Building Fences

For some, the statement "building fences" means that they're putting up walls between something or someone or an idea that they don't like. For me, it literally means: BUILDING FENCES. Today, on perhaps the hottest day of the year thus far, the family - all of us over the age of 3, put up a fence.

I never realized how much work putting up a fence could be. Before I go into further detail, I have to do a little explaining on what our property looks like. Put your Imagination caps on, and picture in your mind the following.

2.25 Acres of land with an old Victorian looking house at the top of a hill. The house is yellow, and was built in 1922 if that helps. For those of you WITHOUT an imagination, just add color. Here's the house. It looks a little bit different now - this is just AFTER A whacked all the bushes off so that they weren't sitting on the house. This is the view of the house from the road. To the Left of this picture is a hill that slopes at approximately 50 degrees. To the right is the already existing pasture that the bovines have eaten down to the dirt.

It is the field to the LEFT of the house that we are going to discuss here. Remember that angle? It got steeper today when we had to roll 350 feet of field fencing UP it. The farther we rolled it, the steeper the hill got. Funny how that works... not only did the hill get steeper, the fencing got heavier. Especially when we had to move it around the fence posts because the fencing seemed to want to roll DIAGONALLY from where we wanted it to go. It was truly hard work.

I have a new appreciation for my husband. He is a finish carpenter, who not only does beautiful work, but he has a desire to continue to learn - if he doesn't know how to do something, he figures out a way to learn it. Take fencing - for example. Two years ago, we didn't have any fences on our property. We were the proud owners of two hogs (pigs are pets, hogs are food), and two bovines. (Or, as the children called them - DINNER.) Blessed with friends who had property, we weren't all that concerned about where to keep our animals, until we decided that we wanted to have them on our farm. So... long story short - A bought a video, watched it, and built a fence. He doesn't need the video now, he just builds fences.

I am amazed. He leaves the house in the morning, works hard at whatever he is working on for someone else, and then comes home and fixes things here in our home. And it's not easy things, either. Building a fence is NOT easy - no matter what they say, or how easy A makes it look. I am that much more grateful for the work that I have to do here at home. Cleaning the house is so much easier than rolling field fencing UP a hill.

I'll take my house anyday.