Rebuilt
To begin again you often have to tear something down. A set of beliefs. A relationship. A fence. In my case it’s the latter. The old fence is coming down. I’m in phase two. There are two more phases after this. I’m doing it in bits because it seems less daunting. Besides there are things to do throughout each phase that require thought and separate actions. On this section, for instance, I have to move a pole to make way for a larger gate.
The old fence is coming down hard. While it may be rotted along the bottom and around several of the runners there is still enough dry wood baked in the sun to take a firm grip of the nails holding things in place. And there are several places where I used screws over the years to secure errant boards. But I’m prying and hammering and making progress. Plus, I’m backing out all the exposed nails from the boards I remove, and that takes time.
As I take the old fence down, I’m really surprised I waited so long. In fact, I’m not sure why we didn’t replace it when we bought the place. It would have made sense. Plus, I was still working and could have easily paid someone else to do the work. Now it’s just me. But that’s okay. It’s satisfying work, and I’m actually enjoying myself. I guess it’s that building things, making stuff with your own two hands idea. It feels good. It’s a way to mark out the territory of your life to say, this is mine, and I made it.