Fence musings, repair

[LCHIEN]

Neighbor behind me, original neighbor put in the fence long ago (20 years). The bottom of the boards are rotting, Now a new owner. I offered to split the cost of replacement fence late last year but he said lumber costs now are too high.
I don't have access. The posts and rails seem to be solid. OK.
Just resodded my yard.
So I am putting a piece across the bottom to hide the edges. There's 9 sections plus 2 short sections. All different widths. from 77 to 84 inches. I made some jigs to hold it in place at the desired height while I drill and set the screws. So I can do the rest real quickly.
1x8x8 treated pine ground contact are $12.37 apiece. Is that reasonable any more?
If he wants to split costs now I rescind my offer having spent all my time and $150 of material.
Here's the first one I did.


This section is behind the garage and I hang my aluminum ladder on it. It's my dad's old ladder I think its not much younger than me. I'm sure he had it in the late 50's.

I called 811 and had all the wires and utilities marked before my landscaper tilled the back yard. My idiot neighbor didn't call 811 and just tilled his back yard and cut the Cable TV line. My wife is pissed because she thinks she is going to miss the Bucks vs Nets tonight,

Sometimes I do this yard crap with the same precision and attention to detail as my woodworking projects. Is that normal?

[twistsol]

Sometimes I do this yard crap with the same precision and attention to detail as my woodworking projects. Is that normal?

For accountants, engineers, machinists, and finish carpenters, yes. For regular people, not so much.

[leehljp]

For accountants, engineers, machinists, and finish carpenters, yes. For regular people, not so much.

You got me pegged! I grew up on a farm with an acre+ vegetable garden, 6 apple trees, 4 pecan trees, 2 pear trees, a huge fig tree/bush, 2 plum trees. I have an instinctive green thumb, but don't really care for it. While I don't like the idea of wasting money on rent, I don't enjoy the maintenance of home ownership except for cutting the grass once in a while. I like nice looking yards, but I don't value it enough to "LIKE" do it myself on a regular basis. I did enough of that growing up. I "WOULD" probably enjoy cutting the grass if the lawn tractor was like today's REAL farm tractors with an enclosed AC cabin!

LOML gets a little disgusted with me because I can do these things instinctively and with precision if needed, but don't like it - and that doesn't mean that she listens to me when I tell her what needs to be done. She loves the idea of yard/garden/flower/decorative plants, but has no instinct for it, nor does she interpret the simplest instructions with what the writer meant! Internet searches and instructions do not put it into HER words. So much of yard/gardening instructions are subjective to local environmental conditions which she does not understand in relation to generic instructions.

[Carlos]

Cabling in the back yard is pretty much unheard of here. I can till all I want. The only things in the ground are the irrigation and landscape light wires I put in.

Though, I did have a split second of terror when installing a garden this past winter. Someone had tossed an 18" hunk of leftover #2 wire in the ground. When that came flying out, it took me about a second to remember that it couldn't possibly be a real electric line. There were also random bits of other trash in the ground that they just covered over when building the house.

[LCHIEN]

All the homes in this neighborhood have a "utility" easement in the last few (can't recall but maybe 6 or 10 feet) of the back property line. That means you can't build any permanent structure in this area. and that anything built can be dug up if utility work is required.
When I called 811 they took down the information and said that four separate people would come out and

• mark the gas line (yellow)
• mark the water line (blue)
• Mark the electrical power line (red)
• mark the communications lines (telephone and cable of which these one or the other or both usually include internet) Orange

Depending on the utility the stuff might be buried in either my back yard easement or the behind me neighbor's easement.
The gas line connection went from the side of my house to the back neighbor yard.
The electrical connection went straight across my backyard from side to side and was deep
The ATT main distr cable went straight across my yard and a separate line was run from the ATT box to my garage back buried very shallow
The Comcast cable line went across my neighbors backyard and a drop cable came from a box in his year to my house buried very shallow

They didn't mark it but the landscapers found and protected my sprinkler control cable that 25 years ago I ran diagonally across my back yard from the free-standing garage on one side to the corner of the house on the other side and I had only buried about 3 inches deep. In some places 3" tree roots had grown over this line and in another spot the line had surfaced on its own.