Monday, October 21, 2013

Last Rays of Sun - Fishy Edition

Saturday was "one of those days", mostly spent replacing a fence post that had cracked. I figured since it was sunny and nice, that was the time to "get er' done". Although I had no idea what replacing a fence post would entail.

I asked Neighbor John for advice on how to start and he lent me some tools, since I have almost nothing.  

The post had a huge knot that shattered just above the concrete footing. It should never have been used the way it was.

It took many hours to excavate the dirt and concrete (about 120 lbs of it). In the end, I needed several other more competent "fence demolition" people to get it out and get the new pole in. In the future. I will "H.I.D." (Hire it Done!) this sort of repair.

The hole for the new pole took 240 lbs (4x 60 lb bags) of Quickrete cement. I hope I'm dead and buried before that pole has to be replaced, because that pole is never coming out...

Sunday was to be such a lovely day.  I worked in the yard a little in the morning in the mist, but I needed to recover from the backbreaking fence work, so I kept it light.

It took a bit of time to burn off the morning clouds, but the afternoon was gorgeous.

I went to Oaks Bottom near the Sellwood Bridge with a friend.



We walked with the river, somewhere I had never been before. The fall leaves on the trees up Pill Hill and downtown were beautiful. There were so many dogs playing in the water still. My Assistant Yvette, would have loved all the pebbles along the beach, but would have hated all the other big dogs.

I got home around 4pm and grabbed a deck chair, a cocktail, and camped in the sun near the ponds.

I enjoyed the last rays of the sun while tossing a little food into the fish pond and sipping my bourbon & diet coke.

The fish seemed happy in their last little bit of sunshine too. Pretty soon they will sleep at the bottom of the pond for the winter.


Last lily of the season? Perry's Almost Black

3 comments:

  1. I'm too late in telling you this ,but, I watched the pros doing it for us. They didn't take out the old cement ...just bashed it to smithereens and popped the new one in. Still standing so I guess it works!

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    Replies
    1. A lot of the smaller broken cement chunks went back in the hole, to be mixed with new fresh. But the largest chunks came out and now I need to get rid of them.

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  2. Sunday sounds like a perfect day...one that you earned.

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