TheBanyanTree: Chain Link Fence Installation...

[Pam North]

sucks!!

And how did *you* spend your weekend?? Hmmm....???

Diane and her husband got a Golden Retriever puppy a few months ago.
Beau is about five months old now.  When he goes outside, they walk
him, or tie him to a long line strung between two trees because their
yard isn't fenced all the way.

Or, that's the way it WAS!  Her husband Miller was planning on
remedying that situation soon since neither of  them believe that a
dog deserves to spend his life chained, or roped.

And then Miller died, leaving Diane a single mom with a job in a town
an hour's drive away and a dog who needs supervision still.  Since
before the funeral, her number one concern has been fencing in the
backyard.  Whenever somebody asked if there was anything they could do
for her, she told them to be on the lookout for fencing material.

She is scared to death about her financial situation right now.  From
what I know, she's gonna be just fine when a few things get started,
but for now she's worried about selling cars or trucks, and paying the
mortgage, and where his last paycheck went since she'd already closed
that account and opened her own as the bank directed.  Oh ya... and
the VA wants his last retirement check back since he died.  He died on
the 29th day of the month so all that belongs to her, and of the
remaining two days, she rates 55% or it, and her son rates 35% of it.
But, they want it *all* back first and then they'll give her what she
rates.  You gotta love the government!

So anyway... she's worried about money and trying hard to buy
*nothing*.  But she's really been worrying and stressing over the dog
and the yard.

Enter Kenny.  He's a good friend of theirs, and in fact worked at the
desk next to Miller's.  He is a Pastor on the side, and he spent a lot
of hours with Diane at the hospital.  He went to help a friend of his
with his lawn mower, the same friend who is also moving out of base
housing and has removed a square of fencing that was in his backyard
around the swing set, and asked if he wanted to get rid of his
fencing.  His friend said yes he did, and he'd be willing to give it
away!   Kenny told him he'd be back the next day - Friday - with a
truck to pick it up.

Friday morning, I'm at work and my brain is going, and is comes to
me....  *my* SSgt is moving from base and had fencing around *his*
swing set.... hmmm....  could it be?  Yes, it was.  I asked what he
was going to do with his fencing and he told me, "Give it to your
friend".

Once Diane found out she had *some* fencing on the way, she decided to
just go wild, charge the rest that she needed, and get the yard fenced
this weekend!  She asked for help, and I told her, "Of course!".  (I
am *so* silly!!!!!!!  I know NOTHING about installing chain link
fencing.... NOTHING!)

But I showed up at her door Saturday morning, early, ready to go to
work.  Her daughters had also invited a few friends from school, and
we had a team ready to get to work!

The kids were AWESOME!  Diane and I started out 'overseeing' the job,
and pointing the kids in the directions they needed to go, moving this
and that and getting the yard ready.  Her only priority Saturday was
to get the post holes dug and cemented in to dry, so the fence could
go up on Sunday.  The kids moved rocks and chopped and trimmed trees
to clear the area.  And then they dug 23 post holes!  Between them
they'd dig a hole or two, then change off with the post hole diggers.
Diane and I followed behind with hand-mixed cement and shovels,
filling in the holes and uprighting the posts.

Ummmm... See, even though we *marked* a straight line, the holes
didn't exactly come out lined nicely.  Because we worried about lining
everything up, Diane was determined to set the top rails in place also
to make sure the posts dried in the cement at angles that would work.

So while the kids dug, we also did measurements and figured out how
much MORE material was needed to finish the  yard, and then made a
trip to Lowe's to get what else we needed.  I knew I had some extra
fencing material under the back porch, so we also sent kids on a recon
to get what I had to add to our bounty.  This was "Fencing on a
Budget"!!!

Unfortunately, Lowe's only had two pieces of ten feet each top
railing, and we needed about fifty more feet.  But we went back to her
house with our cache, to at least get done what we could.  It was
after four before we decided that we *had* to have more railing, and
we were also gonna run out of cement to finish the last five or six
holes.

Our little town does have a couple of 'mom-and-pop' hardware stores,
so we decided to just go that far (instead of twenty miles away back
to the other Lowe's) to get what else we needed to finish.

As we were driving down the highway, only a couple of miles out of
town, a little black pickup truck passed us, loaded down with
.........





....fencing, and posts, and TOP RAILS!!!!


"Diane!  *FOLLOW* that truck!  He's got what we need!!!!", I told her
most jokingly!!  Then I suggested that he might be going to the dump!
She pooh-poohed that idea immediately!  She was sure this was a guy
putting up his own fence!  But!  The dump exit was directly across
from the hardware store, so I told her to keep up and keep him in her
sights!

Sure enough!  He turned off to go to the dump!  I screamed and Diane
cut across traffic to follow him!  When we got inside and his truck
stopped, I jumped out of hers and went and asked him if he was gonna
throw that stuff away because we were on our way to BUY some of it!!!

He assured us he was going to dump it, we could have all we wanted,
and in fact, help us unload his truck into ours!!!!!  We even got a
really cool wide gate from him!!!  (Okay, she's storing the gate for
now since we didn't install it, but she  might want it later!)

Diane was ecstatic!  FREE stuff!  I told her, "Surely you have to
agree now that God works in mysterious ways!!!", but she really wasn't
buying it.  (I don't think she's too thrilled with Him or his
religious organizations of late not just because her husband died).
She kept saying, "This stuff *never* happens to me!!!", so I finally
convinced her that it happened because of ME!!!

Finally, yesterday evening, all the holes were dug, cemented, and we
had pieced together top rail to form a yard.  I gotta admit... it was
SCARY!!!!  Our lines were not straight at all, and some of posting and
railing was incredibly rigged!  But!  We had the outline for a
fence!!!!

By the time I got home Saturday night, I was beat!  I was hot and
sweaty and smelly and only wanted a shower and a bed!!!  When I woke
up this morning, I really hoped she wouldn't need me.  Her friend
Barb, who is supposedly a champ at fencing!, and her husband, were
supposed to be coming over to help.  Perhaps I could drive over and
find the fencing complete!!!

Not.  When I woke up, brushed my teeth and drove over, I found Diane
in the garage looking for the "come along" that she had seen in her
husband's hands just a week or so before he died, but that now she
couldn't find to save her life!  (Sort of like his DD-214!!!)

And after careful, tedious searching of their garage, we STILL never
found it (sort of like his DD-204!!!!).  Finally we decided that all
the kids pulling would have to be good enough to tighten the fence!
And oh by the way, Barb and her husband were nowhere to be found!
Aurghghghgh!!

So we started 'hanging" fence.  It sucked!  We were all bleeding
SOMEwhere, and *I* broke a nail!!!!  Once we'd started and the job was
underway, Diane and I made a LAST list of the miscellaneous stuff we
STILL needed, and I drove to Lowe's to get it all (after of course, I
stopped by the pharmacy that had the DigiCam on sale I was
wanting!!!).

Everything that we even *thought* we needed, I got extras of!!!  We
were NOT going to have to go back for ANYthing!  Meanwhile, I was
'wussing' out...  All the while I was gone, Diane and those kids were
doing manual labor that *I* didn't have to do!!!!

And meanwhile, the kids were getting whooped!  So, we left them
insides, reclining on the couches - napping!! - while we got
everything lined up and ready, and then only called them out to
STRETCH the fencing!  What a plan!  We had a couple of areas that
didn't have the right sized poles and we were 'nursing' them along...
It was annoying!  We had to squeeze clamps together and run the
'slats' through and squeeze a nut into the holes, line everything up
while pulling, and then get a bolt on, even "sort of"!!!!!!  After
that we could tighten everything with the ratchet (that only ratcheted
SOMEtimes!!).

We rigged the fence.  OKAY!  But!  As I write, Diane has a TOTALLY
pieced together yard of chain link fencing that we installed
ourselves!!!!!.. only hard working kids and two chicks!!!  NO MAN
assisted!  (Later, Barb showed up with no husband and helped with the
last thirdish part of the fence.

And now....  Beau can run free!!!  Diane can put him out in the
morning before she leaves for work and NOT have to worry!!!!
YIPPEEE!!!!!  If this woman can have ONE LESS worry in her life...
Well then!  It's worth the soreness and scars and blood and sweat!!!

But.  I HATE chain length fencing!!  I *KNOW* how....  but I hope I
NEVER TO HAVE TO DO IT AGAIN!!!!  :-)

Pam