The Garden Fence

It wouldn't be a weekend with my parents, if I didn't have some project for my Dad and me to work on.  This past weekend, it was putting a fence around my garden.  Probably overkill, but I was tired of the clan of neighborhood children running through my garden and I want to let my chickens have the run of the place over the winter.  Everything is pretty much done in my garden for the year, except my tomatoes and most of them are in a separate garden space. I do have a few tomatoes in the  front of my garden, but they have been cordoned off with chicken wire. 

The garden before

The blue tarp was a little run we rigged up for the chickens in the corn patch

My Dad laying out the posts

We borrowed this driller but as we soon learned, it really can't do much in packed, clay soil

Everytime I see this picture, I just hear "I'm Sexy and I Know It" in my head.

Here's the problem-hard, packed, clay dirt

So what should have taken an hour to drill 5 post holes, ended up taking 1.5 days.  

We ended up drilling a bit, pouring water in each hole, then drilling again.  We had to let the water sit overnight to get down 2 feet...Unbelievable!

The peanut gallery offering unsolicited advice

We finally got the fence up on day 2 and put AJ & his friend Jamin to work tearing out the old run that ran from the coop to the A-frame (blue tarp)

The little girls snuck out to explore 

And once 2 got out, there was not keeping the other 3 in

 It took us another few hours to finish the gate, but I couldn't help but let the girls explore the rest of the garden.  They were having so much fun!

AJ helping Grandpa work on the gate.

As the day turned into evening, I decided the kids' help was best served not next to me asking a million questions about why this was taking so long so I put them to work, digging up our potato harvest.

Essie

Chloe

AJ

Potatoes!!!!

My Mom's dog trying to figure out how to get those birds.

Sorry, Libby, you are out of luck!

 As the sun was setting, we finally got it done!

Still need to tear down the old A-frame but the girls have loved all the extra space the last few days.  Couldn't have done it without my Dad!