We've been busy here! Week before last the temps were so nice reaching the 70's and even setting a record one or two days. We spent all last weekend in the yard. Had two of Jeremiah's students over to help us chop wood and clear brush. There is so much and it's all a bit overwhelming when you look at it all. For so many years, as the trees broke and/or died, they were either left in the woods or if on the main paths/areas, pushed into piles in the woods to decompose. It's real hard to see the piles in the woods when it's spring, summer and part of fall because of the grass and the briers and bushes but come late fall and winter, it just looks, well, wild. Natural, but wild.
There's a lot of good wood in there to burn it just needs to be hauled out, cut and split. Things are different, as I am sure you know, when you work full time. Or, when Jeremiah works full time anyway. Weekends are super busy and it's still not really light enough yet to do anythings in the evenings and most of the time it's too cold anyway, so there ya go.
This morning was chilly and we had a lot of moisture last night so the trees are coated in a layer of ice which is actually really pretty to look at...from afar that is, as in, inside where it's warm. Photos wouldn't show the ice though so no point in taking one. Yesterday was frigid.
The children and I went, for the first time, to the Hutch. Library and wow, what a great place! I wish I had taken them sooner. Rachel got a library card. Unfortunately it's on the west side of town (we live on the east side) so going over there would mean a special trip unless I need to go to the Hutch. Post Office (which is also over there) but I think we'll be making another trip this week. It's just something we'll have to make a point to do, perhaps pick them up from school instead of them taking the bus and go.
Jeremiah's truck's registration in Ca. (no we haven't gotten the plates changed over yet!) is due this month and so I'll need to run over to the court house to pay the $12 to get plates and tags. I'm not totally sure how they figure out registration, but it has something to do with your property taxes. Go figure! But actually the truck will be considered "antique" so we get off paying a heck of a lot less. My car was substantially more but still less than Ca. so I can life with it. Our car insurance, by the way, is half here than what it was in Ca. There's no surprise.
The baby goats are doing just fine. They jump and play and sleep and eat. What else is there? One of them is quite friendly, he's the larger of the two (the darker one with brown spots). He's also got the most potential (as far as I'm concerned) as breeding quality. The whole, "I worked so hard to save them and they won't go on my dinner plate" thing has blown over. The fact the smaller one won't play pet goat would make it easier for me to send him to the auction but nothing will be decided until mid-summer. They were disbudded over a week ago, that's always a fun chore but they were back to jumping around shortly after everything was said and done.
We've got lots of plans in the works. I've put off the notion of putting up a panel green house this Spring. While it wouldn't take very long to do, I think putting together some cold frame boxes with either old windows or corrigated clear plastic for lids would be faster and I don't need a whole lot of room to start seedlings in for us.
Our biggest chore is coming at the end of March when we start putting in our new property fencing. Jeremiah is not looking forward to it but I really am. The task seems daunting to him I'm sure, but everything I've read tells me it's a pretty quick job, in comparison that is. If I haven't mentioned before what we're putting in, I'll explain now. We're installing High Tensile Wire. It's 12.5 gauge wire, which when pulled taught, is VERY springy. It will be 5-6 wires tall (approx. 48" tall) and "hot" (electrified). I've done months and months of research on this stuff. It's cheap, lasts longer than any other fencing and has the lowest maintenance and is the easiest to put up. What more could we ask for?
Why is it cheap to put up? Not only is it inexpensive to purchase (as low as .02 a foot for the wire), but it requires a lot less posts than traditional fencing- wire, wood, woven or welded wire. On flat terrain you can get away with posts spaced as far as 100'. It is recommended that "battens" be installed, which is nothing more than a plastic/pvc pipe with groves in it to accept the wires to keep them spaced apart between the posts driven into the ground. These pipes (battens) are not driven into the ground, the are usually only as long as the measurement from top to bottom wire. While most of our terrain is not flat- there are rolling hills-I am hoping we can get away with using wooden posts only on the most substantial hills and t posts for the rest. We will need "insulators" which are pieces that fit onto the post that hold the wires in place- though some people use large staples.
Unlike woven or welded wire, high tensile is not tightly secured directly to the posts (although I have heard that some do say not to tightly secure this type either so that the fence gives, but there isn't nearly as much give in these types of fencing as high tensile). The high tensile can be stapled but the staples are not to be driven tightly to the wire because the wires are supposed to "float". If stapled, the staples do nothing more than acting like the "batten" keeping the wires where you want them vertically, if that makes sense.
The beautiful thing about this fencing is that it is so springy. The fence line intersects a lot of trees. We get severe ice storms and if the piles of wood and broken limbs in the woods are any indication of how much actually brakes and falls, we'd be forever repairing any other type of fencing. As I've stated, high tensile is super springy with as little as 1300 lbs. of holding power for every wire! Meaning, if a limb (or tree) were to fall on the wire, once it's removed, the wire will spring back into place and not be damaged a bit. Posts may need to be replaced but where there are long stretches of flat land, providing the post is somewhat away from the fallen limb, it will have no ill affects which is the reason they recommend not putting in more posts than you need and why the wire "floats" within the staples or insulators- less is more in this type of fencing under most circumstances.
As far as fixing the fence in the event a post is broken or bent, the wires just need to be removed from the post (which is where insulators would come in handier than staples). Unlike, say, woven or welded wire, high tensile wires can be spliced (using a crimper). Well, no, take that bac. Woven and welded wire can be spliced but it's quite a bit more effort to do so and re-stretching the fence is more labor intensive. If the high tensile wires are not damaged, you just hook them back up to the post(s) and re tighten via the inline strainer.
The inline strainer is connected to two ends of the high tensile wire, tightened to a certain PSI and holds it, maybe you've seen them on barbed wire. Until I started researching high tensile I never knew what the round thing with teeth connected to the wire actually was. It does the same thing that the ratchet strap strainer does- tightens up the fence/strap ! So, you loosen the wire by the strainer, make your fix and re-tighten. In barbed wire applications, over time the wire will start to sag so you take your handy dandy strainer tool. give it a couple clicks and you fence is tight again. Woven or welded wire is a whole lotta hooplah more than that to fix.
Should I be a spokeswoman for high tensile? We'll see. As far as predator control, that's a big one for us! I've seen coyotes jump a 5 foot fence from a stand still. I know we have them, I know they are many. I know an adult goat is probably not on the menu of a coyote unless they are seriously hungry, even when hunting as a pack, which could happen, but baby goats are a fairly easy catch. We do plan to get an LGD (livestock guardian dog) but until then, and in addition to, an electrified fence is also going to be a huge deterrent. I still haven't made a final decision on wire spacing but it's going to be something like 6" off the ground, 8" from that, 10" from that and then 12" and 12" making a total of 48". As far as deer deterrent, that's not a huge concern for me. It is some as deer can carry parasites that will harm goats. I'd just assume keep them off the property and I know they have one major "highway" through the east portion of our property that they could just as easily walk along the fence line on the outside of the property line (and they do on some occasions). Believe me, we wouldn't be affecting a major portion of their grazing grounds by making ours off limits. I have read that a 48" high fence, normally, wouldn't deter deer at all, but a 48" electrified fence may be another story. However, that does bring up the garden issue, more on that later though in another post.
So, we're both sold on the high tensile. Our main pen that we can see from the house will all be re-fenced with cattle panels. Jeremiah calls it the viewing area :o). It will not be electrified and my plan is to have the goats come up to the main pan at night.
I've done a lot of reading up on electric fencing too and while high tensile and electric, to me, goes hand in hand, no everyone electrifies their high tensile. On a side note, some cattle around here are kept in with a single strand of electric wire! Can you believe that? You'll be driving along and see a herd of cattle out on an old corn field and you'd swear there isn't a thing in the world keeping them in. Upon further inspection you'll see 2 foot high rebar sticking up out of the ground every 50' to 100' and a nearly invisible wire connecting them. I almost cannot believe it. That won't work with goats and even high tensile wire fence, unless it's electrified (and I am certain of this from previous experience with un-electrified gates and fences, a goat can shimmy under), they won't stay in. So, we'll alternate hot and ground wires, have substantial -minimum 8' foot long- galvanized rods pounded deep into the ground along the fence line. The herd goat(s) will need to be trained to the fence and Jeremiah said that me being the one to throw them into it may break that trust relationship we have between each other, so I told him he could do it instead, ha ha ha ha ha! But in all seriousness, the fence is probably more of a psychological barrier than a psychical one.
All in all, while fencing approx. 11 acres seems like a large task, the hardest part will be deciding where to place posts and then setting them. I am hoping t posts can be used for much of it so we don't have to dig holes by hand (as I am not going out to buy a $500+ engine powered auger or the rental fee on a post pounder) to set as few as 10 posts when I know darn well, after fencing the majority of the property will probably the last fencing we do on much of it. As I said, the posts, unless in a hilly area, should be few and far between And, to a certain extent, pounding t posts is a pretty easy chore. After the posts are set, it's nothing more than rolling* out some wire, attaching it around the corners and poles and tightening it with the strainers.
While it's not a day job, the amount of work required will be nowhere near as labor intensive as other types and I expect to have the job done in just 2 days or so (not including any posts we may have to set in concrete). I have to call the supplier companies and see if t posts are recommended for slightly hilly terrain. If they'll be okay, we'll save a ton on those as there are already so many holding up the deteriorating twisted wire fence now. Our corner posts are still in great shape and that is the heart of any good fence. Once the wire is strung between the two posts, it's tightened a bit, line posts are then installed, the wires are attached by either insulators or staples (on wooden posts) and then the wires are tightened to about 200-250 lbs. of pressure.
*High tensile is rolled tightly on a a reel, and from what I understand, needs to be unrolled in a spinning jenny which Jeremiah can make at the shop.
At any rate, I'll continue this conversation at a later time. As for the high tensile, I believe I've talked about that enough to explain what we're doing for anyone who's interested. We'll take pictures as we go as I now there are some folks who could benefits from a real world how to. I know I'd be happy to see some blog posts of "real" people installing the stuff and not just hearing about how their uncle installed 15 miles of it in a day by himself.
Later I'll share later my research on good deer/rodent deterrent fencing that I plan to do in the garden and orchard.
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