A little shake-up

Saturday morning I was awake and reading in bed...and suddenly it felt like someone or something under my bed was turning over.  What the heck??  Then it happened again.  Really creepy!  How could that be happening...shaking my bed like that???  After I got over the shock...and looked under the bed...discovering nothing...I settled down into some rational thinking.  Could it have been an earthquake?  As a matter of fact, it was!  The epicenter of this 4.9 quake was  about 30 miles away as the crow flies. 

My old fence is so weathered, it's starting to fall down.  It wouldn't take much of a shake-up for more of it to go.  So, I decided it was time to take off the top rails, remove the wire fencing stapled to the posts, and pull the posts.  Some of the posts are so rotten at ground level, they just broke off; but some are still in the ground too solid for easy removal.  But, I got started, anyway.  It's time to spiff up the place before it starts looking a little too ghetto. 

I'm putting nails and staples in a green bucket.

The fence represented one of the structures my neighbor Earl helped me build over 30 years ago, shortly after I had a house built on the property.  Earl brought over his tractor and post hole digger, and we spent many days getting this fence built.  I learned a lot from watching and helping him:  how to measure the placement of the posts, how to get the fence height even, how to use both 8' and 16' 2X4's for the top rail, how to staple wire fencing and get it tight.  I was so pleased when it was all done. It outlined a portion of my property line to the west and to the north. 

Well, several years ago I  purchased a few more acres to the west.  So, the fence really doesn't reflect  accurate boundaries anymore.  Neither does it serve to keep anything in...or anything out.  It served its purpose, but it's time for it to come down. 

Talk about shaking- it -up, the recent storms and winds have been shaking loose dead needles off the pine tree and several pine cones have been dropping too.  I have quite a collection of pine cones from the last few years.  I need a  great idea for a holiday project, using pine cones!!  I'll take suggestions!