Our new house has an unfenced yard, so S’s priority was to build a fence asap, for Dozer and Sam, especially Dozer so that he can have a place to run around freely and do his “business” without being on a leash.
It was expensive to build a fence even by ourselves. Also, it would take a lot of work and time to get this done, so I told S about the idea of just building a small fenced-in area for Dozer. That way S wouldn’t feel overwhelmed. It’s not that he’s afraid of work. He’s amazing at renovating stuff, even starting from demolition. He faces challenges like a total warrior, putting in 110% effort. But once he gets into a project, he would “abuse” himself to get it done asap while still feeling “overwhelmed” by the other things on his to-do list. However, he preferred to build a full fence around the whole backyard – 400 ft.
Before starting the fence, he cleared out the yard. It was a total overgrowth – trees everywhere, and the ground was completely covered in leaves and vines.
First, he mowed all the leaves down; second wrestled with branches, hacking and yanking vines off the ground; third chopped down the trees, loaded all the mess into the trailer, and hauled it off to the dumpster. Sounds easy and simple, right? but it was a massive job, and it took a lot of skill, patience, focus, and determination to get it all done, especially since he did it all by himself.
Removing branches
To take down trees and chop them up, S used everything — ropes, a chain, a handsaw, and an axe. Especially, he rented a small excavator to dig out the stumps and drag the logs. Though he picked smaller trees, those stumps were a pain. They had deep roots, and the excavator was small with a short crane, plus the ground around them was uneven. However, S still patiently and skillfully got them all out. Watching him on the little excavator, bouncing around, I was praying it wouldn’t tip over. But it was also cute because it was like he was playing with a toy.
I have no idea how many trees he took down, but he filled up the trailer at least six times. And surprisingly, he rigged up the posts on the sides to make the trailer taller so he could fit even more stuff in there! I also have no clue how he got the heavy logs and branches in there. I wasn’t out there much while he was working, just going out every now and then to bring him a drink or a snack, or just ask if he needed anything.
Since it wasn’t cheap to rent the excavator and the truck to tow it home (we paid around $300 per day, I think), S made sure to get this money’s worth and used every single minute he could. He was in the yard early in the cold and didn’t stop, even when the sun went down. He’s a workhorse. I’m constantly amazed by his drive and how hard he works.
After filling up the trailer with stumps and branches, he hauled it all off to the dumpster. He didn’t have to do that – the county comes by every so often to pick stuff like that up. But S didn’t want a mountain of leaves, logs and debris sitting in front of the house.
With the yard cleared and ready, S was finally able to move forward with his next big task – building the fence. Will update soon.
Begin life at forty 