Owning livestock means sacrificing some things I’d rather do in order to take care of the critters. Every so often, fences need to be completely replaced, and that’s the problem we’re facing this summer. It takes up all my spare time – time I’d much rather spend fishing, hiking, camping, or getting a root canal, for that matter. Building fences is not my favorite activity.
We’ve got one more stretch of fence to finish before I can spend my weekends fishing. Unfortunately, that stretch is a big one. It’s about a half a mile long. I was hoping we could get it done last weekend, but nothing on our place ever works according to plan.
Our home improvement projects always hit some sort of a snag. Hanging a new door on the chicken coop a few weeks ago took three days, because once I got the old door down, I realized I needed to replace the jamb, too. And when I took the jamb out, I found that the studs the jamb needs to be attached to needed to be replaced, as well. That required pulling the wall boards off the inside, cutting new studs, and fitting them in.
Mowing the yard the next weekend was going well, until the riding mower’s engine made a “ping” sound, then a “clunk,” then the engine stopped, and a bunch of smoke started billowing out. I had to finish cutting the yard with the weed-whacker.
And this fence project that seems like it will never end is no different. Somewhere between mid-June and last weekend, the ground went from somewhat hard to absolutely impenetrable. Hopefully a week of soaking the holes will make it go a little easier this weekend. Maybe I’ll even get done in time to do a little fishing on Sunday. Maybe.
