A picture that surfaced on my phone took me back in time. Momentarily, I had a longing for what once was. The back patio in our last home was hard to beat. Though you can't see it from the picture, the 10' x 50' pergola was only inches from a small pond with a waterfall that was surrounded by a flagstone area. It was a good look.
If memory serves be correctly, this picture was taken the morning after the pergola was completed. The General was out of time at the time, and I could hardly wait for her to see the finished product. It was dark when the worker's left, so I texted her that I would send her a picture the next day.
This was intended to be the last project for our forever home. That in and of itself is almost a joke. Our home was fifteen years old at the time and we subsequently embarked on many projects over the next four and a half years.
Getting back to the pergola, I was leaving home in the early morning darkness the next day and I saw them thanks to the high beams of my headlights. There were two of them. They had come uninvited, but they paid little attention to my presence. They were content to do whatever they wanted to do and didn't seem to mind that I had subsequently joined them in the front yard.
If you've never discovered two full-size horses in your front yard, you can't begin to image what that feels like. Add to it a veil of darkness and it even gets more surreal. For starters, I was shocked that the front yard gate was closed. How did the horses get in? Hurrying to get it open and repositioning myself behind the horses as I told them to take the "first left" and get out of Dodge before my over-and-under shotgun was pointed in their direction. They scurried and I was grateful.
One of the first rules of country living is: "You always leave the gate the way you find it." When the General and I first moved to Henly, several folks thought I was an inept city-dweller and didn't have the sense to pour it out of a boot with the directions on the heel. Several folks told me to always leave the gate the way you find it.
I always thanked folks for their sound advice, but I didn't need to be told to leave the gate they way I found it. Intuitively, I would have done so. My mamma didn't raise no fool. It is one of those things that makes common sense. On the other hand, maybe it wasn't so common.
As it turned out, there was an open gate in the back yard. It is the gate the workers used to haul in lumber to finish the pergola the day before. Guess what? The gate was partially open. The workers didn't leave the gate the way they found it. So, the two adventurous horses made their assault from the rear of the house. Assault is a strong word, but it doesn't begin to describe the kind of damage that two horses can do to one's landscaping. We had one small tree in the back yard that was broken to smithereens.
I don't know how long the horses were in the front yard, but there was about a four-foot-wide swath across the entire front yard where there was no longer any grass. I guess you could say the two horses left their signature on everything they touched. It was an absolute mess!
So instead of being the finishing touch, the pergola represented a new beginning. What can I say? It was not the end of the world. It could be recreated. All it would take is time and a lot of cash. We started by replacing the fence. During the period that five horses had access to our pasture, they destroyed the fence around our home.
We had the fence replaced with 4 x 4 metal posts and iron rails to go with it along with see through metal panels. I suspect it will withstand the test of time.
All My Best!
Don
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