Month: November 2019

Fencing 2019 completed

Steve HardinLeave a comment

I feel like it has been forever since I said I would be done with fencing this year but it has finally happened. I was able to finish up the new fence this weekend. It took some perseverance but I did it. While I was fencing I had an assist from the sheep in raking leaves in the yard. They also did the last mowing at the same time. The only real problem with this is they fertilize the lawn at the same time they trim it and eat leaves. This means that the three dogs have an all you can eat buffet of sheep poop and as an added bonus get to roll around in sheep urine and poop both! This makes for very odiferous pets. Its a side effect that has to be considered when weighing the benefits of not mowing.

I spent Friday stretching fence and Saturday afternoon I finished stretching fence. The only thing left was to install a gate and cover two gates and two openings with cow panels.

I opted to spend Sunday cleaning house. It was needed and I was simply done fencing. It has been a long year of fencing and despite the need to get done so I can have the fence inspected by the water conservation district for my grant, I needed a break.

On Monday, I had a new helper, code name “rain man”. We cleaned up and readied the small patch of land next to the front yard that we are going to plant Lavender in next spring. We pulled weeds and found most of the branches. I will burn them on the next burn day but we have been under an inversion so there have been a lot of no burn days.

I brought him out to help me finish the fence but our next project was lifting the back bridge over the creek. We used a handyman jack to lift up the one side then dug back into the bank to prop it up with rocks. The first time we did not have enough rocks so we went for this massive piece of old concrete that weighed 300+ pounds. It was brutal to get back up the hill then down into the hole and into position under the bridge. We did it but it was a close call to not happening.

After that we went into the barn and filled all the feeders and dug out a bale of straw. The straw was buried under bales of hay so we had to move about 25 bales. The Rain Man can sweat! He hung in there and we got the barn all ready for animals as we are going to start locking them in every night. Winter is officially here as we are now feeding them every day.

I ended up having to finish the fencing alone as the Rain Man got called into work. I did it and managed to get most of my trash picked up. Unfortunately, the tractor bucket was full so I will have to go back to get the rest of the scrap metal pieces.

Perpetual fencing

Steve HardinLeave a comment

It feels like forever before I am going to get this fence done. I snuck down on Friday evening and worked for a couple of hours and got all the H-braces tightened up. Saturday I worked on getting the first section completed. I used a 330 foot roll of new woven wire and used up about 300′ to make the entire length. I managed to get the woven wire and both strands of smooth wire up and tightened on Saturday.

I realize this doesn’t sound like a lot but each T-post takes 6 clips and I use an old nail to put them on as it is faster than the fencing pliers. My index finger is starting to develop a callous from the nail. I was going to hang the gates but I forgot to bring the anchors and impact driver.

On Sunday I brought the tools to hang the gates and got both gates hung. I started in on the longest stretch of contiguous fencing. I spliced in a new 330′ section of fencing to the 30′ and had to splice in another roll and use up about 60′ more for a total of almost 400′. It took some effort to get the fence to come up off the ground. I finally had to use some spare wire to hold it up loosely and allow the fence to be tightened. In the process of swapping fence tighteners I managed to smash my pink fingertip and cut it through my leather gloves. I had a friend come out with a metal detector and go around the old school house. He found old metal nails!! No riches to be had.

I managed to get the woven wire stretched and clipped up, I got the first strand of smooth wire up, tightened and clipped in place. I got the second strand pulled out and discovered I was 50′ short and will need to splice in a new roll. It was getting dark as we had done the fall back time change Saturday night so I just gave up and went inside. I am figuring another 5 days to get the fence completed. I am afraid I may run out of fencing staples. The last section of fence is all wooden posts and I am down to the last 20% of the bucket. A new 50# bucket will cost me around $70.

I do realize that the fence is taking a while but it is progressing a little at a time. Its not super exciting work but it is getting done and I can see the progress. I don’t mind it and it needs to be done so I can ask for reimbursement for materials from the water conservation district from the grant I was awarded.

I did spot several covey of quail over the weekend. The quail definitely did well this spring and summer. They were hollering and yelling at each other as they went through the bushes. They can be quite noisy. Annmarie took this picture on the way home as they just hung out.

We have locked the feeder cows into Alcatraz and given them their own big bale of hay and protein lick. They are getting fatted up for a January kill date.

Stewart Creek is running, its hard to believe but we have a trickle of running water going down the back creek all the way on the property now. It never runs this early.