Of course, when Ruby is not fenced in, she is immediately somewhere not in our yard. This is not a good thing. And yesterday, one of the fence posts on the side of the yard got caught by the wind and demonstrated that it was completely rotted out at ground level as it fell inward and two panels tried to rotate around it, leaving a Ruby-sized gap in the fence.
I went out and made an emergency repair with Katie's help. By this morning, it had failed again.
Well, so much for my plans for the day. After lunch, we headed out to Home Depot and picked up a device specifically designed for attaching rotted out posts back to the ground. Apparently, we are not the only ones with this problem. Also more wood screws. And a four-pound sledge to drive the device into the ground before using the wood screws to attach it to the post. And (at Gretchen's special request) two new bows for the wreaths that are going up over the garage lights for Christmas shortly.
Did I mention that the ground near this post is one of Ruby's favorite toilet locations in the yard? And that we had enough rain over the last several days to turn the area into slime?
At least it was clear and sunny (if cold) today. With help from Gretchen, Katie, and Julie, I managed to pound the support into the ground, reattach the side panels to the bad post, and then screw the support into the post. I had to go out into the neighbors' yard and back a few times (because that was the side that I could screw the fence back together from), but I managed to get the job done.
I went in, collapsed in a chair, and told Gretchen she could let Ruby out.
If only I had remembered to close the gate.
Gretchen went out in the minivan and recovered Ruby shortly thereafter.
*sigh*
I hope this repair holds until spring when the weather will be fit for replacing the post. And rebuilding those two sections of fence.