Recycling Fence Planks

Once upon a time I had this half fence separating my nice yard from the jungle next door. There were sections that I think were only still standing because the weeds were entwined with that side of the fence. One day some young men, boys really, decided to try and steal the car at the house behind me. One boy decided to climb her fence into my backyard. And somehow got himself on my roof. Without so much as a knock on the door, 4 cops were in my backyard yelling for said boy to come out with his hands up. He was trying to be one with my hose reel. Right. Under. My. Window.

Next morning, I am leaving for work and notice that half my fence was falling down. Neighbor didn’t know what had happened. Didn’t hear anything. I went across the street to the school and they had not heard anything that had happened. So I called the police department and they sent out one of the officers from the night before. They thought they had gone through a gate (and that it was okay to just leave the fence laying on the ground apparently).

The owner of the jungle agreed with me that we needed a new fence. That he and his son wanted to get a dog. I told him if he would pay for half of the supplies, we would get it done. He bought like 20 pickets and hauled all the rest away. That was it. I need to give him a bill I guess.

I would have saved so many more of the old fence planks had I known what I could create with them. But sadly, I only saved enough to make this one box. It sits rather nicely on my kitchen window sill. Covering up the crack that is in the front window. (They aren’t double paned, they are two sets of windows. Like the outside ones are storm windows are something). After cleaning the wood, I just used a nail gun and some wood glue to put the pieces together. I then just shellacked the whole thing to protect anything it sits on. I change it out to go with the seasons.

And I can no longer see into the jungle next door.