I am, truly, a sucker for punishment.

This weekend we built 26 feet of fence: installing a more permanent barrier separating ourselves and, more importantly, our puppy, from the outside world. This project was 3 days of 8 hours a day, arduous, dirty, slogging, hard labour. We dug eight holes 3 feet deep and 1 foot in diameter, inserted eight 4×4 posts and mixed-in 825 lbs of concrete. Then we assembled roughly 125 fence boards onto somewhere around 70 feet of 2×4. Was it the hardest, most laborious job ever done? No, but I’m not cut out for blue collar jobs. Yet I keep taking them on!

Two weeks ago, we finished our front yard. That involved 4 days of clearing rock, grading, backfilling with 5 cubic yards of dirt. I think I moved about 50 wheelbarrow-loads of rock. 5 cubic yards of dirt weighs, according to some estimates, upwards of 12,000 lbs. Naturally, upon completing this, you’d think a fence would be a slam dunk. I am a chronic underestimator.

It feels great once these projects are complete and it’s actually kind of, sort of, slightly, ‘fun’ while working on them, however, should I ever be more acutely aware of the magnitude of each task, I doubt I’d even get started.

Related stories of antagonists and frustration shall follow soon.