It took several hours riding a 1-man auger to get these holes drilled - apparently, the farmer who owned this land leached everything but the clay out of the ground, so it's like concrete for the top 3 feet. I'm using half-joints of 2" Sch.40 pipe for an 8' fence, so I had to go ~4' down.

The hole by the house was the worst because the auger kept hitting the slab, and every time it bound up, my knuckles hit the bricks. I'm surprised I had any meat left on them.

That pile of aluminum I-beams is just a fraction of the junk I need to get stored, which is why I'm using steel posts. I'll hang stuff off the inside of the fence.

I'll be the only house with a fence at the front, and the only one with an 8' fence in the front yard, but hey - I gotta be ME! :-)

It'll come up to the soffit, so I can get away with just about anything inside it.

I had originally planned to replace the boards on the neighbor's fence with 8-footers, but since he's planning on selling soon, we decided not to.

Now for the gate poles...

I have to miss my phone & cable lines when I drill the holes for the gate poles.

FIrst try & I nailed the cable DEAD center! Fortunately, the ground is so hard that I saw it before I cut it.

The little part. I might brace it onto the house later.

The big part. It's braced onto the neighbor's fence in 2 places.

It's actually bigger than it looks here. If I really wanted to, I could probably get 3 Broncos in here. The gates are both 12' wide, so I can pull anything thru to the back yard easily.

This puts it into better perspective. I was worried about the neighbors complaining, but they've all been supportive & complimentary.

The grass shows how long it took me to get the gate frames built & hung. Steel is certainly sturdier, but it's a lot harder to work with.

The weight of the frames alone affected the poles much more than I expected, but I had always planned on having a turnbuckle on each side to adjust for sag.

It's big, but it's big.

Yeah, it's big.

Today, we stained it. It's been dry for the past few days, and it was a little windy, but warm & clear.

This is Behr Premium Redwood stain & a Wagner ControlSpray. Nice hairdo, huh?

It went a LOT faster than we expected, but we used more stain than we probably should have.

Uh oh... She caught me taking a picture of her!

The outside went a lot faster than the inside, and took a LOT less stain.

The outside went a lot faster than the inside, and took a LOT less stain.

The outside went a lot faster than the inside, and took a LOT less stain.

I have just enough stain left to shoot that little part from the neighbor's back yard when I get my ladder back.

This is what I'm aiming for.

This is the last day it'll look like this.

This is the last day it'll look like this.

This is the last day it'll look like this.

This is the last day it'll look like this.

This is the last day it'll look like this.

This is the last day it'll look like this.

I set these first so they'd be strong enough when I hang the gates.

I set these first so they'd be strong enough when I hang the gates.

I bruised my butt riding that damned auger for 5 hours.

I bruised my butt riding that damned auger for 5 hours.

I bruised my butt riding that damned auger for 5 hours.

When the blisters go down, I'll think about drilling the holes for this section.

I set the first 5 posts last night & put a few stringers on today.

The rest of the posts are set, and they're about to get concreted in.

All the stringers are up, and I'm going to stain everything before the planks go on.

All the stringers are up, and I'm going to stain everything before the planks go on.

All the stringers are up, and I'm going to stain everything before the planks go on.

All the stringers are up, and I'm going to stain everything before the planks go on.

These planks are for the gates, which are under construction.

The gates took a while because of the lap joints, and all these planks were spread out for a day to dry before staining.

All these planks were spread out for a day to dry before staining.

It only took about 3 hours to hang the rest of the planks, but most only have 2 screws for now.

The gates came out better than I thought, and this may be the first time I've been really happy with the latch.

The gates came out better than I thought, and this may be the first time I've been really happy with the latch.

The black spots are some heavy mildew, but I'm hoping they'll fade fast.

The black spots are some heavy mildew, but I'm hoping they'll fade fast.

Now I get to start over on the back section...

***UPDATE***
Turns out the dirt there is too unstable for a wood fence, so I just stabbed in some green steel posts & hung green rectangular wire mesh from it. I'll probably have to install a retaining wall one day...