Howdy everyone! Been up to no good as usual! Fence building project.

Howdy old friends! Well, been way too long since I came to visit. I've just been so damned busy my head is spinning. Beyond working 12 hours a day I spend my free time putzing around the house. This summers projects include a fence, a retaining wall, and some irrigation. I'm also working on rebuilding the engine in my garden tractor since I was not happy with the knock that developed in the motor. No time for the veggie garden development this year. The job sucks by the way, but I've decided to give it a year to plug the hole in my resume. Attached is a link to a gallery of some of the fence work I've done, about 1/2 way finished. The wood this year seems to be worse than the past few years, though I have no evidence. Just seems as though I've had to replace numerous boards on my fence as they dry out and warp.

Please excuse the hidious state of my yard and house. I've not watered anything but the trees and shrubs just to keep them alive. Since I'm pushing dirt around, building a fence, laying irrigation, about to build a retaining wall, AND I'm down to only my push mower, I'm not doing much of anything for the grass. Also remember I live in a desert climate, so without water things die quickly. Oh well, I'll re-seed after I'm done. In any case, hope everyone is doing well here at Hearth. I'll try and stop by more often. Take care everyone.

-Kevin

http://pictures.aol.com/galleries/wrenchmonster/

Great seeing you again, Wrench. Sorry the job ain't what you'd hoped, but I've always believed that any job is better than no job. Good mechanics should be at a premium, so I'm sure you'll find something better eventually.

I've got a big heating project to get done this summer, and I was hoping for some rainy weather so that I can feel good about hanging out in the basement. But so far it's been a dry summer, which means my wife is after me to get some painting done. Maybe it'll get hot so that I can retreat to the basement and stay cool while I'm working.

Good to see your alive & kicking man. Looking very busy also.
That tractor looks like an oldie but a goodie. Looks like you might need to add a tire to the list also . Looking a tad on the flat side.
Fence looks great. I like the gate setup, not the typical. Looks nice.
Keep going at it, busy hands leave no time for idle minds. And we know idle minds are not good for some of us.

Glad to see you back. I always worry about positive contributors that disappear. Glad you found your way back. Seems your yard is just fine, all our Western yards are going to look a little brown this year, if we're taking care of business. Like the gate, looks like a metal worker's job, over engineered and not trusting the wood, IF properly made to support itself. Good job and clean. I like the lentil, it seems tall enough, too many I see think that 7 feet is tall enough. Stay tuned we're having lots of fun

Thanks everyone for the kudos. The fence has been an arduous task to say the least. All of the 4x4 posts were dug in by hand, with 80 lbs of concrete to secure them below, gravel base of course for drainage. Concrete was mixed OUTSIDE of the hole and poured in, as it should be imo. Posts are set roughly 7 1/2 feet apart to account for fudge factor rather than attempting to set every one at exactly 8ft. Gates are solid with the beam across the top used to tie in each post. That was kind of experiment that I'm happy with. Used 8ft posts then extended them upwards by drilling a hole dead center on top and splicing in another 4x4 using a 6" piece of rebar as a pin, then the fence boards lap over the joint to create a solid post and arch. I suppose I could have used a longer post to begin with, but overall I think the effort turned out well. I'm sure Don could come up with a far stronger fence than I, but I believe the gate will not sag... only time will tell. Those gate kits I bought at home cheapo for $30. They are quick and dirty, and don't look too awful bad in my opinion.

I do agree UR that a good all wood gate can certainly be built, but the brackets allowed me to construct and set up each gate in only 1/2 an hour. Yes BG (congrats on the moderator status by the way) the fence will be used to hold in the pups. Hence the burial of the 1/2" hardware cloth along the inside edge to stop any tunnel escape attempts. I never understood why the old fence did not contain the usable land to the property line. The new fence is 16" back from my property line and will give the dogs a little more leg room.

Hey HG. Yeah, idle hands are indeed a curse. Does help to keep the head clear. The tractor is an International Cub Cadet 102 built in the early '60s. Has a Kohler 10hp motor. Some folks collect them, some build them for garden tractor pulling, but mine is a dedicated mower. Not too concerned about the looks as long as it runs well. LMAO... the tire... that's a story. The rear tires are actually new (spendy little guys by the way) but the LR keep going flat over the course of about 2 weeks. Though I'm not at all a fan of the stuff, I think I'm going to add some tire slime in there. I'd never use that stuff on a car, but for a tire I might change 15 years from now I think the slime will be okay and should stop the slow leak.

EJ, I hear you about painting... just the pits. Though the results are rewarding, the task is no fun at all. Don't think I'll go back to wrenching professionally. It's funny, but not wrenching full time is the one aspect I enjoy about the new job. Now I actually look foward to coming home and wrenching on my own projects... like I did as a teenager. When wrenching for a living the last thing you want to do is go home and work on your own projects. So in a way my interest has actually been re-vitalized as a hobby rather than a vocation.

In any case, thanks again guys. It's good to be back and welcomed back. I have a lot of reading to catch up around here, lol.

-Kevin