Fence-B-Gone

I know you're all dying to know how it went, right? Well, here's the report:

Simon and Mikala got there early and got started with pliers and a wrench.


When Koichi arrived, the pace quickened.


By 10:30 we had quite a crowd. Pretty soon the fence was off the poles.


Now we moved on to the Herculean part of the job: getting the poles out of the ground. There were 24 of them. The first one slid out of its concrete casing with deceptive ease, but Number Two was a giant pain.



Simon's comment: "Wow, they really didn't want anyone to take this fence down, did they?"

After this, everyone was pretty well persuaded that cutting the poles off was entirely justified, though the purists did get a few more out using the old-fashioned, back-breaking method. Even with the power tools, there was still a heck of a lot of digging to be done. As news of Paul Newman's passing spread through the crowd (RIP, Paul -- we love you!) "Cool Hand Luke" references began to crop up. And there were quite a few reverse Iwo Jima moments.



I don't know if you caught that last bit: Hugh showed up after his soccer game and started handing out much-needed chocolate brownie cupcakes, leftover from a presidential debate party the night before (the "O" is for Obama). Yum!


Nathan, John, and John used some of the pipe, fittings, and fencing to close the gap we had created, so that on Monday all the kids won't be able to escape the schoolyard during recess (Sorry, kids.). Nathan won the highly competitive Most Coveted Tool Award with his double headed clamp.


Here's the result of our day's labor. Better, no?


Another result: tired, proud volunteers. Thanks so much to everyone who helped!