Meeting Our Goals Halfway

For any number of reasons, largely to do with a small snafu in the irrigation controller that has been driving Noel crazy for two days, we didn't get the fence finished today. We did, however, get the doors for the chicken yard made and hung, which is a relief.

I did some measuring and a bit of quick math and it didn't take too terribly long to make the first door. It's got L brackets at the upper and lower corners, and some totally overkill metal connectors at the ends of the middle bar (where I figure the door will be gripped a lot). Then it's squared with a sheet of chicken wire and a wire cross-brace tightened with a turnbuckle.

Have I mentioned how much I hate doors that sag?

The first door

We went through the next three pretty quickly, then took them out back to hang them. Apart from a sort of not-very-funny circus in which we repeatedly dropped small screws into the grass, the hanging went very smoothly.

Hanging the first door

Goldie settled down to observe inside the chicken yard, and shortly found herself a prisoner.

Goldie in the chicken yard

It took longer than we really planned, but less time than it could have given my perfectionist tendencies, but soon there was a chicken yard, with dogs on the outside. (The dog up front is our neighbor Beanie, who is not well-schooled in posing with projects.) Also, check out the right corner there. Rosie was chasing a squirrel and pulled the chicken wire right off the staples, the little turd. Noel re-stapled it and will secure it against future dog infiltration tomorrow.

Dogs pose with chicken yard