Its taking forever and ever

This summer is not what we were hoping for in terms of getting things done. Part of the problem has been the Goldilocks weather. too hot, too cold, too wet, etc, etc. Add other commitments on weekends and basically we've only had a couple of days over the past 8 weeks where we could make any progress on the pile of dung known as the back garden. My health hasn't exactly helped things either. A relapse of the trapped nerve in my neck back in June pretty much slowed me down to a crawl as well.

First off we started on the fence. So far so good. The first 7 panels went up a treat. These were the most important ones to replace as the panels and posts were rotten and riddled with woodworm. The next 4 panels along that side took considerably longer to finish off. Weather was the big problem. Trying to find time when it wasn't raining or too hot to work was an exercise in futility.

From the back of the house for the first 18 or so feet the fence was constructed of close boards with the posts bolted to concrete bollards set deep into the ground. Removing the old fence here was a nightmare. The brackets were a triangular affair held onto the posts and panels by a million nails. (slight exaggeration) Over the years corrosion had practically welded the nails to the brackes. This meant having to break each nail off with a pry bar and hammer. Just removing one panel took longer than the rest of the fence replacement did.

Another headache was the posts weren't set at any standard spacing. I was originally going to just remove one post and trim down one panel to make 3 even 6' sections. The neighbour however had used the very post I wished to remove as a support for all sorts of things on his side of the fence. There's a bracket for hanging a ladder, the garden hose reel, and his outdoor lighting transformers are all attached to that particular post too.





The pics show the posts and the bollards. You can see the silly short panel against the back wall. Looks a lot better than it did before too.