For many people, poet Robert Frost
captured the essence of fences when he
wrote "good fences make good neighbors."
But in the case of an historic
fence restoration at the Morrill
Homestead in Strafford, Vt., it turned
out that good neighbors make good
fences. Blake Spencer, a builder living
close to the homestead, passed by the
decomposing homestead fence almost
every day on his way to work, to the
post office, or to the town hall. And he
developed an itch to rebuild it.
The remains of the 120-year-old
fence flank two sides of the homestead,
a Gothic Revival-style cottage that was
designated a National Historic
Landmark in 1960. Although partially
rebuilt in the '60s, the fence had