The Couple That Augers Together, Stays Together

When we moved into our home in June, we didn't have a place for our dogs to "live".

We have the land, but it's not fenced in. If you know our dogs at all, they are rascals! They love to run, wrestle, "follow scents", basically, they'll run off. They always come back though, don't worry :)

On day one we decided to get our backyard fenced in. However, the fencing company quoted us over $7,000!!! After some research we found that we could build the fence ourselves for half of the price. I know, 50% labor? I don't think so. We've had to wait until Jimbo was on Christmas leave to start building so that we could have enough time to complete the project so here we are!

For day one of construction, Jimbo had to work alone since I had work that day. He spent the day clearing the land of the bushes/vines/crazy thorns. These thorns are something serious! I have never seen such resilient vines with the sharpest thorns!!

Day two we rented a two man auger to drill the fence post holes. We really only had a half of a day to work by the time we got home so we were able to drill 20 holes (out of the 71 total) and set some of the corner posts and posts for the gates (10, I think).  We wanted to set those posts so we had time for the concrete to dry overnight. This auger was something else. It was so big and heavy. If I never see it again I'll be okay. The very first hole we needed to drill was right at the side of the house. We crank it up and it's going to town drilling and all of a sudden my knuckles are pinned between the auger handle and the concrete foundation of our house. It was grinding them so hard and I'm screaming "HEY! STOP! OW!" but Jimbo couldn't hear me over the motor haha! So he sees me in pain, stops the auger (since he had the handle with the gas), and switches sides with me. Then of course his knuckles get the same injuries haha. We finally finished the dang hole and have matching knuckle scars as a souvenir.

Goofing around with my best friend, The Auger.

Gate Posts on the Right

Gate posts on the Left

Day three was a drillin' day. We drilled the rest of the holes to total 71 holes. Seriously, if you've never used an auger before, it is hard work!! We also set more posts...I think 10 that day too to total 20 so far. Whoo hoo we're getting there!

Day four we set 25 posts to complete the longest side of the fence. It was a pretty boring day, but we definitely put a dent in the to-do list. 

Day 5 we set the rest of the posts to finish that task! YES!! We don't have to mix anymore concrete! We also started on nailing the 2x4's to the posts. We did about 10 posts with 2x4's until we ran out and the sun went down. 

All of the posts set

Beginning of the 2x4's

Day 6, we finished putting up all of the 2x4's. It took such a long time and we got attacked by thorns all day. Can you tell we were getting worn out from all of this? Haha!

That opening you see is going to be a gate

Obviously our land is extremely uneven and has many hills and holes so we are building the fence to fit the contour of the ground, which is why you see all of the random dips and such.

Day 7 was an easier day. It was raining and we were leaving for Florida for the holidays the next morning. We woke up and took a trip to Lowes to buy all of the planks for the next step in the building process. We got to Lowes and found the type of plank we wanted and took it to the register. The cashier scans the one plank and says "Is that all for today?" We both thought to ourselves, Yes, we drove to Lowes for one plank... haha and Jimbo says "No, I would like 1,000 of these." She replies "Are you kidding?"  The look on her face was priceless. Unfortunately, we seriously needed that many planks. I know this is probably extremely unnecessary to tell you about, but it was funny so I want to remember it years from now.

So we got the planks loaded onto our trailer (which was almost a disaster because the Lowes guys loaded it incorrectly and they were pushing our truck and trailer down the road using their forklift. Not good for our tires!). We drove the planks home and Jimbo was able to nail planks to the front part of the fence that day.

This is what 1,000 planks looks like

 We took a 5 or 6 day break to go to Florida for the holidays, but when we got back, we got right back to work! We only have one nail gun so really only one person can nail on the planks. Jimbo does the nailing of course. And I run around doing odds and ends type of things.

Day 8 of construction included Jimbo nailing planks up on the long side of the fence.

I secretly snagged this pic of Jimbo from the bottom of the hill. 

Day 9 was more nailing of more planks. Jimbo finished doing all of the sides of the fence! Whoo hoo! The last part of this project are building the gates!

Day 10 was the day of making gates. We started the day off by going to Lowes and buying a TON of different hinges, locks, etc. for the different gates we have. We have 3 regular/normal sized gates for us to walk through and then one extra large gate to drive through so we can store our trailer in our backyard and get it in and out. (Some of these pictures are out of order...some were taken before the handles were put on and some were after haha)

Big gate

Awesome new "Beware of Dog" sign from Julaina!! We love it!

After we finished the gates, we moved on to the demo!!! When we moved in, there was a fence put in by our home contractors that blocks our view of a rock pit area. However, the fence they put in is facing the opposite direction our fence is facing so we had to demo that part of the fence and turn the planks and 2x4's. This is what it looked like before:

                                                

We were fortunate enough to have the help of Juliana and Dillon for our demo! This is what it looked like after demo:

After demo

View of the back of the fence from across the rock pit

Demo

Day 11. The final day! Juliana and Dillon left this morning so it was back to just Jimbo and I for the final day. We reused the planks and 2x4's from the existing fence and just nialed them to the opposite side of the posts. Here we are near the end of the last section!!! We were SO excited to be finishing :)

My handsome man with the nailgun

Last plank!!

We drove around the neighborhood and went to the next street over so we could see how the fence looks as a whole. It's hard to see, but here is the finished product:

The people that lived on this street were looking at us like we were crazy as we creeped by and took pictures haha! Oh well! 

At the end of the day we are so happy that we did this project ourselves and that we were able to save money by doing it. We are beyond proud of our hard work. I can't even tell you how much work goes into building a fence. We could have done things the easy way and just threw up the boards, but we really put effort into making this fence as durable and permanent as possible. Some people might even think we went overboard with the cement and double measuring, but this fence is here to stay! (Because I certainly won't ever build another fence haha!!) We are so worn out, but the feeling of accomplishment outweighs any amount of exhaustion anyday! Hope you enjoyed the journey as much as we did, ha!

My birthday in Asheville, North Carolina

I can't believe I am a 25 year old now! Jimbo and I planned a weekend trip to Asheville to celebrate and to see the leaves changing colors in the mountains! My birthday also fell on Veteran's Day weekend so we had a long weekend that allowed us to travel. Before we left for the weekend, Jimbo made me an upside down pineapple cake for my birthday! This cake is a tradition for me. My dad made me one for my first birthday and every now-and-then I ask for one to celebrate my birthday. My hubby did an amazing job!

We don't own candles, so I blew out the lighter haha!

Then we were off to Asheville!

The day we got there we went to Chimney Rock State Park to go hiking since Jimbo got in for free for Veteran's Day!

A little pond in the middle of the mountains.

Chimney Rock from the parking lot

Moonshiner's Cave!

It's kind of hard to see, but this is looking down into the steep and scary cave.

At the top of Chimney Rock (2,280 ft)

A lot of people only make it to this landmark, but if you're willing to do some off-roading, you can go all the way to the top of the mountain, which is called Exclamation Point (which of course, we did haha!).

On our way up...view of Chimney Rock where we just were :)

On the way up the Skyline Trail we stopped at Devil's Head. See the outline of a Devil's Head in the side of the mountain?

View from Exclamation Point! (2, 480 ft.)

Look at the little town

Everyone carves their name, so Jimbo did it for us :)   J&S

Don't you just love that fake smile? haha!

On our way back down, these are the stairs up to Chimney Rock.

 Once we got back to the bottom you can take a 1.5 mile trail around the side of the mountain to get to  Hickory Nut Falls, which is the park's waterfall! It's one of the highest waterfalls east of the Mississippi!

On the trailThe roots of this tree were almost completely exposed.

Hickory Nut Falls

Leaving the park

Our GPS! You can see how crazy the roads were while going down the mountain. Can you tell we're from FL and don't see this often? haha!

The next morning was my birthday! We went into Downtown Asheville for some breakfast and shopping.

Downtown Asheville

Cute street our breakfast restaurant was on.

Then we took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway!! We have always wanted to experience the scenic drive and now we have! It is just as beautiful as everyone says it is. 

We saw a ton of turkeys walking around the mountains!

We headed back to the downtown area to hit up some of the shops that weren't open earlier that morning and other parks that we hadn't been to yet.

View from the parking deck. Are you kidding me? This is what they get to look at everyday while they're parking??

We had an amazing weekend and we will go back to Asheville if we ever get another chance to. It was such a nice way to celebrate my birthday! A quarter of a century old! Yikes! :)