novel « Robin Writes

We’re winding down for the winter—thank goodness! While I’ve managed to keep up with my PT and stretches, my range time is way down the last few weeks.

The fence is now livestock-proof, although I’ll feel better when I finish putting the third screw in all the boards; I’m about a third of the way done with that. The gates are up and the latches/chains installed. And yesterday, we had a horsey visitor!

Just for a half hour or so; the neighbors stopped in for a few. The poor thing hadn’t been ridden in over a year, I think, but she sure liked the new grass coming up! She did NOT like the saddle . . . Maybe I’ll have a new client.

We also have the greenhouse up and anchored. I brought my hanging baskets over there, along with the herbs, and I planted some cilantro and oregano. I’ll be bringing in my late pepper plants too, and have some other seeds to start for the winter.

So far, and we’ll see after tomorrow if we get the expected 30 mph winds, it’s a great little greenhouse! Coated steel posts, heavy plastic, and easy to assemble—we kept thinking we were doing something wrong, ‘cause stuff NEVER works out this fast!

The temperature monitoring is going to be the real challenge, though. It’s gotten as high as 115 degrees in there, but nearly as low as the outside temp early in the morning before the sun hits it. I’d been opening the window for an hour in the early afternoon, but I’m going to re-think that. I’ll keep experimenting, and yes, I have a spreadsheet!

What’s left in the project department? Well, the holidays are coming, and we’ll like convince a kid or three to come visit, so now I’m looking at the house again. The plan was to build a sofa table and a coffee table, and those will come in handy in the next month or so . . . and I just realized we never stained the bed steps (for the dog) after my husband built them, um, a few years ago!

And we’re still trail-breaking. The goal is to go around the property, and have a few lead-ins from the house and barn areas. The East Trail is done, to the north, and we’re working on connecting it with the North Trail. But yesterday we went west; we hadn’t done much exploring there except the perimeter, and man, that is some rough land! Very pretty, though:

Yay! Woohoo! The posts are in the ground! All 125 of them. Or so . . .

We finished those up on Tuesday and concreted the six-inchers. Next step: screwing in about 350 boards. No idea, at this time, how long this is going to take, but I’ll guesstimate about three days. We’ll see if I’m right . . .

After that, we’ll lop off the extra at the tops of the posts, and put in the gates. Actually, we have to build one gate. Had a little trouble with Mabel.

Mabel being one of our tape measures.

Jane is the other one. Well, her full name is “Jane, You Slut.” We can’t ever find her . . . not going to tell you Mabel’s full name. We seldom need to use it.

Now, lest anyone think that setting posts in an easy thing—this means you, Dr. Ralko—I can assure you that it is not:

Let’s assume you already measured your pasture or yard or whatever and lined it out with string or twine, so you know where you’re going with this fence. First, you drill down with an auger—any variety; we have a two-man, but for this we’re using the one on the tractor. Thank God.

“They” say you should go down two feet. And “they” are correct. Unless you live in the Ozarks, in which case it requires using that tractor auger 2-3 times, slamming the hole with an iron rock-breaker stick—there may be a technical name for this, but I don’t know what it is—many, many, many times, using a hand post-hole digger and a shovel, and probably adding water at some point.

This can take as little as five minutes—in which case there is much joy and celebration—or as long as 30 minutes with calls of, “Looks good enough to me!”

Sometimes, there is a pause when one considers if one can obtain dynamite or C4 on Amazon Prime . . .

One cannot. One cries a little.

Next, assuming the hole is dug, you have to pick up a 40-pound, 8-foot post and lower it into the hole. You make sure it’s level and shove back most of the dirt you just removed from said hole. You tamp it down and add more dirt and make sure it’s all tight.

Then you measure to the next post. We use an 8-foot 2×4, because our distance between posts is, well, eight feet. Rinse and repeat, 125 times. Or so.

This is a full week: while the aforementioned concrete cures, we’ll be tilling the manure into the garden—got some from the neighbor last week—and (gulp) putting up the greenhouse. An all-day project if there ever was one.

And I might be too optimistic about that . . .

So you may or may not get pics of that greenhouse next week.