Corey came over and asked if Brennan could
hang out with us at two intervals during the day. Once while he took Janell to work and once
while he was at his second job and Janell was on her way home from work. Time to be substitute grandparents again.
Meanwhile, we finally got started on our
fence on the west side of our house. I
met our contractors/hard workers, Nathan and John, at Home Depot to buy the
materials. Not that I would have any say
over what was to be purchased. I was
there for my credit card. We also had to
make a stop at American Fence Company to get rot boards and an anti-sagging
kit. Who knew that you could buy an
anti-sagging kit? And at a fence store,
no less? I thought you’d have to go to a
high end spa or maybe a beauty parlor for something like that. Anyway, the costs actually came to a little
less than we expected, so that was a definite plus.
The guys arrived at our house shortly
thereafter, with April in tow. She said
Nathan forced her to get out of bed and come help. Always glad to see her, though. Oh, and I really liked her shirt. It said, “Y’all need Jesus.” Yup. Sure
do.
The demo phase went fairly smoothly. We had to tear down the old fence, pull up a
lot of Chris’ plants (She had plenty to
spare. She gave one huge bag of stuff to
April to spread around among her friends), and chop down a tree. And all that before the actual fence work
could begin. We also started tearing
down the old chain link fence in the back of the yard. That’s the home of Chris’ prized
wisteria. When we finish that project,
it will truly be a sad day.
Finally Nathan set the line and spray-painted
the grass to mark the area for postholes to be dug. John came behind him with the post hole digger. Then they placed the posts and poured the concrete. All was going pretty well. In fact Nathan mentioned that this was the
least four-letter-word-inducing fence that he had ever built. Ah. We
should have known that was an omen of the bitter moments to come. All the posts were set for the fence. All that remained were the two that would
hold the gate. The first hole went
fine. And then Nathan began digging that
last one.
And he hit a bit of a snag. Well, not a snag so much as a … water
line. And not a little crack,
either. He broke it. Water started flowing all over the place. We were all running around like chicken with
our heads cut off. I showed them where
the meter was to shut the water off. Of
course it hadn’t been cleaned out in months (Hmm. How are you sending me
accurate bills every month, City of Galveston?). Nathan started digging. I located the cutoff tool and got it to
John. They finally got everything shut
down. I offered to call the plumber, but
John suggested we wait and see if they could fix it on their own. Sure enough, they patched it together. After an appropriate wait time they checked
the seal. Not so good. They cut that section out to try again. This time we had to race over to Village
Hardware to get some more parts. Just got
in under the wire of their closing time.
Weekend Plumber John went back to work, and this time everything held
and we were back in business. Once it
dries and sets we can rebury it and move that post location over a bit.
However, it was rapidly approaching time
for softball. Cailyn and John’s daughter
Alexis both had games, and their Dads (and
a certain DadDad and Nani) wanted to be there. The water repair worked great, so we covered
the hole to let the connection set overnight along with the cement in the post
holes. Now John and Nathan have to work
today (both are fire fighters, so they
have a 24 hour shift to cover). That
means we’ll have to go another day without a fence. Well, I mean Freddy will have a day without a
fence. She was quite confused when we
took her out and she realized the fence was gone. Couldn’t tell if she secretly wanted to bolt
or to run back in the house and hide. We’ll
see how this goes …
1 Corinthians 13:6 says, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices
with the truth.”
Father, thank you for the hard work John
and Nathan put in yesterday. Please give
them a restful day at the station. Amen.
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