Good Fences

       They say good fences make good neighbors, and I hope that’s true. 

       Today, workers finally arrived to put up a wooden privacy fence for us – after I went through extensive approval processes with both the neighborhood association and the city.
       The benefits of this will be twofold, at least. First, Olympia will be free to run in the yard without being able to just run away. We are pretty sure she really likes living with us, but she is a herding dog and seems to have a need to ‘secure the perimeter’ of any area where she is. If there is no perimeter, she tends to keep on searching until she finds one. So we thought we’d better have one in place. Which reminds me of a joke one often hears about Saskatchewan – the place I grew up.They say it is so flat there that you can watch your dog running away for days.

       The second benefit to the fence is that our neighbors won’t be able to see that we aren’t caring for our lawn nearly as well as they are caring for theirs. 

       A neighbor from across the street came over one day last week to introduce herself to me, and her dogs to Olympia. Then she commented on our lawn. She told me that neither of the previous two owners of our house had watered the lawn – meaning it hadn’t been watered by anything more than rain for the last eight years. 

       I thought it looked pretty good, considering. It’s not like a putting green by any means, but is still alive and somewhat lawn-like, even if it is a light greenish-yellow-brown color.

       Then my neighbor, in a not –too-subtle assumption that I would be different, proceeded to tell me about the alternate nights watering schedule. She also told me that she believes our home’s ancient sprinkler system does not have timers to turn on and off during the night hours, so that it will be understandable if perhaps we don’t abide by the watering schedule.She certainly wouldn’t tell on us, she said with a warm smile.

       I didn’t reveal that Tom and I also have no intention of watering our grass. 

       One of the distinguishing features of our newly-acquired home is that it was built in response to the energy crisis of the late 1970s to be more environmentally sound than many other homes.This has little to do with the reasons we bought it, although it does explain many of the unique architectural features we found so appealing. 

       Still, we feel it would be reckless to ignore our new home’s environmental benefits, and suspect the previous owners felt likewise. Probably like them, we think it is a ridiculous waste of resources to water grass – especially in a part of the country that is either on the brink of drought, or fully in drought.

       And we certainly do not intend to get into a “my grass is greener than yours” or “my power mower is better than yours and has a refrigerated cup holder” neighbor one-upmanship competition. 

       At the same time, another benefit of not watering grass in a place often on the brink of drought is that the grass doesn’t grow that quickly – or need mowing as often. As Tom and I have no intention of ever mowing the grass ourselves, a failure of the grass to thrive will mean a saving of our monetary resources too. In fact, when the owner of a landscaping company came by to ask for business (sent by a neighbor perhaps?), she actually seemed to agree with me about my plans, and said they would only cut when the grass needs it – rather than on any sort of once-a-week schedule. I scheduled her first visit for the second week of September. 

       So, the fence is going up, and I only wish it was going up faster. I look forward to getting to know my neighbors better, and hope that if they can’t see my yard, we may even become friends. 

       And the yard itself will remain a private greenish-yellow-brown space for Tom, Olympia and me – and the occasional grouse, bunny and butterfly.

       One final wonderful thing about the fence is that my parents are paying for it, and we are very grateful for that. 

       In return, we have offered them naming rights for the fence, just as major donors are able to name sports stadiums and hospital wings. 

       And if anyone else wants the right to name any other part of our home, we can also offer the chance to name our new custom bookcases, our new interior railings, our (hopeful) hardwood floors of the future, our (hopeful) new kitchen cabinets and lighting of the future, our (hopeful) bathroom remodels of the future, or our (hopeful) eventual installation of solar panels and/or a micro-wind turbine. 

       Kindly contact our lawyer (me) for details.