TheBanyanTree: Chain Link Fence Installation...

[Pam North]

There appear to be a few typos in this post...  I ran spell check, and
I reread the whole thing before I sent it.  (sigh)  It's a "DD214"
BOTH times... that was the whole point!  Sheesh!  And there are a
couple of words in the wrong tense.  Sorry.

Pam

On 6/12/05, Pam North <pam.north at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>