Finally

I finally got off my tail and started the gate repair. I dug the hole for the gate post. I could only go about eighteen inches deep before I hit something metal. Not sure which utility it was. I dug with a little hand shovel knowing there are utilities in area, so no damage done. Just couldn't go as deep as I wanted to go. I cemented it and also bracketed it to the cinder block foundation so it should be really solid and not move. I put the railing around the little slab porch and rehung the old nasty small gate. Next week is the Frog Follies and the Indy 1500 gun show, so, the other two posts and the small section of fence and new gate will have to wait until the following week. They shouldn't be nearly as bad as the main gate post. Not sure how deep I will be able to go, but I can probably go deeper than the six inches the reject that installed the original fence went. I used 75 pounds of cement for the main gate post. The original had literally a few hand fulls of cement. I don't know why the original owners didn't make the company fix it originally. It never could have been solid at all at the depth and little support it had. She is beefy now. I am putting up a six foot privacy in place of the small picket that was there. Next year, I will get a quote from a company to sink all new posts around the main perimeter to replace the rest of the picket fence. I am going to make sure I am on vacations and will be measuring the holes to make sure they are the right depth and filled properly. I will make sure they know what I want when they quote it. Most of the neighborhood has problems with their fences. If the posts were put in right in the first place, there would be no problem. Most of the companies only go about half the depth they should. The post holes should be two foot deep after the six inches of gravel is placed in the bottom for drainage. Neighbor on back of me did some repair on his and found some only about fifteen inches total with no drainage and the diameter of the holes are to small.