Thursday, April 5, 2012

The art of fencing.

 I've had animals for nearly 5 years now: goats, Dolly-llama, horses, chickens.........and it seems as if I've been working on one fence or another almost the entire five years.  On a broken shoe-string budget and no working knowledge of how to make a good fence, my fence-making results have been a bit substandard.  I've fixed fences with baling twine, chicken wire, sticks, blankets, pallets, old toy tonka trucks, freezer-chests, panty-hose.....
But I'm getting old now, I'm not a young chick.  I have gardens to tend, quilts to make, kids to enjoy.  I don't want to have to react to a goat getting out.  I just want it not to happen.  I want my fences done right.

I'm sick of the piecemeal fences and I'm sick of my animals escaping.
 Last summer my husband and his dad put in wood fence posts.  Unfortunately the ground was so saturated by the above average rainfall, that some of the posts didn't set before fall.  So we couldn't put up the wire.  Oh, and no consideration was given for corner bracing or gate bracing. 

So my next big project is just putting up the dang fence.  I'll get some fence wire, some insulators, and put the stuff up.  I'll search on the internet, scope out some local fences and figure it out.  In the words of Nike, I'll just do it.  I do realize that it may be the end of a marriage (just kidding, kind of) but I can't wait forever.  I need a gate too.  I'm tired of trying to hurl 5 gallon buckets of water over a 3 foot high rope fence.  Because the pump doesn't work and I have to haul everything from the house.  Not that I'm complaining, just stating a fact.  I'm not totally against hauling the water because I've developed some very nice shoulders over the past couple years.
                                                    I'm just thinking that it would be nice to have the fence finished so that I could move on to fixing something else, like the inside of my house.  Maybe even cleaning it, which then may lead to painting it.  Who know, getting proper fencing may lead to a whole new set of positive changes at One Old Goat farm. 

1 comment:

Snowbrush said...

I should think any decent library would have books that contained instructions on fence-building, probably in the outdoor projects section of the household building and maintenance area, but a trip to a farm supply store or a large lumber company would also be a good idea since you're right away going to run into issues of strength and longevity versus how much money different options cost.

Busy summer

So much for keeping up with this blog! Seems like there is always something to do and for that, I am very grateful! We finally have rain - i...