Started!

     Okay.  We went to Home Depot and bought six 4X4 pressure treated  posts, three of which were 16 feet long and three were 8 feet.  Talk about sticker shock!  And let me tell you carrying those suckers from the driveway to lake front about busted our butts! That was yesterday.  It was too late to start by the time we unloaded and within 30 minutes it was pouring cats and dogs anyway.
     After breakfast today we gathered all our tools and supplies. We needed a hammer, 2 nails, string, a large L- square, sump pump, a drill, our short garden hose and the long pipe especially made for setting the posts.
     Some of the tools were in the back shed, but others were in the garage.  The ones in the garage were a logistical problem because in the garage with no room to spare sits our other project which is on the back burner while we await parts for it.
     For those of you who do not already know, that project is the restoration of a 1963 1/2 Ford Galaxie 500 and it is a really large car. We are down to finishing touches on that and currently waiting for carpet.
     Well, we have 2 driveways, 3 vehicles and a neighbor who has the local police on speed dial!  Our town frowns upon vehicles protruding onto the sidewalk and this guy has the self appointed duty of phoning the authorities each time he spots a violation!  So we had to back up the vehicle in front of the garage just far enough so that its bumper did not cross any legal boundaries.  Then we had to back the Galaxie out of the garage just far enough to get to the tools without remodeling the other car. Moving the Galaxie is a two-man job right now because the front seat has been removed for the carpet install.  Sitting on the floor and at the controls, my husband looks like one of those sweet old ladies whose head does not show much above the dash of her car  and so I am needed to direct him. Once all are safely and legally arranged, we gather up what we need and head for the backyard.
     While Hubby is unhooking the garden hose from the spigot, I run the electric cord down to the lake.  Team work!  Now comes the first fly in the ointment.  Our projects would not satisfy our creativity without sufficient flies.  The hand sprinkler will not come off the end of the hose.  So while Hubby holds vise grips to the metal unto which the sprinkler is attached, I try to twist the sprinkler off with all my might.  All that happens is the metal begins to crimp beneath the pressure of the vise grips.  This is not going to work.  Now we will have to use the much longer hose and Hubby complains that it is too long.  I tell him our other choice is to run to the store for a new shorter hose.  He trudges off for the long one and grumbling about the need to fix the short hose later because it is now no longer functional.
     While he is doing that I connect power to the sump pump and lower myself into the lake. A sump pump is designed to move water from one area to another i.e. a flooded basement.  We have no basements in Florida but in staying 'Green" we will use this pump to utilize lake water rather than water we have to pay for to sink the posts.  You see we will attach one end of the hose to the sump pump and the other end to that long pipe I mentioned earlier. The other end of the pipe will be set along side the post and the force of water coming from the lake, through the pump, hose and pipe will displace the mud and allow the post to slowly sink downward into the space left by the dispaced mud.  This is the theory. I will now emphasize 'slowly.' I will also mention the shower I got from assorted leaks in the apparatus! I figured the eight foot post would be too long, but better too long than too short.  I figured we would just sink it to sufficient depth so that it stood just the right distance above the surface.  Of course I figured wrong because the lake bottom had different plans.  After going so deep, the post would go no farther whether from gravel or clay or a submerged something or other.  Well, we (He) will just have to lop off the excess later. With one post in place it is time to do our squaring thing we brainstormed.  I pop in a nail to the top of the post, attach the string and make my way to the old dock where Hubby is waiting expectantly with the L-square and optimism.  Stay tuned!  By the way the carpet for the Galaxie arrived while we were doing all this!