And Speaking of Gates....

I have found desperation to be the inspiration for many gate building projects. That and children's safety. The first "project" at Tirzah's one very hot summer day. The railing slats on her porch were too far apart and you could not leave a small child on it alone. Given that we had several at the time we knew something had to be done. With each lemon drop it became clearer and clearer what we needed to do. Raid Aaron's scrap lumber, a handful of nails, and pass hammers around. It was pretty fun and we had to saw the lumber - with a rusty saw and then pass it up to to the balcony where , with lots of swings, we hammered them into place. It was a little discouraging when Damien got home and with two thwacks drove each 3" nail all the way down. But it didnt' matter. We had a secure perimiter and for the rest of the summer we couls enjoy the deck. I don't know if she took any pictures. Hopefully.

Our second barrier was caused by having no fence and us trying to make Pascha bread. We tied an assortment of things together from the garage - folding tables,( I don't know why that is blue but oh well. IT seems to be gone now) baby gates, etc. And when that was not long enough we added the outdoor toy bin to it. Once again, it worked. Unfortunately, it came a a price. The rectangle of grass under the bin, poor flimsy already half- dead and water logged thing, died and has not recovered yet. IT was 2 years ago. My father-in-law actually came and re-seeded it last month so hopefully we can get it back.







Today, I was once again inspired. Shane finished the fence- which he promised to do after he saw "our fence" but still needs more lumber for the gate. The little baby gate was doing fine until Pippin realized he could easily climb over it. So, after threatening to nail plywood across it and then realizing I didn't have any, I stole some rope from the kitchen chairs- becasue Cyril has been using all the other rope for his climbing etc. and wove it around and through a second baby gate that was too narrow to stay by itself, and ta-da. Not sure what Shane'll think. But I'm happy with it.