So yesterday the wind blew steady at ~30-40 mph most of the day. In Texas, when this happens, it can result in a wicked sand storm. This happened yesterday. The sky turns dark brownish red, and it looks like something you imagine the deserts of Iraq to look like. I didn't get a chance to take any pictures, but I wish I would have, because it is something that really can't be imagined without experiencing one first hand. It lasted several hours, this disappeared as quickly as it began.

During the wind activity, a particularly strong gust came around and obliterated part of my wooden fence in the back yard. The section was supported by two landscaping timbers that are about 4 inches in diameter. They were snapped like a toothpick at the bottom, and when this happened the approximately 10 foot section crashed down, scraping along the house and taking out a 10 foot vertical gutter with it. There was shrapnel all over the back yard, and about a 3 foot section of attached fence dangling in the wind.

This is a real ass pain to repair, but it gives me an opportunity to install a gate on that side of the house, which is something I have thought about from time to time. Also, it gives me a chance to put in some steel posts to replace the crappy wooden ones the builder installed when our house was built, back in 03.

This is not my first foray into fence repair. We had a similar problem on two other sides of the fence last year, also due to wind. Each post was in the ground and surrounded by about 1 foot diameter chunk of concrete. The problem is that the concrete was put in too deep, so the wooden post is slightly under the ground, thus resulting in water affecting the strength at the bottom when the wood rots. It takes an entire day to fix, and it sucks pretty bad.

I will probably obtain all the material during the week, then begin the repair next Sunday. I am sure I will take a few photos to document the process, so if you are a real freak, you will have something to look forward too.