers.com/joel/images/fence01.jpg
Here's how I remove the old poles. Some came out easy, others were impossibly hard to remove.
http://4drulers.com/joel/images/fence02.jpg
Heres a picture of the finished product. My yard seems huge now with a fence in it. Its insane how defining the edges make your yard seem much bigger than when its basically open.
http://4drulers.com/joel/images/fence03.jpg
Heres the view from the deck:
http://4drulers.com/joel/images/fence04.jpg
Speaking of the deck, thats my next project once I get this rental done :)
posted by Joel Huenink at
3:37 AM
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