Thursday 30 July 2020

The Rustic Arch - first instalment

26 July 2020

Way back in March, in the week before lockdown, we ordered some garden fencing and a rustic arch to frame the new path and prettify the paved area outside the kitchen.  The goods were received by the woodyard, but before they could be delivered to us we had lockdown, the immediate effect of which was that no deliveries were allowed to be made to private addresses, only businesses.  Not a tragedy, we'd just have to wait.  There followed a combination of circumstances where deliveries were offered on the only days we couldn't accept them, with the end result that fence materials and flat-packed arch finally turned up in late July.

In a rush of early evening enthusiasm, we had a go at starting the arch construction.  It is so hot, though, and the ground is so hard, that we worked very slowly and only managed to get two post-holders into the ground.  We'll probably wait until this 40o heatwave calms down a little before we try to do any more.

 The delivered items: large fence panels (to go behind the shed to keep back the brambles from the old battery boxes, so Dave can easily get to them for maintenance); one side of the arch;fence posts and holders lying on the ground; and in the distance, a couple of picket fence panels that will go along the path to separate and define the firewood management area on the right.

 The first post-holder half way in.  A sacrificial piece of wood is used to hammer the spike into unyielding ground full of rocks and gravel.  

 From another angle - hard to see in the shadow, but both posts are in, although the second one twisted a bit so we'll have a struggle to get the arch legs into them.  A job for another day!  In the little round log-edged bed is the bougainvillea we bought when we expected the arch to be delivered in spring.  In the end we had to plant it to keep it alive, so now we are building the arch to it, rather than the other way round.

The top of the rustic arch - hopefully it'll look quite nice when installed.

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