I'd love to know if anyone found a good solution for hanging planters from a chain-link fence rail (not from the chain link wire). I was so surprised to find such a device or planter doesn't really exist. I've got some trailing flowering vines I'd like to hang from the top rail of the chain link fence on 2 sides of my brooklyn rental backyard. I'm afraid simply hanging something from S hooks would leave a heavy container swinging/pressing back against the chain link. The window box type things I've seen online are way to small. I probably want to have these plants in at least 2 gallon containers, and securely fastened enough not to fall or swing in the wind. Anyone come across a good option or solution?

This thread got a second wind. This summer We put up our first fence after living in the house for 18 years. It is lattice and about 16 feet long and affords us some privacy on the patio. I'm still surprised to see it when I drive home. And I still find it has somewhat unfriendly feeeling, even though I chose to put it in! Without fully thinking it through at the time, the fence is part of a larger plan to make the patio usable. It is very very hot out there and inhospitable to lounging. The glassand iron table, iron cushioned chairs and large umbrella just don't meet my criteria for relaxing. Eating a meal, but not reading a book with a drink in my hand I would like to redesign the space and plant a tree for shade then I really could lounge out there...and appreciate my privacy For those who read the earlier posts, the horses across the street still get out. Last week I drove by neighbors (unfenced) yard and there was "Bella" (I think of her as Big Fella Bella) chomping on the lawn. When I couldn't find the owner's telephone number, I went back up the street, took her bridle and led her home. It was daytime and I was afraid if I told her to go home, she'd dawdle in the street and cause a car accident. Not bad for someone who 's only ridden horse at one birthday party back in the dark ages. People's answers were very interestingl. Here only one neighbor has a 'real fence. It is fancy iron and part of a plan for keeping up appearances (and surpassing the Joneses) It is the biggest butt ugly house and totally inappropriate to the neighborhood's age, history and style. Everyone who comes to the neighborhood for the first time asks about it, rolling their eyes. Yes, it needed a fence: an eight foot solid one to spare the neighbor from seeing this ostentatious eyesore. Next, finally getting around to screening our neigbor's white aluminium shed which is on an elevation, and right on the property line (totally illegal now) But he's such an old sweetheart I don't want to appear unneighborly. We often meet over the water faucet up there; he lets me hook up to his well water for summer irrigation. Love thy neighbor, love his shed. Marie

Hi Y'all! I tried to go back to sleep early this a.m. after being up for a couple of hours and it was hard to sleep because there was so much thunder and lightning. Then, when I was finally dozing off, the weather radio went off TWICE within about a 30-minute time frame. The first time was to tell me that G.M.'s county was under a Flash Flood Warning. The second time was to tell me that our county was under a flash flood warning. I did finally fall back asleep and get about 3 more hours of sleep. Randy, I remember thinking to myself in January or February that I hoped we'd have lots of thunderstorms this year because I love falling asleep or waking up to the sound of a good rainstorm, and I REALLY missed that during the drought. What a fool I was!!!! Today what I am really missing is heat and sunshine...and sleep! Go ahead and complain about the lack of sunshine and heat whenever you want. You're sure to get a lot of agreement from many of us that we want some heat and sunshine too. Courtney, Do you have a space heater? If you have one that blows warm air, you can speed up the drying of your concrete with it. That is, assuming the rain isn't pouring there like it has been here. Right now, I am on a new calendar and a new clock, different from the one we used for so many years. DH's hours have always been 'odd' because police work is not an 8 to 5 type thing, but the hours have been horrible since his most recent promotion. He's hardly had any days off, but it is finally beginning to settle down a little. However, between him getting up in the middle of the night to go to work, and our son working 24 hours on/48 hours off, our regular routine has disintegrated and no one around here is getting the right amount of sleep. Everyone is also on a different meal schedule. It has been crazy. AND, whenever we have a time when we are all three at home (4 counting son's girlfriend who is here at the house a lot) and we are about to eat a meal together, the fire pagers go off EVERY SINGLE TIME. It is uncanny. In between rain showers I run outside and pull weeds. At least the weeds come up out of the wet ground more easily than they otherwise would. Oh, Courtney, flip flop tan lines! I haven't had those in so long since our snakes and scorpions scare me too much for me to wear flip flops! Merryheart, My rain gauges do that too and I suspect it has something to do with the angle at which the rain falls or the angle at which one of the gauges is leaning. The rain gauge that is nailed to a fence post 3' above the ground always has a slightly higher reading than the one that is stuck into the ground. I think the one stuck in the ground tends to lean over a little now and then, maybe, and not catch quite as much rain. We are having 1.5" of rain a day.....1.5 inches on Thursday, 1.5 inches on Saturday (I emptied the gauge at bedtime) and 1.5 inches so far today. You have had so much more rain than us! It is coming in waves here as it rains a little, stops, rains some more, then stops again. I think it is going to be a very long and soggy day. I have been hearing the Carter County street maintenance guys on the scanner as well as some of the Carter County fire departments. It sounds like they had to close and barricade some roads in your county to keep people from driving through high water. I have also heard them discussing the removal of "sand bars" washed into some roads. It is pretty quiet here, except for one reported 'water leak' at an intersection in town. I find it hard to believe there is a water leak, but think that maybe there is a backed up storm gutter or something. Well, it is rainy and quiet here and that means it is a good time to clean the house this afternoon. Dawn

azmom- It's a question of terminology. Calculations are exact -- if we accept how math works -- but there are all kinds of assumptions that come into play in the real world of applied engineering. Even something as simple as calculating the circumference of a round object has assumptions. First, do we assume it's perfectly round? Second, how precisely has the diameter been measured?: One decimal place?, Three? Ten? And, third, what do we assume for the value of pi?: 3.14? 3.14159? 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510? More to the point, if I wanted to calculate the resistance of that fence to severe wind loading, I would need to know (or assume) the wood species of the fence posts, I would need to know (or assume or estimate) their actual cross-sectional dimensions, I would need to know (or assume or estimate) the actual fence height, and I would need to make some assumptions about how to deal with the issue of gaps between fence board edges. Even if I didn't know all of these things precisely, I could make a fairly accurate engineering calculation of wind resistance, but it would get somewhat better if I knew everything precisely. And in any case, I would need to assume a value for the strength of the wood posts based on average data for that type of wood, when, in fact, each of those posts might have slightly different characteristics. So, no matter how precise I felt my numbers and calculations were, there would still be some imprecision. In general, I'd say that engineering calculations are almost never exact, but they can be extremely accurate...accurate enough to make no practical difference. There's a reason people use the phrase: "Good enough for engineering work." It means that you get to a point where you've got a sufficient answer and further precision won't necessarily improve the conclusion. I did a calculation of the fence height using assumptions and a method that I explained, and came to a conclusion that it was about 5' high, give or take an inch or two. The method I used was the one I thought the best available based on what I had to work with. I satisfied myself that the fence was not 4' tall and that it wasn't 6' tall or 8' tall, but pretty close to 5' feet tall. If it is actually 5'-1-3/4" tall, will that make a difference to the OP?