Fence Building Day 1 & 2

In preparation of getting Mikita in a few weeks, we decided to fence in the back yard.

We can't let this cute get lost can we?

After much deliberation, we decided to build this thing ourselves. We have a lot of back yard and would save a lot of money doing it ourselves. So we took two days to dig the corner posts and the post by the house. We knew we would have to hand dig the house posts. Especially since we were digging in my flower bed. We wanted to get the four corners in also so we weren't wasting time squaring up come next week. It was a really good thing we did too.

The first two posts were super easy. Travis and his dad are both perfectionists so they took a while, but they look good.

  

Side one looks really good.

Thom even came up to help.

 The first four holes went well and we ended for the day. We were glad we did them and we found out our plot map was wrong. The fence is twelve feet longer then originally planned.

We debated back and forth on finishing the other two holes on Friday. Travis and I were exhausted and we had a lot of other things to finish before Easter. In the end we decided to go ahead and get them done. That way I could make sure that my measurements were correct. I was going to need to order more supplies anyhow.

Thom thankfully came up again to help. Everything was going great until the last hole.

We hit a wire. We had previously called 811 and they cleared the entire backyard. We knew that was wrong because we knew the internet cable was back there but we had a pretty good idea of where it was since we watched them put it in. Nothing was supposed to be in the few feet of the backyard. Yet we hit what was obviously a phone line.

First we called 811 and they came back out. After they marked the phone line they also marked the internet line. We were less then six inches from hitting it with one of the posts we already had in. That was close. We were told that most likely the phone line was abandoned but we needed to wait until the phone company came out to confirm. We were also told that the line should never have been in our yard and should not have been only seven inches down.

So I then called AT&T. It took a long time to get an actual person. Apparently they only want to talk to their current customers when it comes to issues. I hate phone prompts that lead to seven other layers of phone prompts. I was told that even though I had the box number that the line came from they couldn't tell me if it was live or not. I was assured that someone would be out before eight. Since it was already six we decided to call it a day.

Eight pm rolls around and no tech. I called them back and after seven more prompts I finally talked to someone. I was informed that they were not sending out a tech and would hopefully have one on Saturday. I told them not to bother, I was cutting the line and finishing my hole.

We checked with all of our neighbors and no one has AT&T phone service. So we don't fell bad about cutting the line this week to finish our fence. We ordered the remaining items we need and will pick them up Sunday and finish the corner post Monday morning. Hopefully next weekend will go smoothly and we can finish the fence before Mikita gets here. Only three more weeks until our German Indian puppy arrives!