Posts and rails (and holes too!)

So I've been talking for awhile now about a number of different yard projects I want to work on... Some of these are very season-dependent - like "oh shit, the grape plants I ordered arrived last week, and the apple trees I've ordered could arrive any day now, and I still don't have the support structures in!"

The apple trees could actually arrive any time this fall OR next spring - depending on whether or not the place I've ordered them from feels they've gone dormant while they can still send them this fall.

The grapes (one red variety, one green, and Concord - and all are seedless) got their roots soaked thoroughly and then were "heeled in" under loose dirt and leaf mulch until I can get them officially planted. They're not going anywhere - but I also don't want them rooting in their temporary home!

I'd mentioned to my Aunt Nadine recently that I had these projects I wanted to work on, and she took me to the challenge. She said (rightfully so) that when we tell other people about things we're at risk of procrastinating on, we can/should expect those other people to get after us - to sorta remind us that, hey, that project's still waiting to get done! And so she was "offering" to nag me - just to check in and see how the projects were going.

Aw crap.

So that was early last week....and as I said, the grapes had arrived. And it's not gonna be getting any warmer outside, and the days are definitely getting shorter.

So Friday I called and reserved a 2-man auger at a local tool rental place. After work Friday I stopped by a local lumber store and picked up what I thought I would need for the split-rail fencing. I already had five 4x4 posts for the other project.... Yup, looks like we're moving forward with this project!

Here's the split-rail fencing parts kinda laying about where they'll be going in the ground:


One of the problems I was going to have with the split-rail fence (or "grape vine support" as I'll refer to them if any neighbors say "are you sure you're allowed to install fences without approval?") was that the rails came in 11' lengths, and my L-shaped bed had each leg at about 16' long. I didn't want one section of fencing centered on each leg, with just a continuous piece of wood running that length. I wanted it to look more...um...rustic? Farmy? I don't know... Whatever I wanted, it involved cutting 3' feet off the ends of the rails! Here they are - waiting to get the now-flat ends shaped....they would need to be tapered again so they could fit in the posts.


And then there was the auger - neither Brett nor I had ever worked with one, and we had some serious issues getting it started. (You'll notice there are going to be no pics of the auger or it in use - it took two of us to use it, and I wasn't thinking to ask the neighbor to take pics/video at that time - sorry) Even George, one of the two retired farmers down the street, came to look - and he also couldn't figure out how to get it started. I'll take credit in the final solution - no, it wasn't flooded, nor did it need any additivies. Turns out the kill-switches were flipped already. DOH! Once we UNflipped those switches, we got it going in no time! While George and his dog Jeremy were visiting with Brett and Doogie, I'd marked off where the apple posts were going to go...so we were all set! Once the holes were dug, I worked on getting the posts in place.


No, I didn't put gravel or cement down in the bottom of the holes. I don't want to add something else down there that'll be hard to get out if needed, or to compete with the tree roots for space. You may be wondering what I'm putting all those posts over there along the edge of the veggie bed - is it wise to plant apple trees so close to the veggies? Won't they shade them? Nope - I'll be controlling the apple trees into a fence shape (it's the Knee Navel Nipple Nose System - isn't that fun to say!?)...

Once that was pretty much done we got to work on the L-shaped bed, where split-rail fencing will provide support for grape vines. What we found interesting was just how different each hole could look, even though they were only about 4ft apart! Here's a hole on the end of the bed:


And just a short ways over, digging the next hole brought up MUCH yellower soil. "Soil." Right - let's call it what it is - that's clay. Not the red-orange clay we had in South Carolina or Hawaii, but definitely clay. Blech.


Here's an in-line post - two rails will go into each of those holes, from opposite sides. I loved these posts the most because the holes were so much bigger and easier to work with!


Here's the corner post - the end posts had similar slots to work with. These could be a real pain-in-the-butt since we had to custom taper the chopped-off ends of the rails. We found the circular saw was not the tool for the job. Thankfully Dan, the other retired farmer down the street, volunteered his chainsaw. That chainsaw may have been small, but it was mighty!


Oh, back over to the apple posts - one fun thing with this sorta stuff is deciding how obsessed you're going to be about things being level and in straight lines. It's nature, right? I planned these posts to be in line with the asparagus/raspberry bed and the blueberry bed, running along the edge of the yard... This meant shortening one side of the veggie bed a little, but I think it'll look nice in the long run! (Just FYI, yes, I went back and worked on the leveling/alignment of these posts after taking the pic)


BTW - check out all the leaves in the veggie bed! These are mostly from Dan. I have more bags of leaves donated from Sharon and Andy - some of which I haven't even used yet! I seriously need to get the tiller out to the garden, but I've also got a truckload of mostly-composted horse manure arriving sometime soon!


Back to the fence... It seemed like things were going TOO smoothly to be true - we got the holes dug with minimal problems - there was the occasional rock, and one of those stopped the bit from spinning, which caused the auger to spin around and nail Brett in the thigh pretty hard (surprisingly he hasn't bruised yet!) Because of the way things worked out, I didn't get to plan as well as I'd hoped. I WANTED to drill the corner hole, get the post in it, space out the rails to each side, and THEN drill the next holes out from the corner. Instead, because I didn't know when Dan would be over with the chainsaw, we just had to drill all the holes - and they were spaced out a little too far - so I had to do some extra work with the shovel and the loaner-post hole digger (thanks George!).

Annnnd it turns out one of the rails just wasn't cut right - both originally AND after we shaped it - so that last post/rails aren't up yet. I need to get back over to Carter Lumber to get another rail, and then we'll have to shorten/taper it again (yay.). Oh well - I don't think it's looking too bad yet - eh?

Right now the wood's still looking a bit "raw" - give it a season or two of weathering, and it'll look nicer, plus I can't wait to see it with grape vines covering it!