95 feet of penny-saving crazy...

95 feet. 29 metres. 1140 inches. 2896 centimetres. However I break it down, 95 feet of mangled, broken, rotten mesh fencing and the thorny interwoven bushes that went with it was extraordinarily hard to tear out! It took D, my very accommodating dad and I hours of back breaking, arm shredding toil, but the decrepit old fence is out and the new one goes in this week.

A little tip for anybody needing a new fence - buy the materials yourself. The money we saved doing this was amazing. Did lugging each panel, post and kick-board through our entry way nearly kill us? Yes. Is my right arm a useless, limp thing now instead of a working appendage? Yes. Will we run out of Savlon and plasters before the week is out? Almost definitely. But for every ache and pain there's a pound in the bank to be spent on something we really can't do ourselves. In this case around £600 still in the pot - not pocket change.

Of course, a few thousand cuts and bruises were  not enough in one day for us, oh no. Once the fencing had been hauled from its resting place we decided the 50 foot high conifer blocking all light from the bottom of the garden had to go too. The chainsaw died a death half way through the two foot thick trunk, so imagine D, regular-old saw in hand, butchering the trunk as me and my dad hauled as hard as possible on the rope we had tied around the top of the tree... anybody taking a stroll down the canal that afternoon certainly got some free entertainment!

Needless to say it was a bit chaotic when the huge tree finally relented and came down in one dramatic crash. If you're wondering why this post is not accompanied by photos detailing this fabulous show of our complete lack of expertise, it' because we were filming the whole thing using our lovely little camera and tripod... that is now in pieces... because the tree fell on it. £1000 saved on not hiring a tree surgeon, £100 for a new tripod. What one hand giveth the other taketh away as they say.

Amongst all the ripping out and replacing there is a voice in the back of my head saying "this is so unlike you, you don't cut down trees! You plant trees and nurture things and do all that tree-hugger hippy stuff". It's hard to see now that all the clearing out I am doing is going to make way for much, much more. Apple trees, fruit bushes, raised beds burgeoning with seasonal veg, not to mention the poultry pens and bee hive. I'm undoing years of growth just so I can start all over again! I'm sure that's some sort of insanity.

All of the noise and commotion going on in the back garden has meant we have had to face our neighbours - something I have been dreading as I have had bad receptions previously (apparently not everyone loves to hear a cockerel crowing at the break of dawn!). For once though, I was presently surprised by the humans residing either side of us. Detached from us, live a middle aged couple with an ancient little dog who were more than happy for us to take out the old fence with the promise of a nice new one. While on the other side of our wall is a lovely , elderly gentleman that is thrilled someone is finally breathing life back into our old house. He didn't even mind when some of the tree fell into his garden, narrowly missing his very expensive looking shed. All things considered, we could have come off far worse.

It feels like we have more to do now than when we first started, but neck deep in rubble, saw dust and skip hire bills is our current normal and so we are rolling with it. With lots happening without us being there in the day I'm sure I will turn up on saturday morning and find plenty more achieved, but plenty still to do.

Come rain or shine, it'll still be mine.

G