Well, I worked from dawn to dusk for the next week with no sign of the ould lad. Although I suspect he was sneaking up when I was not around to cast his beady eye over the whole proceedings.
I laid out a line where the fence was to be installed. The ould lad had determined the height of the fence should be four feet high, So I set about digging the holes for my end posts. Feck me but it was hard going and I managed a depth of about 30 inches. After liberally painting the ends with linseed oil I positioned the end posts.
I ran a builder"s line from one end post to the other. All was going to plan, I marked out where the other posts were to go and dug the rest of my holes, which took me the rest of the day.
The next day I set the remaining posts, taking extreme care they were plumb. I was now beginning to get blisters and my temper was not the best, which any passer by who dared to offer encouragement could attest to.
The following day I nailed the stringers from post to post in threes (top middle bottom) and that took me all day with a feck load of frigging mistakes, as it turned out that my pole to pole measurements weren't quite accurate FML.
The next day I painted the finished fence with a waterproofing sealer, and set about making the gate, This was not the masterpiece that was intended by the ould lad, but it looked fine to me.
I attached the gates to the fence posts and they nearly met in the middle, a long chain FTW I thought, because at this stage I was beyond caring.
I stepped back and surveyed the finished article.
To be honest each post would have challenged the Pisa Tower for degree of lean, The stringers, which looked fine close up, resembled a sine wave on speed. The gate looked like an episode of Little and Large and in summary it looked like it had been put together by Stevie Wonder whilst wearing boxing gloves.
I was dead.
Nothing for it but to march down, tell the ould lad I had completed the job and take my medicine.
We walked up together and he surveyed the disaster of a fence.
Minutes seemed to pass, although in reality it was probably seconds. He turned to look at me, I braced myself for the inevitable tirade that was to follow and he said.
"Good job son, as fine a fence as I have ever seen"
My jaw dropped and I looked at the fence and back to him and wondered was his eyesight gone.
"Cmon I'll but you a pint to celebrate its completion" says he.
I followed him down to Minogue"s shaking my head, sometimes he would surprise me, but one thing was certain he was a damn fine man and I loved him to bits .....
Priceless
