Out in the Woods with Hot Pink String

Since I don't have anything really writerly to talk about today, I decided to post here.  (Outside the Box = writerly stuff.  Here = everything else and also some writerly stuff.)

Yesterday, I went to Wallyworld and bought a new Christmas tree.  While I was there, I also picked up two spools of hot pink mason's twine.

Why?  Well, for the past six years we have been unsure of our property borders.  Recently, the guy to the north of us had his property surveyed.  This gave us our NW pin placement.  With this, we wanted to see exactly where that north border was.

Taking the hot pink mason's twine (the twine was hot pink, not the mason) (hot pink because that was the only color they had besides white) (mason's twine because that was the only colored stuff they had in longer length spools) and some stakes, we went into the woods to stretch a length of line from out bottom (NE) pin to the top pin.

Now, if the line had been where I thought it was previously, the whole thing would've been much easier.  I've spent countless hours clearing a path along what I assumed was our north border.  Unfortunately, I had the angle wrong because we never had western pins.  (Still don't have a SW pin, but we can calculate that from the others.)  And my line angle was off by the time it reached the road.  Anyway, there was a lot of crap we thought was the other guy's property in the way that needed clearing.  By yesterday, we'd gotten most of it cleared to the point where we felt confident we were ready to run the line.  And we were like 99% right.

We tied the bottom off to a sturdy stake and off we went.  So there we are, Hubs and I, in the woods pulling a hot pink string about the diameter of yarn, but stronger, up a steep hill.  He was in front, clearing a path, and I was behind pulling the string.  Lucky for us, no big trees were in the way.  Some little trees were sacrificed, but those were mostly buckthorn and spice bush.  Go a about 100 feet, check the angle, plant a stake.  Another 100', check the angle, plant a stake or move a stake to re-calibrate it so everything was in line.

It took us about 2 hours.  We now have four stakes in roughly the right line to make us a northern border.  We know where we can mow and we know where we can safely trounce around without wandering onto our neighbor's land.

Meanwhile, the deer kept walking up and trying to make it to the feeding area.  Then they'd see us, huff and run the other way.  At one point, when we were looking down toward the bottom, we saw a half dozen deer jumping our hot pink line.  After we finished, Hubs put out the evening feed and the deer swarmed the yard.  We ended up with about a dozen hungry does and fawns.  They had to wait a bit, but no harm done.

The hardest part?  Respooling 450 feet of hot pink string.  LOL, okay, that part wasn't hard just tedious. 

I know, I know.  Most people would think 'why bother?' but we're very conscious of property rights here at Sanderson, Inc. LLC.  Don't want to be touching land and trees that don't belong to us.  As such, there's this one cedar whose limbs hang over our yard and when Hubs mows, he's had to duck and stuff for the past six years.  Now we know that tree is ours and I'll be trimming those damn limbs.  Yay!

And of course, this means loads more things for me to do in the woods.  Woohoo.  =o)