This week we had a new fence put in the backyard. We have been getting soooo close to finishing the gargantuan landscaping project; really all that was left was the sanding of the decks and the hooking up of the new pond…or so we thought. Our neighbors behind us are also landscaping, and their landscape guy was among other things, cutting back a massive overgrowth of ivy along their back fence (which is also our back fence). Excuse me while I take a moment to mention how truly, madly, deeply I HATE that ivy. It grew over our fence – okay, that’s one thing. But it also grew through the fence between the slats and then proceeded to worm its way into the very WOOD of the fence. Over the years, the only way to get it off the fence was to literally scrape it off, which didn’t do much for the wood. Then the bottom of the fence was rotting away from moisture. it was originally a six foot high fence. At some point, the back neighbors nailed a foot of trellis to the top of it (to better nurture the *@$*&% ivy) that created a semi-okay looking patched together sort of fence. We got to talking to Dave the landscape guy and he came over and gave us a quote on a whole new fence – a tongue and groove fence that would thwart the growth of new ivy. Yay! Our neighbor refused to contribute to the fence (which immediately made me think of Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall” and the line “Good fences make good neighbors”) but we decided it was still worth the cost (a cool four grand). So the work started Monday with the tearing down of the old fence that was in worse condition than we thought, with much moisture and termite damage. We had a couple of days of complete havoc and no hot tub as we had to disconnect and move it so the fence guys could get at the back corner (this added to the cost as after examining the control box of the hot tub, Chuck decided he didn’t want to mess with it so we had to call in an electrician – we are now on a first name basis with Empire Plumbing & Electrical; they’re really enjoying watching the progress of the yard. They feel quite invested in it – and they are! Poor Mia didn’t poop the whole time as she won’t poop in her dog run and that was the only part of the yard she could get into. When she finally got into the yard yesterday, it was a poop fest – she had been storing up great quantities of shit, it turned out. But now we have a beautiful new seven-foot high fence in the back.
I am going up to visit my aunt this weekend, and Chuck is sanding the decks while I’m gone. I expect to come back to – drum roll, please – a completed yard!!!