But all the holes are dug, and it’s less our problem today. We just raise and lower the tarp fence, and let the crew do their thing, while we try to bring order out of the chaos the house has become—mud on the kitchen floor, tools and parts of tools piled everywhere, boxes of catfood bulk-ordered, and items that have to be mailed…
Not to mention…getting some writing done.
Post hoc ergo Protector hoc
… sorry could not resist ….
Prompter hoc?
I was trying to link it to an Atevi book 🙂
Lol.
Well, the crew is here: the last posts are going in. Fence tomorrow!
And it’s raining.
At least (as long as it’s not a downpour) it will keep you from having to moisten the cement as it cures.
We’re good, we think: typical of the PNW it’s more a sifting rain than a tropical downpour…intermittent.
But the fence is pretty well done. The old fence is gone, the postholes are dug, the new posts are cemented in. Next [Friday] is sliding a stack of panels into place, and attaching the mechanisms for the 3 gates, one of them a driveway double gate. Bless the guys, they applied their jackhammer to the root-heaved old driveway that has been a headache ever since we moved in. We now have a driveway concrete (the old drive, that used to lead into a garage which is now part of our kitchen, all of the mudroom, and half of Jane’s bedroom. The rebuild left patio and the old drive, which is nice: we have this nice flat concrete patio extension…but the end of it was a fractured mess. Now we’ll just have gravel going up to it.
Glad work is going apace. Take care and don’t work too hard. Take time to recover, and don’t forget to appease the bannik
Pssst! Heard about Kepler 186f? 1.1±.14 X Earth-sized, in the Goldilocks Zone around a red-dwarf. So now we’ve found the Earth-sized planets so many SciFi stories have been built around.
Did hear! Great news! We’ve been willing to bet they were there — but refining our ‘eyes’ so we can see them is proceeding, and they WILL start turning up. There are so many ways the big fast-forming gas giants can screw up a solar system—but there have to be quieter neighborhoods, too.
And—remember the careful job Jane and I did on the pond netting?
The yellow dog came back and managed to shove rocks all around the edge and make us another hour’s work in five minutes. We are not pleased with the owner. We won’t harm an animal who is a bit of a doofus, but owner is on our official displeasure list. We told her about that broken gate she has—and here he is again.
Even if said owner can’t afford to repair the gate right now, a sturdy chain and post in the yard is probably better than letting the dog roam, especially as close to a major road as you are.
I suppose the owner wouldn’t be any happier if the dog was taken down to the animal shelter by the animal control officers, and then she would have to pay a fine for allowing the dog to run loose, as well as a fee to get the dog back……
People who will not take proper care of their pets shouldn’t have them. What if the dog was hit by one of those cars going by? It’s not the dog’s fault, it’s just doing what dogs do, but for the owner to allow her dog to go out through a broken gate, especially one she knows is broken, is irresponsible.
I don’t even let my cats on the deck in the back of the house. They are strictly indoor cats, even though they have all of their claws and could defend themselves, the contract with the shelter was very clear. Indoors only, and no declawing (I refuse to declaw my cats. Furniture can be replaced….)Besides, I don’t have to worry about them getting fleas or ticks in the house. I have a can of “Knockout” for those critters.
When I was in the nursing home after my knee replacement, I was told that I was not allowed to leave the building. I was not allowed to so much as sit on the porch or visit the courtyard garden. I wonder how much of my feeling about letting my Feline Personages out has to do with my own feelings about being trapped?
I have had one cat declawed. She clawed most of the way through one of my children’s eyelids and refused to leave the house on her own. I saw it as a case of amputate her fingers or kill her. I could not send her to another family and did not think that she deserved to die, as she did not blind the child.
I live way too near a major highway to let my two cats out, except for brief periods in the back yard, supervised, with me. Also because a previous cat tangled with some other cat and caught FIV (and he and his brother lived for years afterward; something about their immune system and that (not-HIV) virus.)
Also, attempts to be adventuresome (and contrary and disobedient) and visit neighbors’ yards resulted in (oh my!) there were Other Strange Humans and there were Dogs! and there were Lawnmowers, Loud Noises, and Vehicles on the street. — Both cats very sensibly decided this year that it is a VEry Good Idea to stay close to home, where they can get back into Paradise at a moment’s notice. This does not stop the occasional urge to zip out the door, or to be obstinate when the human declares it’s time to come back in after the regular trip outside. As long as they get that trip outside every day or two, they are happy, though.
—–
The dog most probably has “itchy feet, wanderlust” and has also decided you two and your yard are a New, Fun Place and People to visit. … Dogs are more party people than are czts, I think. LOL. And if said dog thinks you two are Cool Humans and the yard is a Cool Yard, well…. Uh, good luck.
Voice of past experience: When we had our family dog (the mama dog I grew up with) (and her puppies) we had a chain link fence around our yard, and a wooden fence along one side. There was a trailer park owned by someone else along that side. Our dog would, of course, want to get out. She wanted to see my mom and dad and me at the art shop (mom and I let her go back and forth for that, she could be a guard dog, or act like she was. — But she would otherwise want to get out of the yard on her own. — So she would dig, dig, dig, under the fence, usually by one of the gates or nearby. — Solution? Simple: Concrete blocks under the fence at the spots where she wanted to dig. Thus we reached a truce. She went back and forth with us to the art shop and the house (next door to one another) like a good dog, with us. This made her a happy dog, because she could be with her people, her pack. — OK, it was not always perfect, but it did solve the problem of her getting in and out unsupervised.
Solution for the neighboring dog owner and her errant and friendly yellow dog? Bricks or concrete blocks or pea-gravel discs like those used for landscaping. Put these where the dog might dig under the gate or fence. If the problem is going over the fence, then the solution is a 6 foot fence. If the problem is a need for a new gate that Miss Thing / Mister Thing cannot easily open, being a smart doggie and all, well, the solution there is obvious: a doggie-proof gate or lock.
Uh, meanwhile, be prepared for occasional visits from an amiable, well-meaning mutt. (Yes, dogs can be smart, but they can also be very goofy. Heh. And the dog liiiikes you! (Which last makes perfect sense, by the way.)
If a cable is necessary, so is a dog run to attach the cable to. It can take more than one or two days to fix a broken gate if the dog is clever. We had one who would slip out any chance he got. Locally, if the dog has on a tag, animal control will not take them, but they will talk to the owner.
He sounds like a happy dog who just wants to visit with new friends! A small package of dog treats might be useful in the future to help catch him. If he’s gotten loose twice, it won’t be the last time.
You will soon have a good fence.