While it's not quite exactly the look I would (WILL!!) create, it's one of those Ah-ha! moments for me.
Last fall I took down most of the sections that had surrounded my big back yard, leaving only the north property line fence, the front section of that side, and my courtyard. I've got the eight foot sections and their 4x4 posts leaning stacked against each other. There are probably a dozen of them (no I'm not going to go out there in the middle of the night to count them).
The point is that I've got plenty to make as many of these things as I want.
And yes indeed I do want.
Because we were 'stretching our resources' to enclose as much of that big back yard as we could, we spaced the boards four inches apart. That's enough to keep Duke in and and everyone else's dogs out which was the purpose of the fence. That, and to use the historic wooden board fencing my stepdad gifted me with. It had long been in use at one of my aunt's houses, and is one of the few 'local traditional fences' left in the area.
Anyway, the boards are out there, the 2x4 stringers attached, and the 4x4 posts with them. I have a post hole digger.
What flashed into my mind when I saw the above photo was a series of 'backdrops' with scenes from The Mamm Books, or landscapes, or skyscapes, or whatever I want painted on them, at strategic places in my back yard. For that matter, when it comes right down to it I might have just found a home for the big paintings I did for the covers of Perth and Tarnos. They're on fabric that I can (hopefully) use clear poly to 'glue' to the wooden backdrops. Sealing them with several coats of the same ought to protect them from the elements, and I'd put them in sheltered places in the first place.
Because I'll be putting the boards flush instead of giving them so much space between, especially the ones getting the fabric (the others will still need gaps or our powerful winds would blow them to Kingdom Come), I won't be able to make a dozen of them. I don't want a dozen anyway.
So ...
Where do I want them and how big do I want them to be?
The Mamm ones will be smaller and inside my courtyard, for one thing. That's the most protected place for them, and those aren't so much for privacy as for atmosphere.
Let's see. How about around the back porch area? Yep.
And one over at the big back yard tree. I left a section or two of that fence standing; I can take those apart and rearrange them, add whatever more I need from the rest.
Actually, I'd really like to make that into a half circle with the big tree enclosed, extending my courtyard to include it. I can take it clear back to the chokecherries if I want. Then it would also enclose the area back there that I hate to mow because it's where the wild daisies grow. I only mow it to keep the neighbors from yapping about my too-long grass. This way I can have my daisies and they don't have to fret themselves about whether or not I'm mowing my yard to suit them. Anyone who grew up here will recognize the all-too-common phrase 'This is Fessenden' said with a shrug and a sigh. They know what it means.
Anyway ...
Extending my courtyard would also free up the lattice sections now comprising the back of my courtyard fence. The three of them will take the south side of the courtyard another 24 feet back toward the alley, just inside the property line on that side - fewer of the wooden ones I'd have to use for that!
Mm-hm ... tag off the end of that side with the wooden ones, rounding the west end and bringing it back around to connect with where the courtyard meets the SW corner of my house. I might just paint that arc with mountains and the long part with who knows what. Dunnottar might go there for all I know.
That might just use up all my sections, considering the boards will be a lot closer together than they are now. We'll have to see where we're at when we get it finished.
The north side has to stay open. That's where I drive in with my loads of firewood to throw down the basement steps, remember. Plus I park there a lot.
It's been a long time since I've thought about yard stuff. Duke uses my courtyard more than I do, and that's a sad sort of thing.
At any rate, I've got no excuse for not doing this project. I've got everything I need for it.
Well, as soon as the ground thaws enough to get the posts set I will have everything I need to do it.
I'm hoping there will be enough boards to do a bit of a surround for the back porch area. Right now that's where I've got all the big log sections stashed (and have yet to get the rest of that porch demolished). Having a project in the works right there would probably inspire me to get the rest of that old porch torn down and figure out what I'm going to do for steps (or decking, or ramping) at the back door.
I reckon I could plan on using that north door to park beside. The only time I don't park there on a regular basis is when there's snow that I don't want to have to either pack with the truck (driving back and forth over it) or shovel. It's a long way from the alley, a lot of shoveling or packing.
Anyway, if I go with that 'plan' I could ramp up from the north door area, around the NE corner of the house to get to the front door and around the NW corner to get to the back door. Because my doors sit thirty inches up I have to have thirty-foot ramps up to them. I can measure, but I'm betting it will be close enough. I'll have to rail the ramps, and rail the entry platforms, plus build steps up to them - but that won't be much of a problem once I get going on it.
See, this is how it works.
I want to put a privacy surround in the area of the back porch, which leads to taking out the rest of said back porch, which leads to what I'm going to replace it with, which leads to ramping around the whole north half of the house. Because if I'm going to ramp to the back door I may as well ramp to the front door while I'm at it. And since I have to build a back door entry platform anyway I may as well extend it around the SW corner of the house to my courtyard door, and make it the deck I want.
The problem with that is Duke.
If there's a deck going around the back of the house into the courtyard, he's going to use that thirty inch deck height to jump the fence, bet on it.
Hmm ...
Dang.
He's getting old, but he's still got a lot more spring in him than I do. He won't attempt the five foot board fence, but half that height ... yeah, he'd go for it.
So I reckon we'll skip the deck around the corner of the house for a while yet.
The rest of it though - that we'll do.
I wish there was a way to screen the whole of the back yard except for the north part I need to keep open for access to that door. BUT the meter reader dude has to be able to get to the meter on the back of the house, between the back door and the courtyard gate. I have to leave a corridor open there, which is why the main part of my back yard fence is dismantled in the first place. He couldn't manage the back gate in the winter when the snow piles up and blocks it - and heck no I'm not going to take my little old gramma lady self out there in the dead of winter to shovel him a path and keep the gate free of snow so he can get in. SO ... I can't connect my fences.
Heh heh.
It would look pretty strange to have two big fenced sections back there with a narrow meter reader dude corridor between them.
I'd go ahead and build a screen from the NW corner of my property where the north fenceline ends and take it along the alley end of my property - BUT the utility company planted some stuff right where I would love to be able to drive onto my yard in a curve (which would be inside my fence line) to the north side of my house. They already had stuff right in the middle of my yard back by the alley ... so my only drive in access is the north.
Ah well. I'll have to measure but chances are I can take my extended courtyard fence clear back almost to the alley. Then I can quit blaming them for keeping me from being able to drive into my yard from that side. IF the people who suffer from 'nosy neighbor syndrome' were to the SW instead of the W and NW I could just sweep the fence in an arc from the courtyard on around to where I need to be able to drive in and the meter reader dude would just have to follow the fenceline in from the northwest ... but NOOOOOOO ... it has to be the other way around.
Be that as it may be, I don't have enough boards to do a sweeping fenceline anyway, not without taking down the north fence too, and I don't particularly want to do that. Those posts are cemented in.
Of course ... I do have the whole great big rest of my back yard to play with ... I could drive in like I do anyway, on the north side. But I don't have to drive straight up beside the house like I do. I could complicate my life considerably, and challenge my backing up skills, by planting a section of fence across that whole area, and driving around it.
Maybe that's where I'll put one of those things like the one in the picture up there. It will be fine right up until the first time I back into it.
Yeh.
This is how my mind works in the middle of the night (and, to be truthful, the rest of the time too).
Outside projects are on my mind because the temperatures have been warming up a bit for the past little while. It's March, which is a temperamental month at best so who knows what we've got in store for us yet ... March is rarely ordinary. It tends to be either great or horrid - or both at different times. Tomorrow it's supposed to be at least sixty degrees, for example. A little later in the month it will be back down into the twenties.
One of the things I could do with that section I'm planning on putting across the NW corner of my yard, the one I'll have to drive around, is use it for a vertical garden backdrop to a raised bed garden spot. That area is by far the best place to put a garden.
And yes, this year I DO want a garden.
This year I'll just plan on building it myself and hope for rain.
Raised bed gardens take more water than in-the-ground ones.
Although I might want to try straw bale gardening, which retains water better. We'll have to look into that, eh?
But I want to do a separate post about garden stuff. This one is about what to do with those fence sections.
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