A Great Plan

Back home again, rested, renewed, invigorated and with a new attitude about the fence now that I've successfully negotiated my way around the leaning oak tree.

Each morning while on vacation, early in the morning while Cheryl was still snoring away (cute snoring), laying there in our cute room at the St. Francis Hotel in Santa Fe, I worked through one strategy after another for making the fence become one with the oak, with various braces and counterweights, all so that I would not have to surrender a few square feet of property by simply going around the tree. No, I was determined to run the fence right into the tree. Somehow.

I settled on a final plan but not without a great inner struggle, and at breakfast in the Tabla De Los Santos restaurant I attempt to explain the details to Cheryl using the salt and pepper shakers and some knives and some ingenious hand gestures. Her mind was elsewhere, though, and I could not blame her. The plan was pretty silly. Looking back on it I wonder how I am able to get anything done when I have time to think instead of just do.

Still, having invested in this plan, I was determined to see it through. Back at home I put on my tool belt, my hat, my gloves, and I walked out to the site to take measurements. It could not have been more than 2 minutes before I realized what a stupid plan it was. So I ditched the whole idea, and instead I dug two more post holes and just built a box around the tree.


Yes, I lost a few square feet of property, but now we have a nice, strong fence and we don't have to worry when the next hurricane comes along.

Next: the Zen of hammering.