Two Days of Ridiculousness

The last couple days have been something on the insane side...

Over the weekend, we had lots of guests. On the fourth day of rain, I saw that the basement sliding glass door frame was wet again. So, the Girl and I got an estimate today to replace our sliding glass doors, since (I have previously confirmed) they are the source of the problem. I hate spending money.

This follows yesterday, which was to be the day I returned to climbing, but instead became the day I (shock) spent money. I had been considering joining Earth Treks ROAD class, which is a general cross-training climber's program. It's only drawback is that it costs money, but hey, that's kind of necessary for getting in shape, I suppose. I hope I can do it. I'm mildly concerned. If I don't die, I should be pretty ripped in eight weeks. I like ripped. It's been awhile.

Fencing 3: The Gating

Monday; Columbus Day. Today's the day I created the gate. This task is a great deal harder than it appears. The reason; angles. Wood really likes 90-degree angles. Anything else, and it kind of blows.

In the morning, I created an A-frame. Then I ate pizza. Then I put a few boards on. Then I ate fruit and nut mix. Then I realized that I purchased the incorrect hinges, and so I had to head to ACE Hardware for some other hinges. Then I came back and proceeded to hang the gate. The last step was to try to cut off the little extra bit of board so that the gate fits within its opening.

I'd be finished right now but for the saw. It ran out of the electron juice, and so the battery is currently charging. Two hours lapse, I'll be out there sawing the crap out of the side of that gate. Finally, the lock, and it's Miller Time! Well, Sam Adams Time, but that doesn't quite sound the same.

Fencing, Part 2: And No, Not With Swords

Fence day 2 happened today. We have a fence. Check it out...



Ken came over and helped. The girl supervised. It went smoothly for the most part. The only hitch was that we decided to do three beams across instead of two, and that required an extra trip to the Home Depot. But, after feeding the "hired labor" and purchasing the materials, we still saved about $700. Woo hoo!

See the rest of the pictures here.

Fence Building - Part 1 (of Apparently >= 2)

We just started replacing a section of wood fence today. Now, I know that sounds exciting. Please, try to contain yourselves. "We" includes Ken, Kohnke, Drew, and me.

We started with this...


The first step was to take down the panels of old fence. That took all of 30 seconds, roughly. The second step was to remove the old uprights. Uprights number 3 came out with little effort. Uprights 1 and 2 were pretty difficult. I feel as though there were put there to mark a wood mine under our property. We kept digging, and we kept finding more and more and more wood. It looks as though the previous owners had a fence that was falling down, and so they just kept shoving more wood down there to brace up the failing fence. There was also some concrete down there. It was pretty interesting; and by interesting, I mean painful.

On top of that, one of the posts was a 10' post, sticking up only 5' out of the ground. Yeah, 5' of wood was buried in the ground. When Ken finally got it out, a little Chinese guy stuck his head up out of the ground and told us to stop shaking his fence in Shanghai.

Some concrete later, we have four new uprights. The concrete is drying right now. Then, we get to fill in the holes and finish it, which shouldn't be too horribly bad. So, we ended the day with this...


which was just about the time Amanda showed up :-)