OH MY GOSH!!! It is DONE! Wow what a weekend. I know that I am probably not making much sense right now, but I am still soooooo excited that we have a fence!! Three plus years we have waited and debated on what to do with the backyard and now it all seems to be coming together. We still have a loooong way to go but it is really taking shape.

After a week of not being sure we should be spending this money for a fence, trying to get all of the "crew" together (we went from 9 helpers to five) and fighting the weather, it looked like it was not going to come together. So when I came home from work Thursday and saw this "ok ok" painted on the lawn I was thrilled and my prayers were answered. It was going to be ok and we should do this. I took a half day off Friday to meet Uncle Bill and Aunt Pat at the house. We could at least make sure that we had all the supplies we needed to do this project and start marking out the lines. Lee got home a little early and he and Bill started digging holes by HAND. I had an auger reserved for Saturday but we couldn't wait. Of course the first thing they dig up...a rock. Every time the shovel went into the ground and we would hear "clunk" we would all hold our breath in hopes that it was a small rock. We knew going into this project that we would end up hitting a lot of rocks but we didn't think that we would hit as much as we did. We dug up enough that Lee will be building a outdoor fireplace. But by the time that it started to get dark, Lee and Bill had five post up!! Now we only had 17 more to go!

As you can see from the picture my Uncle is just a little guy but MAN he is amazing! So smart and so strong! We got started early the next morning and by 10 had two panels up and several post in. We knew that digging the post in the back of the property would be more difficult than going down the sides so we decided to focus on getting the holes dug for those post. More rocks. So much for the auger. We had to dig the holes wider, not only to get the rocks we could out, but to work around the others. It was going to take two bags of cement to hold the post because it was not deep enough. I went to our favorite hardware store and got more bags of cement and a ten pound sledge hammer for the rocks. AJ got the rocks we could not get out busted down pretty good. Of course Lee German stubbornness took over and he was not giving up on the "rock" that was in the way and causing us to think that we may have to use another post and work around the rock. Lee kept working at it and got the rock out! It will now be in the center of his fireplace!

Once we got past digging out the holes for the post in the back of the property, where most of the rock are, the rest of the holes went pretty good. We started putting up the panels. When it came to the down slope of the hill we had to make a few adjustments. We took all the slats off of the panels and used the frame to create the slope. Perfect! Didn't I tell you Uncle Bill was amazing? If I was doing this on my own I would have two open spaces in the fence!

Saturday we finally quit around 7 or 8. It was amazing how much we had gotten done in one day. I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to get it all done over the weekend and rain was on its way. 70% chance of rain. Well, we would see what the morning would bring. It brought rain! It was a little drizzly at first and Lee and Bill went right to town. They got the last two post in, the ones with the most rocks! And were putting up the panels. Pat and I went out to help run for tools and hold tape measures and levels.

Next thing we know, despite the mud and wind, we got one gate up and headed to the other side of the fence to get the second gate up. Once you do one, the other was a piece of cake...with more rocks.

All that was left to do was the individual slats on the two sides of the hill. Lee and I could do that on Monday night. We got everything cleaned up and headed inside for dinner. WOW! Amazing that we were able to get so much done in such a short amount of time. We let Greta out and she was like a true hound dog...nose to the ground. She was still a little apprehensive about being off the leash but it didn't stop her from checking out every inch of the yard.

Thank you AJ and Leah for bringing your muscles and "Muckers". Thank you Uncle Bill for all your hard work! You know that we would only be on the second post right now if it wasn't for you! Thank you Aunt Pat for doing all the tool running and putting up with the MUD! Hope your shoes some clean?? We are done for now. Next project...landscaping and a fireplace...made of rocks!