Mending Fences

We were out of town when Sidney experienced a terrible storm on April 30th of this year. Many trees were blown down. When we got home we discovered that seven of our fence posts were broken off at ground level. Our beautiful white picket fence was broken, lying on the ground, and seemed to be damaged beyond any possibility of repair. It was an attack on our home from a devastating spring storm that came on the heels of a terrible winter.

Many people sustained more damage to their homes than we did. The damage to our homestead could’ve been much worse. But sometimes acceptance of this nature doesn’t come until much later. First of all I had to get over the shock of seeing what the storm had done. Then I had to avoid the temptation of getting mad about it. Anger wasn’t going to do any good. Bargaining about the situation was also a waste of time. All the “what if” second guessing in the world wasn’t going to bring back my beloved fence. The sight of my fence lying on the ground was depressing, though. It didn’t seem fair, and it didn’t seem fixable.

Everybody experiences bad fortune in their lifetime. Sometimes it is the loss of a loved one. Other times it is a chronic illness, the loss of a job, or a financial downturn. And sometimes little misfortunes remind us of past losses. My damaged fence was like that. It reminded me of things that have not gone well in my life, mistakes that I have made, and regrets that continue to trouble me.

It took me a few weeks to face up to the fact that – like it or not – my fence was broken, and I had to do something about it. Tearing the rest of the fence down, so things could look symmetric, didn’t seem like a good option. And so I painstakingly started the process of mending my broken fence.

I carefully surveyed the situation. I measured the existing segments of fence, and decided to replicate the original fence creator’s design. I removed the pickets from the downed fence. I tried not to damage them in the process. I removed the old nails, sanded the wood, primed the bare spots, and then applied a few layers of semi-gloss paint to the pickets. It was a slow process.

I then focused my attention on the broken fence posts. They were damaged beyond repair. I dug out the “roots” of the fence posts – together with the cement they were encased in – and cleaned out the two foot holes that they came from. It was a chore. I purchased new redwood 4 by 4’s, sawed them to six foot lengths, primed and painted them, and then “planted” them into their respective holes. I used 3/4 inch gravel to stabilize them. Cement, I was told, makes the fence too rigid – and may have contributed to my fence’s inability to withstand a strong wind.

Lining up and attaching the lateral 2 by 2’s to the vertical posts was a big job, and I needed to wait for my son to come home (from college) to help me. We accomplished that task without incident. Next we used a recently purchased nail gun to attach the refurbished pickets to the laterals. That took a bit of time, but was kind of fun. The next stage of the project was cosmetic: constructing and attaching the ornamental “tops” to each of the fence posts. Getting those to look decent was a pain in the backside. After a bit more painting, the job was finally complete. My fence repair, however, had taken me all summer to complete.

Mending my broken fence was symbolic: it was a job that I didn’t want to face up to, procrastinated over, and then reluctantly started to work on. I finally realized that if I approached the problem in stages I would probably be able to get something accomplished. It could even turn out to be a good experience. And that’s how it was with my fence, and with my life . . . My fence’s “brokenness” had to be accepted, approached lovingly, and then worked on in a “step by step” manner. And maybe that’s how it is with all of us . . . My fence (by the way) now stands upright, bends a bit in the wind, but seems ready to weather whatever lies ahead.