Split Rails

At the end of the driveway are two ancient half barrels.  The wood has eroded away at the tops and it's spongy.  We priced new decorative containers for the end of the driveway but we couldn't even find real wooden barrels, only resin ones, at prices which made me expect that they should come with house elves or self weeding soil.  For another year, we left the rotting barrels, because at least they still hold soil and plants. 

  But my man had a plan....

There are too many trees on our property and an amazing number of dead ones, which had been left standing for years.  An old laundry line post had been tossed aside at the fence  line.  An old Christmas tree had been stuck in the ground as if someone thought it might spontaneously root and start growing again.  One pine, which stuck out at an almost 45 degree angle, was tied to a tree behind it, with a rope and a nylon jacket!   So over the past few years, much of this has been removed, because we were both worried about safety and keeping the yard a bit tidier.   All of the trees downed were softwoods, so we weren't going to use them for the woodstove.  Lots of the useable wood has been split and set aside for next spring's maple  syrup endeavors.    A few though, were set aside for another use.

It started with some shorter pieces, two splitting wedges and a sledge hammer.    The wedges were being alternated along the length, like they were playing leap frog.

Longer logs required two sets of hands, taking turns.

As the afternoon progressed, the pile of split rails got bigger.

And all of a sudden, a new decorative split rail fence was being positioned at the corner of the driveway.  It was a few hours work, with only materials found around the yard, with a few bits of leftover wire and nails from other projects.   It's awesome.  I can dig up the ground and put in gardens inside or around the fence and we won't need to replace the barrels at all.   Any bets on how long it takes to get the matching fence on the other side of the driveway?