More Reuse - Cedar Rails as Posts

The basement is still coming along. I'll have some more to share on that in the coming weeks as I'm getting ready to apply some veneer to the interior of my built-in cabinets. Lately though I've been doing a little work around the house ,with the help of my good friend Patrick Lynn, and have one up coming project to build a fence around my vegetable garden to keep the rabbits, deer and raccoons out.

The property we bought has a cedar rail fence on it that has been slowly degrading over the years. I'm not really attached to the fence, so I haven't been replacing the posts as they rot. But, I have been keeping the rails as I've thought I might make a trellis or other landscapy thing with them. Some of the rails, I decided, are going to become posts for my extra high garden fence.
Here you can see I'm applying some basement water seal to the bottom 2 ft of the rails which will be stuck in some holes in the ground. Cedar is pretty weather resistant, but this will be in direct contact with the ground and from what I've seen of the fence, that only lasts so long.

Once the rails become posts, I'll paint the uppers as well with a good oil based exterior stain to keep water from wicking in through the top and pooling inside the wood behind the sealant. If I can find some discarded aluminum siding I'll make some top caps to keep water from sitting on the top end, which may compromise the stain over time.

For the fencing itself, I'm looking at a number of options, from buying new wire to collecting discarded queen size matress spring frames and painting them for rust resistance. It would be cool to do the later as I can probably get the materials for free (except the paint) and it would be less scrap in ye old land fill. I'm not uber eco, just conservation minded and that seems like a good use for mattresses I know are getting thrown out every day. The trick will be finding someone who has many to dispose of. There's always the junk yard....