Don't fence me in---on the other hand please do!

Right before I left for Durango, my dear, sweet husband put up a fence. We have been wanting a fence since we moved here, for a number of reasons. For those of you that have lived on a military base, I am sure you can relate. Yokota Air Base Housing makes everyone tear their fence down before they PCS. Yes, you read that right, they make you remove the fence. Now who doesn't want a fence. I have never spoken to ANYONE on this base who has said, no fence for me please.

In Japan, as on any island, wood is expensive and the fences on base have strict guidelines. They must be 6 feet tall, they can only go out 30 feet from your back step, if you have an end unit they will only approve so many feet off to the side and all fences must be painted the same color, a beautiful brown. Fair enough, the Air Force wants uniformity, I totally agree with uniformity, I have seen a lot of ghetto fences in my life time. A few months ago, a fence was running about $2600, that was if someone put your fence up for you and brings the wood, etc.... John has put up a few fences in his time and didn't mind doing it himself. He loves to build things. I guess what I still don't understand when fences are so costly is, WHY take them down.

We were lucky and one of John's co-workers was PCS'ing to Okinawa so John helped him take his fence down and dig posts out of the ground, rented a truck and hauled the wood over. It was a 15 year old fence so a lot of the wood was damaged. Then we had another friend leaving and they had a stack of fencing wood that was in great condition and there standing fence was in fairly good shape, so John took another fence down.

Approval for the fence took about a month, housing was definitely dragging their feet. We requested to go out 36 feet from the back of the steps and explained in the paper work that their was a giant telephone pole, which is the giant voice box (they have them all over Japan, it sounds like you are in China during the Mao era), a tree and a bush that was in the way from 24 to 34 feet deep. If you are familiar with Japanese Culture, well, rules are rules, never meant to be broken, NEVER! The Japanese lady from housing called and said, "Fence not approved, fence too big". Then I tried to explain about the tree, the bush and the giant voice box (a large speaker that plays the national anthems, screams out tactical exercise routines when the military is playing out defense tactics on the base and screams out any other impending threats of doom, typhoons, attacks, earthquakes, etc... It is really loud and annoying! It scares the kids to death.) I asked the lady if it would be easier to relocate the tree, the bush and the giant telephone pole with the giant voice box, with the giant electrical box attached or we could go out just a few feet more without going into any other yards (apparently my sarcasm was lost in translation). All I got was, "Fence too big". I asked her if she could have an inspector come out so we could show him what the obstructions were and I got, "Fence too big, inspector not approve". I finally handed the phone to John out of frustration, my 10 minute phone call that I received was going nowhere. After a few more phone calls and John's many visits to housing we finally got approval for 36 feet out and 15 feet off to the side of the house.

As John was building the fence I could tell he was really in his element, with his tool belt on and looking very handsome I might add. John had the fence up in about 3 days and we are just loving it.

Now that we have our fence up we are living another life.

Life without fence

• Anika and Alexander would scream and cry to go outside as they looked longingly out the sliding glass door at the other children playing, while I was trying to cook dinner.




• We would find random children around the age of 2 on our back porch, playing with our lighters, metal skewers, etc... no parent to be found!




• Toys stolen, our neighbors bikes were stolen right off their porch.




• Random children attending Anika and Zander's birthday parties and just helping themselves to food.




• No privacy




• Japanese housing inspector informed me one day, I needed to take the white lights off the gazebo, "No Christmas lights allowed after January 7, no Christmas lights." I told him they were decorative lights and that is what we do outdoors in the States. He retorted with,"This is not States, this Yokota Air Force Base!" I just sighed and said, "okay".




• You may not have a vegetable garden, at least that is what the handbook says, although I have seen them in unfenced yards




• When we ate lunch or dinner in the gazebo, random children asked us for some watermelon and other goodies.




• Aghhh, did I mention no privacy!

Life with a Fence

• Alexander and Anika can go outside and play at anytime without me, because they can not escape




• No stolen, no broken toys




• Quiet family dinners and lunches




• Vegetable gardens allowed




• Gazebo lights allowed, because once you have a fence the inspector has no authority over your back yard




• Privacy




• No more dog poop in the backyard, just in the front




• We no longer have to babysit random 1 and 2 year olds that wander the neighborhood for hours alone or with their much more responsible older siblings that are the mature age of 4 or 5




• Nice quiet evenings with John and winning at Phase 10,ha,ha!




• We no longer have to invite the entire 20,000 people on base to BBQ birthday parties.




• Oh and did I mention, privacy

John put the small tv outside so he can watch golf and we hung some of our plates from Mexico that Lexi our artist painted, put some more sod down, the kids now have a swing set and we have made the back garden into our little German oasis, with the exception of the daily Black Hawks that are doing maneuvers and flying 50 feet above our head and of course our friend the Giant Voice Box! Not quite our balcony in Sulz over looking the Black Forest, but we will take what we can get:) Our inspector friend can no longer torment us, at least in the back yard (he still has the front to play with).

The following in parenthesis is a song from the horse camp I used to go to in the summer, "Give me land, lots of land under starry sky above, don't fence me in....." Unless you live on base, please dear God fence me in, all you want!

The video is of the giant voice box with retreat playing and the national Japanese and American anthems, just wanted you to experience how loud it is. My voice sounds really weird, because I had to speak so closely to the mic to be heard. Don't forget to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the blog and pause the music before watching.