WATTLE...WATTLE...DON'T CHA JUST LOVE SAYING WATTLE???

PRIMITIVE SLAB..MODIFIED WATTLE FENCE

Many years ago, I saw a primitive fence somewhere in Kentucky, I think.  It was love at first sight. I pledged to build a fence just like that first chance I got.  So, about twenty years ago I found a man who wanted to get rid of some wooden slabs.  Slabs are the parts cut from a tree before the sawmill begins to plane boards.  I was so excited.  I enlisted my son's help and we went about building my primitive fence. That was in the days before I had a computer or a good camera, for that matter. No pictures exist of my first attempt at building my beautiful modified wattle. I had to sell that property..goodbye my love.

Then last year, I was visiting an ancient battlefield site in Canada.....what did I spy circling a pumpkin patch.??...my heart jumped....there it was...my slab wattle fence.  Ok..pledged again to build another one of these beauties. Just so happens I live down the road from a sawmill. Of course, I paid my sawmill buddy a visit as soon as I got home.  Loaded up some slabs and other various chunks of discarded wood.  This time I "pretty pleased" my husband into gassing up his chain saw and getting after it.  Doesn't take much to make a man jump behind a toy with a blade and a motor:-)

We laid a flat stone under the first slab to protect it from rotting. We then started laying the slabs one after the other, never really measuring the thickness etc..makes for a more natural look.  weaving the design around trees and garden spaces make for a gentle flow.

I would love for this fence to go on and on, but alas no more slabs and hubby got bored and went onto another project. Perhaps one day I will make a trip to see my sawmill pal and pick up more slabs so I can wattle on and on and on....

Love this one as much as I did my first one.  doesn't take much to make me happy...an old slab of wood...laid in the right wattle . of course:-)