Our Fence Gets Installed Friday!!!
We have been waiting forever for our fence to be installed, we had to wait for the ground to thaw and then for the lumber to start coming in.
Our fence guy met with us today and he said he will start Friday and should be done by the end of next week! Finally the dogs will get to spend some time outside, we have been hating it for them being stuck in here with us.
We should have about a half an acre fenced in and that will include a small gated "sub-area" for the Shibas to hang out in, so they don't get trampled by the big pups - they don't really like Ahi and Loa's play style. Their area is roughly 70' x 70' so they will still have lots of room... not to imply they will spend all their time in that... they will probably still chill with us inside.
We plan to just leave the back door open so all of them can come and go as they please.
We also have five 5'x5' covered pens being built next to the house, just to keep some of the pups in for a few hours a day, like if we run to lunch or something, or if a pup needs a timeout (also for when Loa or Lani are in heat)... only if its warm outside, of course.
They will also always spend the night inside with us.
Anyways, we are super stoked!!!!
Comments
Thanx guys! I plan to take a bunch of pics... I want to get on the roof and take some pics from above to give an idea of the layout and all.
We had to scale back the plan some due to the expense of Ahi's surgery and things, but it will still be a super nice play area for the dogs. Once we have it built we need to get some type of covered area so they have a place to lay in the shade. We also plan to plant some trees, just a few.
So once this is in, do you plan to expand the pack??
you can
make it an educational sanctuary so people would not be so inclined to
impulse buy a puppy that they wouldn't be able to handle as an adult.
Today there are two 'free to good home' adult akitas who were outdoor dogs 24/7 in our local paper. Poor things.
It sounds great Brad. However the thought of an open door policy worries me, just because I have heard so many stories of dogs going over or under fences.
Then again, you guys are home all day, so you will have a constant eye on them.
Jen - Other than the male Akita later this year that we are getting from Emilie there are no those plans for more pack mates... I think we have added enough dogs for now.
Brandon - Is your concern other dogs coming into our yard, or our dogs getting out?
We have given the fence a lot of thought and our fence guy will be using a type of wire that gets berried in the ground a bit to help prevent the digging. We have also been considering adding "Coyote Rollers" (thanx to Patty for posting about them) to help keep dog in/out of the yard.
Jen also doesn't plan to leave them out w/o her being in the living room watching them... but that is not a full-proof plan. I'll admit, we are a little freaked about the idea of them spending a lot of time out there, but I think they would enjoy it.
The good thing is there are really know main roads close to us, the closest is 4 miles from here... but they can still get there pretty fast if they ran.
of buildings, trees, hills, etc. that if our dogs got away, it would be
near impossible to figure out even the direction they took off in!
our fence got started today... I took some "before" shots on Thursday:
Front, parking area:
Back corner:
Side (back door):
Back Side (back door again):
View from the back door:
Progress today...
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Close-up of the posts:
You do know that, although we all like you and love the spam, we dislike you a bit every time you show those great views you have...(kidding)
Yea, it's a lot of land we are fencing in... it should be a lot of fun for the pups. I think you are right Dave, it will end up dwarfing the house. lol. The posts are huge, but it's needed to keep Kona from climbing out.
Don't hate us for our views, please.
Yes! They made a lot of progress yesterday, all but two posts are now up. They will be adding the rails and the Latias in the front of the house. Latia are basically small branch-less aspen trees, we are using those at the front of the house (in front of our cars) to give us some privacy. We wanted to do it along the side of the house that boarders the road/jeep trail but we had to cut costs. Latia fencing is like $25/foot while the other is like $13/foot.
I think everything will be complete on Wednesday! They're fast, I guess they have done this before.
We also found out the Latia fence will be 8' tall! We didn't really plan for it to be that big but I guess the fence guy did... Should be interesting.
Anyway, here is the progress from day 2 (they didn't work over the weekend), click on the images to see larger versions:
This is the start of the "Shiba Area", this is where they will hangout if the big dogs are being to rough, it ended up being more like 70' x 50':
Closeup of the Latias:
They are putting the rails on today!
So I just spoke to the fence guy and he has to get the wire from Albuquerque, so it is looking more like Friday before it will be complete.
yea, you would think, but the Wed. date was given to me by one of his workers so I was not surprised when it changed.
Ok, it's looking more like a fence today...
sorry the lighting quality is not so good, the sun was setting and I had to crank the ISO up to get anything to show up.