2 Freaking Weeks Until Hallowe'en - Fence Part 2

So, it's not like I've never built anything in my life. I took shop class in Jr. High. I built my raised beds. I've built stuff, ok?

I was clearly unprepared for this build. 

Oh, how I want to say that I threw this together like a boss. But alas, that was not to be. 

If you're ever interested in copying my fence, which is encouraged, I will highlight the items you should not do, for emphasis. Here's what I actually did.

1. I marked every 6 inches on the furring strips.
2. I sorted the 45 strips into 3 sets of 15.
3. I drilled a 3/4 inch hole at every mark. Every 6 inches. On 15 strips - 180 holes. Just in case you were not aware, math means that a 3/4 inch pipe will not fit into a 3/4 inch hole.
4. I tested the PVC to make sure it would go through the holes. It didn't.
5. I went back to Home Depot and got a 7/8th inch drill bit and opened up all of the holes. 
6. I tested to make sure that the PVC would go through. It did. Tightly. 
7. I thought, "Perfect!".
8. I strapped together two of the strips and used the first strip as a jig for the second strip.
9. I added a third strip, zip tied all of these together and numbered each set. Then, I drilled 7/8th inch holes in every other hole. This would be my top bar.
10. I started spray painting the PVC, because my wrists were sore from the drill.
11. My lovely husband (thank you!) cut all of the 10' PVC into 5 1/2 and 4 1/2 foot poles.
12. I then sanded all of the strips with the help of a friend (Chris, thank you!!!).
13. A friend (Troy, thank you!!!) heated the finials and added them to the tops of the 5 1/2 foot poles.
14. We started to put the PVC into the holes. It was too tight. WAY too tight.
15. A friend (Lydia, thank you!!!) and I dremeled out EVERY SINGLE HOLE. Just in case you're counting, 30 strips with 16 holes each and 15 strips with 8 holes each = 600 holes. Could I have been any less efficient? Don't think so.
16. Then another friend (Derek, thank you!!!) and I drilled out screw holes on the sides of the strips so that the whole thing would stay together.
17. I got the wrong screws (hex head) despite spending 20 minutes in the screw aisle and had to send Derek (see above) to the store to get new screws.
18. Two other friends (Erin and Justin - oddly enough my newest and my oldest friends - Thank you!!!) and one husband (thank you!) started putting them together. Finally.



They were such pretty holes, at first. 2 strips zip tied

19. I used all of the spray paint in Home Depot to repaint the poles (because they were completely scraped off due to dragging them through the holes) and the strips.

I now have 15 - 8 foot sections of fencing that are going up tomorrow. 

This is the pre-painted photo. You'll have to wait (AGAIN) for the fully painted photos.

This easily could have been a 12 step, rather than an 18 step process. Like a boss.

It's Spring

Spring sprung! And I've already fallen behind on my plans for this year! By now, I was supposed to have

1. 1 chicken coop
2. 5 chickens
3. 6 raised garden beds teeming with peas and tomatoes and lettuce

What I actually have as of this weekend:

1. 1,320 square feet of sanded and stained wood for raised beds (includes front and back for those of you counting).  
2. 8 dying pea plants ready to go into said raised beds
3. 4 wilting tomato plants waiting to go into raised beds
4. 30 seed pots of basil, dill, and tomatoes that never sprouted or got eaten by birds/bugs/squirrels/feral cats/opossums (opossi?)
5. 10 beautiful Italian cypress trees for privacy along the back wall

My coop was, I thought, being built but it turns out I hired a scam artist who flew the proverbial coop, and while I am unbelievably disappointed, I have found another person to do the building and I am supposed to be meeting with him tomorrow.

My schedule for this week is:
Tuesday: meet with new contractor, lay down the weed barrier and hopefully move the soil into the beds
Wednesday: it's supposed to rain :)
Thursday: Finish moving soil and move still living seedlings into the new beds
Friday: Move compost piles into their new home

Hopefully I'll have a new post next week to update y'all on how this went and some before and after photos!

Oh, P.S., the loquats are just beginning to get ripe so next week is going to be the beginning of canning season!

Word Wednesday - Heirloom Skills

Sustainability is defined as the capacity to endure. It sounds like such drudgery when you put it like that!

Graphic by NotMadeinChina

I am loving the concept of "heirloom skills" though.  It sounds like something valuable, something precious and useful. These skills used to be passed down, usually from father to son or mother to daughter. Crocheting, woodworking, how often to water plants, cleaning, baking bread, building barns. Today it's primarily passed vertically from those of our own generation to others.  Previous generations, on our moves out to the big cities put down many of these skills, thrilled to be able to buy conveniently pre-made goods.  I'm not against pre-made.  Sometimes, it's pretty damn handy to have someone else make what you need! But sometimes, what's made is not exactly what you need or it's made by people in horrible working conditions or it's shipped 10,000 miles across the planet using up an enormous amount of resources for us to have a $3 knitted hat.

I was pretty lucky in that I learned crochet from my grandmother starting at about 7 years old and cooking and baking were essential skills to learn in my house growing up. I was taught sewing but I didn't like it at the time and so I stopped until I was about 25. I must say, I regret that.

I wish I had learned other skills like canning, woodworking and planting, but I am slowly teaching myself, mostly through trial and error, though I have to admit that the intertubes are really helpful for learning.  For instance, I picked up about 6 pounds of figs from a friend yesterday who has a fig tree but has no idea what to do with them. I'm not particularly skilled in the fig department either so I went online to discover the type of fig (Desert King) and what one can do with them.  I'm going to try my hand at it this afternoon and we'll see what we get.

I'd never really built anything prior to building my raised beds. That was also mostly trial and error and the next beds I build which will be going in the back 40 are going to be a lot more stable than the first set, though I will give myself some credit; the first set is holding up its fourth planting season in a row!

I love to trade skills with people. You show me how to use a miter saw and I'll show you how to crochet or knit or can figs.

OK, so here's my heirloom skills wish list for right now, if you have a skill to trade or you have a list of your own, add it to the comments and we'll see what we can work out!

• Woodworking skills - Primarily using a miter saw or learning to turn wood
• Oxy-acetylene welding
• Photoshop/graphic design (ok, maybe this isn't heirloom but it's definitely going to be!)
• Weaving

 What's on your list?