Success is getting what you want; happiness is liking what you get

Sunday 4 September 2011

Who has been a busy boy then?

It has been a very busy last few days for Robin.  He has been acting as a labourer,  helping Dave the builder erect a new timber fence in our back yard.  Our old one had three or four broken posts and was starting to sag alarmingly and was only surviving because it was wedged against a handy tree.  It is a boundary fence over 30 years old and the other home owner agreed to pay for half of the cost, so that made the job more affordable.  The old fence came down quite easily, but it was hard work trying to get the old concrete out of the post holes.
DSCF7260 Digging out the old concrete
With that part of the job finally done, the next step was to mix up some concrete and set the new posts in place.  The quick set concrete used didn’t take too long to set.  Now, is this one straight, Dave seems to be saying.
DSCF7264
Once all the posts were in place and the concrete set, Dave cut the rails to size.  With Robin holding the rail,  the nail gun made short work of securing them in place. 
DSCF7271 Nailing the rails in place
DSCF7275 All coming along quite nicely
DSCF7277The finished fence
It only took Dave (with Robin helping) two days to do this job.  But is was certainly hard physical work, with all the digging, bending, lifting, and carrying that it entailed.  The builder’s mate collapsed into bed each night, complaining of sore knees,  and tired legs!  He slept like a baby though.
Yesterday was such a nice day that both of us were outside busily weeding the back garden.  That doesn’t happen very often, so I guess that the Spring air is getting to us. Then the loppers came out and some overhanging branches were chopped back.  Must admit it does look a lot tidier.  Then today, fortified by a tasty home cooked Sunday breakfast of bacon and eggs, with black pudding on the side, Robin is all set to get the motor mower fired up and start mowing the lawns.  What’s this – a change of plans?  Seems there is so much garden waste in the wheelie bin from our weeding and lopping yesterday that the bin is filled to the brim, and there is no room for the grass clippings.  The lawn mowing has been postponed till tomorrow when our bin will have been emptied.  So he will get a day of rest today – after all, he did cook our Sunday breakfast.

2 comments:

Katie said...

What a nice job! We badly need a fence but I won't work out in the back yard until winter. I'm afraid of the snakes!

Jenny and Robin said...

Snakes in the backyard? Oh my - all we need to worry about is the wasps in Summer.