Engineers, please do not read.
In my imagination and vision, the patio still has some tasks to accomplish. One of them is putting up a fence to wall off the garden compost pile (formerly Gomi-yama #2) from the sitting area. A fence would make a visible end to the space and also provide a background for my favorite smokey quartz boulder.
So the other morning before everyone was up and moving, I gathered my materials – four panels that were formerly cupboard doors in the barn, five wooden stakes that Tod bought for me at Komeri, and a wealth of random tools – and got to work.
My plan was to sink the stakes into the ground, then screw the cupboard doors on. But I soon realised that was not going to work for me. My ability to measure accurately and dig straight holes, even with a PhD (post-hole digger), is limited when I am alone at 5 am.
My problem was that I wanted to screw the doors onto the posts without any additional framing. So the 45mm posts had to be perfectly aligned. I received a really cool folding level from UltraBob, and it helped, but I wasn’t confident.
I tried. It looked wrong. I nearly gave up. My determination to get this task done and an extra cup of coffee got me through. There was rain in the forecast and my schedule was about to get busy with family and planned activities. We had invited guests to come over for Tod’s birthday and I wanted that fence hiding the mess.
So I dove into it artist style: planning backwards; adjusting as the work developed; accepting imperfections (oh, so much acceptance); and enjoying the process as well as the product.
I laid out the posts, screwed the panels to them and then positioned the fence and dug the holes. It’s not level; one of the screws is loose; I shortened the whole thing to three panels; and the warped panel on the right is losing its cladding…but the fence is up.
Like any art, it can be adjusted. When its imperfections bother me enough, I will come back to it. I will level it on a sunny day. The drooping cladding will make way for something aesthetic. I will reinforce the footings with concrete at some point, too. But it’s good enough for now.
