Project #3 - Stones...why did it have to be stones?

 Well, the fence is up.  No, it isn't perfect.  Yes, I had a helluva time digging holes for the posts, which is why 1.) the posts aren't all at the same depth, and 2.) I ended up having to stagger the panels.

Everywhere I dug I seemed to hit massive boulders underground, despite the recent excavation of most of this area.  Also, the land slopes down away from the house, which would mean with this type of fencing my last panel would have been about three feet from the ground to the bottom of the panel.  I'll never use this doweled fence again, that's for sure.  Perfect for flat ground, not for this piece of property!

I ended up trying to stagger the panels to eliminate the bottom gaps by screwing them into the posts with decking screws on both ends for the first staggered panel, then for the next panel I screwed one end to the post and the other side I managed to set the dowels into the holes in the post.  I was going to do the same for the last panel, but it ended up being perfectly in line with the other post, so both ends have the dowels in the holes.  I'll have to do some creative cutting to block the open areas near the posts, but I think a few single pickets might work.  I need to cut a panel to make a gate, so I'm going to try pulling some pickets from the leftover portion to do that.

While it looks a bit messy from the back, if you look at it straight on, it's not so bad.  That one post that sticks up too high irritates me, but it's sitting on a bit of ledge.  I could have cut the post, but I honestly didn't have it in me to haul the tools out to do it at that point.  Sometimes you just have to say good enough and move on.

Not too bad for a 53 year old overweight ex-smoker.  My suggestion - if you're going to do fence, have someone there to help.  I needed Mother to hold posts and panels a few times, and by the end of the process I could barely move the panels into place alone.  It's these kinds of projects that keep my chiropractors and acupuncturist busy. 

I could have added one more panel, but I would have had to really stagger that one, so I opted to end where I did.  I've calculated the cost of the dog fence I was hoping to have installed but it's well out of my financial reach, so I'm cooking up some alternative ways to build my netted cat fence.  Today I'll mark out where I want the boundary to be and estimate my material list, and hopefully get the gate made and hung.  After that I'll need to affix some metal fence at the bottom of the panels and back-fill it with soil and large rocks to ensure cats don't squeeze under and escape, and to prevent outside creatures from digging under the fence.

Next up after this?  My pond awaits.