the next big project

I know you've all been wondering what we've been up to now that our playscape building days are over. (OK, so maybe you haven't been wondering, but I'm going to tell you anyway!) For the last several weekends, we've been diligently digging holes and setting fence posts. Well, "we" in the loosest sense of the term. The Map Man's been doing all the digging and setting. I've just been telling him WHERE to dig and giving him the nod of approval on alterations and suggestions.

So since we've got all those nice new fence posts in the ground, it's time to get busy putting some fencing on them! So yesterday The Map Man cut some oak boarding to size, and we worked together to get it up on the posts. ONE... TWO....










Three!

The idea is to match the board fencing that you see in the background, which surrounds two sides of our front yard. We're fencing in the other two sides to enclose the front yard entirely, and re-fencing along the other side of the driveway (the pony pasture, which you can see in the first photo) to match. We're also dropping our driveway gate back a bit (and increasing the size) so that there's more parking outside the gates, and so that there's room to put in a gate to drive into the pony pasture without having to back down the driveway first and negotiate a tight turn. (Our hay man will thank us for that! And I won't have to worry about him getting stuck on the front lawn anymore.) The new configuration will also give me a little area outside our fencing to plant a shade garden in, which will be nice. I've been itching to do some gardening, but we need all of our currently open land for grazing, and there's just no sense in planting anything you care about in an area that hungry sheep mouths have access to. And finally, we're completing the fencing around the kids' play area to match as well. It'll keep us busy and out of trouble for the summer.

Zoo Boy had fun sorting through the cut-off pieces of oak boards. We actually brought a quantity of the ends into the house for the kids to build and play with. This is rough-cut lumber (straight from the sawmill), so the tactile feedback is wonderful and well worth the chance of a splinter or two. There's even a bit of bark on some of the waste pieces. Good stuff for the imagination.