Now that I'm old, I'm finding out what the payment is for that period of my life. Part of that payment is little, if any, back muscles. But before I get into the explanation of the title of this post, I wanted to show you what it looked like at La Casa Kautz on Sunday the 5th.
Some hail, some corn snow.
Across the street |
Down to the left. |
Our back yard. Note no pine needles. |
Front view. |
Now, this is for all you folks out there that don't know how to build a fence. The post on the side of the gate was a fairly new post. That means someone recently (in the last 17 years. the house was build in 1999) replaced that post. They did what most unknowing people do and that is to dig out the old concrete and instead of putting the new post in correctly, just filled the hole in with concrete.
After digging around the concrete and wiggling it loose, I had to use a chain and my truck to pull it out of the ground. No way were we (myself and Dan across the street) going to get that approximately 300 pound chunk of concrete out.
To replace the post, I put in a 12" tube and back filled the dirt. then put the post in and filled the tube with 200 lbs. (4 - 50# bags) of redi-mix concrete making sure the post was level front to back and side to side. Once the concrete set, about 24 hours, it took me the last 4 days to replace the rails and put on the boards.
Here is the part where people go wrong. Put the top rail (2x4) across from post to post "flat". Put a second 2x4 across, under the top rail, but up and down. This will prevent the top rail from bowing from the weight of the front boards. The bottom rail goes the same up and down as the 2x4 under the top rail giving you and even space to attach the front boards. It should be somewhere between 12" and 18" off the ground not smack on the ground as it is with the rest of my fence. All to be replace at some future date.
The finished product |
One side note, once you've put the gate together, you can't adjust it so make it good the first time. I tried to adjust it and had to take it all apart and start over.
The gate. |
Got to the lake at 8:00, had two lines in the water, one with rainbow Power Bait and the other with orange Power Eggs. I did stop at Starbucks and got a cup of coffee, but proceeded to drop it as I took it out of the truck. Yes it went all over the place, but outside the truck.
I sat for 4 hours (for the most part) in the red Coleman camping chair and relaxed my back. Took a few photos of the lake just to show you what the lake looks like at 51 degrees at 8:00 am. That also me sitting with only a tee shirt on. It was that warm.When I left it was 74 degrees. Almost had to fire up my A/C in the truck.
The lake was down about 5 feet. |
The outer peninsula is starting to show. |
2# or so. |
Don't know if I'll be out again this week. I'm back to the gutters tomorrow.
Stay tuned.
I guess you don't need me to remind you to take care of yourself........That work will always be there.
ReplyDeleteWork is not as persnickety as Trout. Get the trout!
Mark
ReplyDeleteBack problems can be serious, just remember you, me, Mel and Howard are not youngsters anymore.
Well as a charter member of the yearly "fix the fence" crew, thank you for the tips. I have a section I need to replace again this year. Thank goodness it's a different section than usual. Take care of yourself brother, you're not so easy to replace.
ReplyDeleteSo, I really can't talk. I fished for eight hours, hiked through snow and then the next day, I was cooking a turkey dinner and baking cookies. HAHAHAHA Great job on the fence.
ReplyDelete