Many people look forward to a spring vacation - a spring break. Some people go to the beach. Others go skiing. Some enjoy a staycation and don't go anywhere, enjoying the opportunity to relax at home.
Some,
however, choose working vacations. Joe
and I recently bought 21 unimproved acres in rural Virginia at the base of the
blue ridge mountains, near Sperryville. We "exchanged" our Tennessee property for
something closer to family, albeit further from our current Florida home. The
opportunity with undeveloped property is you get to create your own vision of
what your dream property will look like. The downside is that someone has to do
the work to construct that vision. In our case, that someone is us. Fortunately
my husband is a skilled craftsman who can build just about anything.
Unfortunately, my husband is a skilled craftsman who can build just about
anything. As a result, our spring break this year was spent constructing 800
feet of beautiful rolling three board fence.
All work
and no play is a little dull so we still managed to fit in some fun. We arrived in Virginia on Friday so we could
attend the Old Dominion Hunt Point to Point Races at Ben Venue Farm. If you've never attended a Point to Point
event, you are definitely missing an exceptional experience. Its all about the
tailgating, the ladies' hats, the dogs, the people, and of course, the
horses. It has the atmosphere of a much
grander, horse race affair like The Derby but all the charm of a country fair.
The day was windy but sunny and we had a great time. It makes us happy to know
that someday we will be part of this welcoming and diverse community.
Sunday we
attended The Reynolds Baptist Church early service led by pastor Jon
Heddleston. This is the church that welcomed my father as a member in his last
months when my mothers church would not accommodate his membership request.
Pastor Jon is a loving Christian who embodies the warmth we should all extend
to each other. His church doesn't judge, just opens its arms to all who will
share in its message of hope and redemption.
Brunch
was consumed at The Thornton River Grill with long time friends Dina and Mike
McDaniel. Dina has served The HSUS for more than 43 years. I've known her since
I was 10 years old. She taught me how to operate The HSUS switchboard when I
worked there in the summer throughout my teenage years.
Sister
Anne, friend Sally and I enjoyed a lovely horseback ride later that afternoon.
Early spring in the Virginia countryside could not be more beautiful. I love
the daffodils, cherry blossoms and budding trees. The natural stone fences and
rolling hills with the mountains as a majestic backdrop complete the idyllic
picture. My favorite mount, Spirit, was living up to his name after a long
winter's rest.
Monday
arrived too soon and our fence building journey began with the early morning
delivery of our wood supplies. We are used to Florida terrain and not the
engineering challenges of rolling hills
and rocky ground. We weren't sure what to expect. Turned out better than we hoped
and by midday all of our posts were laid out and marked for placement on
Tuesday.
Tuesday
saw the delivery of a Caterpillar skid steer
with nine inch hydraulic auger. Another pleasant surprise, we had all
the holes dug and 100 posts in their holes by noon. Very few rocks, mostly red
clay. I had the pleasure of raising the
4x6 posts while Joe had the "easy" job of digging the holes. Next
came the tamping and leveling of the posts so we will end up with a fence that
wasn't erected in some haphazard manner without precise attention to detail.
By the
end of the day Wednesday we had our top rail up and rolling nicely with the
contour of the land. Post tops were
angled for a fished look. A couple of
neighbors dropped by to monitor our daily progress and offer their praise and
suggestions. We want to be accepted by the farming locals so we wanted to make
sure we built a pretty fence worthy only of positive local gossip.
For some
reason, I can't seem to figure out a proper system for calculating the number
of boards required to complete a project. I had myself convinced we were 33
boards short so part of Wednesday's efforts included finding a local source of
additional corral boards. This, because our original supplier doesn't stock
them at its culpeper location. Lowes had a similar issue. Odd as we are in the
middle of farm country where you'd think fence boards would be as popular and
plentiful as the cows that dot the countryside. We were finally winners with
two alternate sources, awarding our business to the Rappahannock Farmers Coop.
Turned out I actually had 15 more boards than necessary so another trip was
required for their return and credit.
We might
have actually finished by the close of Thursday's efforts if not for the
mechanical failure of our trusty air compressor. We are not new to fence
building having built the original and now replacement fence at our Florida
farmette. Our air compressor, necessary for the use of our air nailer, has
always been temperamental but operational. She required constant supervision
and had to be turned on and off between board cutting and nailing sequences so
as not to overload the generator. On Thursday, after aggravating us for most of
the afternoon, she took her last breath-just 20 boards short of finished. Here Lowes ended up victorious as we
completed the purchase of our new Hitachi air compressor.
Friday
was our final day and our 20 boards and relocated gate were complete by 1 pm.
We could finally step back and congratulate each other for a job done.
Oh did I
mention our property is occupied by a herd of black angus cows? They are both overly curious and annoyingly
helpful daily adding their personal touch by rearranging the leveled placement
of our daily fence efforts and leaving us "fresh pies" to avoid
squashing. Without a doubt they made our
project more interesting and caused a few unnecessary delays.
All in
all, we are proud of our efforts.
We enjoyed our week and are
looking forward to continuing this journey on future vacations.
