Hard Truths

The fence ... is complete-ish. We were so bagged on Sunday afternoon that we opted to leave the final step - the gate - for another day. It was a long process which actually didn't present us with too many road blocks ... except one which didn't really turn out to be a block - more of an inconvenience.

Because the ground here is pretty moist they strongly recommend you put concrete in the post holes to secure the fence. We were trying to work out how many bags we required. My Dad guessed about 14 bags total.

I had a couple errands to run and needed to pick up the concrete so my Dad stayed to level all the posts. I went to Home Hardware and between myself and the customer service rep we figured that I'd need 52 bags. Huh. It said on the bag that it would fill a 6" diameter one foot deep hole. We had twenty six 2 foot deep 8" diameter holes. That equals 2 bags per hole according to the directions. It sounded like an awful lot of concrete to me and in fact it had to be delivered as it was over 3000lbs. My truck would have had a coronary.

My Dad was skeptical when it arrived. The bags themselves are 66lbs each. Brutal. Back breaking. Exhausting. Mix a wheelbarrow of one bag, tote it to the hole, pour it in the hole, tamp it down, back to get another bag ... it took almost 3/4 of a bag per hole so ... we had a clear 34 bags too many.

Anyone guess why? Because the pole takes up about 60% of the hole. Spatially adept I am not.

We hemmed and hawed a few moments over where to store the balance of the cement until the next day when I could return it. We were warned, and in fact my Dad was already keenly aware, that you *cannot* get cement wet in the bag. Like ... even a little bit. We debated between storing it on plastic and putting a tarp over it or putting it in my truck despite the weight. We ultimately decided on putting it in the truck because with my luck it would rain and I'd have a cement bunker outside my house. Moving 34 bags of cement into my truck was the absolute end ...

Good thing we did though because it POURED that night. Phew. So the concrete was returned by splitting the weight between the truck and my parent's minivan and all is well. Those posts aren't going anywhere. We were so tired I forgot to take any photos but trust me ... there was a lot of cement.