Good fences

Mending Wall   -Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

...

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours." 

Much of the fence was still there.  It had not been rolled up. 

The trunk leaning over the fence needed to go.  A trunk like that is living on borrowed time.  It is about fifteen inches in diameter.  This portion of the fence separates the Captain's property from mine.  I called him up and informed him that I would be cutting the portion of the tree that was leaning over my property. 

That is a two inch diameter walnut seedling growing through the fencing.

This is where Herc went through.

Much of the stretch was overgrown with Autumn Olive.

Somebody laid this fence post against this Box Elder.  It was a while ago.  The tree started growing around the "T" post.

Kubota was going to help me but he gassed out early.  The picture in his head was that we were going to slam in some fence posts into the ground, hang some fence and be done.  Like some big men, he is not fond of flying insects and crawling arthropods.  Nor does he much like dragging brush. He was not favorably impressed by the amount of pre-work that we had to do.

It was only eighty, humid and no breeze.  It was all I could do to keep moving.  I don't know how you guys down south get anything done.  Is it acclimation?

While I was not all that keen about the amount of prework, it had to get done.  It would have gone better if I had not started out with stale gas in the chainsaw.  The saw started fine but acted fuel-starved when I needed power.  It took a while to get that sorted out.

This job involved some ladder work.  The fifteen inch diameter trunk mentioned above had some branches that would likely hit some items I did not want it to hit when I dropped it.  Therefore, they needed to be trimmed off beforehand.

Here is a helpful ladder hint.  You do not have to pay rent on the amount of ladder that sticks out, above the upper contact point.  More than one amateur arborist has been surprised by the loss of his upper contact point when the limb jumped upward after being freed of the cantilevered weight.

Yes, the fence is not tight.  I can fix that.  I needed to have the fence up the next day to show good faith to my neighbor that I am serious about keeping my dog on my property.

The obligatory before-and-after shot.  It looks like crap but it will keep Herc on my side of the fence.  It would not withstand a serious challenge by him, but there are plenty of interesting things for him to sniff on my side of the fence.