Fencing Project

To us the winters here are mild and we have been doing projects outside pretty much all winter long. Folks around here say this is a 100 years bad winter with a blizzard, extended cold weather, lots of moisture etc. and they hate it. We have been having fun sledding, getting stupid on the 4 wheeler, and believe it or not we even have a bit of a tan. It will get cold and then snow then it gets sunny and then 3 or 4 days later its in the 50s or 60s. I will post pictures of the blizzard that shut schools down for 14 days, froze everyones pipes (we didnt have a problem even with the trailer) and was called snowzilla on anothe post to follow so to put this in perspective this is the end of January when we worked on the fence.

The week before the big blizzard was sunny and it got into the mid to high 60s a couple of days but it was windy. Everytime we post pictures of digging post holes by hand we get comments that we should get an auger...we know and we have access to a 3 point auger for the tractor. Call me crazy but I like the exercise involved with punching through rocky soil with a breaker bar, a post hole digger, and a shovel. We set the posts about 3 foot deep and set them in concrete (we get the concrete for $1.00 an 80lb bag at Lowews by purchasing torn and leaking bags they are trying to get rid of).

It was a beautiful couple of days and everyone participated.

Judy wanted me to be sure and point out she fully participates in the projects and indeed she does, she often embarrasses us with her stamina but it motivates us to keep going.

You get a great upper body workout digging by hand like that but I cant imagine doing it for a living.

Making progress. We only put an 8 foot gate on this end of the barn because we are no longer going to be driving anything but the tractors through here. There will be a separate vehicle gate through the pasture fence in back of the oak grove that will be accessed seperately.

We are trying to make it functional first of all but also we want it to look decent. Fences are also good for planting against and this entire fenceline between the barn and pasture fence will be covered in flowering vines and bushes.

Judy wanted a people gate through the fencve as she often sits under the oak grove (you can see the bench in the background) where its cool in the summer. This part of the farm is always a bit cooler and usually has a good breeze.

In prep for the blizzard where they were predicting high winds, ice, sleet, hail, snow, and 30º below wind chills we trimmed some branches overhanging the garage and house. I had a ladder in the back of the GMC and was very careful but of course one branch hung up, swung in almost slow motion....and doink put a small dent in the truck.

The dastardly branch!! It was just a small dent but you know we try and maintain our stuff and we tend to keep things forever because of that.

Here is a progress photo taken today. Its been slow going because I hurt my shoulder and have had other projects getting in the way of finishing this. We still need to finish the part on the other side of the people gate and tie this into the pasture fence.

We decided to use cattle panels for this part of the fence...better for the vines.