f1ssure

I am feeling very accomplished this morning. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not very handy. I try hard, but my skills lie in other areas. Last fall, after a big rainstorm, on an afternoon I actually took off from work, I am sitting at my desk and I hear a big thud out back. An old tree finally gave way and fell. No one was hurt and only a neighbor's fence was slightly damaged. However, there was collateral damage - my mom's clothesline was connected to that tree as well as the woman's who loves behind us. And apparently, this is a fucking huge deal. So.. last week, my dad asks for help digging a post hole to set a clothesline pole in with concrete. And the neighbor's are going to help. allegedly. Oh, and did I mention that for almost a week straight before it rained and that I got all my handyman skills from my dad.

So... I start digging the hole that has to be two and a half feet down and strike water at a foot and a half. Sorry I can't translate this into meters for my UK and Aussie friends The last foot is all mud. Fun times. Then I tell my dad that we can't pour concrete into a foot of water. He does not know this. He drives to the hardware store to confirm. Every four hours for the past week, he checks the water level in the hole that is steadily decreasing by about an inch and a half a day. By the way, still no sign of the neighbor or his sons.

This morning, we go out to mix and pour the concrete. It went well and the clothesline pole is set in the ground, level, centered, and the concrete is drying. The neighbors are in Virginia. The big test will come when we hang the clotheslines on it and put clothes on it. And yes, my mom will insist on letting the neighbors attach their line to it and the wife will likely bake us a pie or something for our troubles. I do see one problem - I don't think the post is high enough off the ground. Only about 4 feet. My mom picked it out and approved it before we set it. And now it has 60 pound of concrete around it's base, so it HAS to be good enough.