Cap'n Sarah

Sarah Sailing

Things I've learned from two gates and 150 feet of fence

Haven't written anything in awhile, so I thought I'd do just that for a minute. As you can see, Sarah and I have been spending most of our free time working on or around the house. Sarah's worked hard with the garden this year and seems to be taking full advantage of the fact that it's seasoned for a year. We have 4 varieties of garlic coming up in different stages, corn stalks rising fast, broccoli, squash, cucumbers, carrots, snap peas and purple [green] beans, at least 6 or so varieties of tomato (stagger planted this year!), radishes, and a few types of lettuce! That's all her, too. All I did was rototill and weed a little bit. Our herb garden is looking good...lots of mint for mojitos of course, and our wild flowers are attracting hummingbirds. Sarah followed Mom H and Mom V in breaking up some plants, so the hostas are now planted, well, pretty much everywhere as far as I can tell.

We've been punishing the grill with some epic sessions as well. It's cooked two rounds of turkey, a cow's tucus worth of hamburger and several quivers of brauts, veggie and otherwise. It's holding up well and cleans up nicely. Ironically, for all the stink I made about the necessity of a side burner, I've yet to use it. But I've a family size can of baked beans that are ready to go.

I thought a lot of Granpa and Grandma H this past weekend for a couple reasons. First, because I neglected to call Grandma on her birthday despite repeated reminders from Sarah. Second, because memorial day is lost on me except for parades in Medina and then walking to the Harrington's for picnic and playing at the park. And lastly because I spent at least part of the day shooting at squirrels with my bb gun. I'm trying to condition them to pain in the rear whenever they are on the feeder, but they seem to be conditioning to the sound of the pump on my gun instead. It's effective when I'm sitting on the stoop watching for them, but otherwise useless.

So here's a list of things I've learned from fencing so far...about fencing and life.

1. Always wear protection

On two separate occasions I would definitely have at least lost a finger nail and/or had to go to the hospital. Of course I whacked my thumb with a hammer in full swing. Surprisingly, when you hurt yourself really, really badly, curse words don't come easily. I reverted to the full-cro-magnon. I swear I've never made some of those noises in my life. Must be writ deep in my European DNA. The second occasion was less dramatic and more of a slow creeping, building pain after I almost ripped my finger off on a bit of fencing.

2. Repeating, "Fencing is not an exact science" is no substitute for measuring stuff.

3. 3' deep is two and a half feet deeper than a foot and a half.

4. 3' across the ground is in fact eight inches shorter than three and a half feet.

5. Gates are a pain in the ass.