Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Fencing!

What a beautiful weekend we had! It was in the 80's up until today! Now it's down to 55* and rainy but it's supposed to get warmer again tomorrow. Everything is greening up and getting all springy looking. On Friday we started working on the last big fence project we have planned for around here. It is in the front of our house, so it really changes the looks of things around here. :)

I'm going to show you how we do our fencing. I didn't take pictures of EVERY step...but I did get some. Hopefully I won't bore you to death. hehe!


We use a post hole digger that is run off the PTO on our tractor. This is an AWESOME tool! We could never have done all the fencing we did in as short a time that we did it in without it.
Only problem.....our PTO shaft if kinda broken so you have to reattach it for every hole.
After each hole is dug we clean them out so any loose dirt gets scooped out. This is also the way we would have to dig the holes if we didn't have the post hole digger. :)
I know....weird pic....but then you put in the post. lol!
Fill in the hole with dirt......
......stopping every once in a while to pack the dirt in.
Every so often you will have problems....such as when the post hole digger gets "swallowed" into the ground and gets stuck. Then you have to dig 'er out by hand.
Whew, it came out! Left an awful big hole tho!


Once all the fence posts are in...You have to set corner braces just so. These get a lot of pressure so they have to have to be sturdy and firm. Notice the wire in the middle of the brace pulling both posts together. This needs to be pulled tight, so neither post can move.

This ratchet pulls the wire tight.
Tightening the wire.

After putting in all the posts you can put up the fencing. We used field fence which needs to be stretched.
This is a old fashioned stretcher, but it works great! We hook it up to the tractor and crank it using those gears.
Nice and tight!
Abigail putting fencing staples in to keep the fencing in place.

Okay folks. I will post pictures of the finished product soon. It's all done...just got to get them all loaded up. Hope you learned a tip or two here! Oh, and if you have ANY fencing question....just ask. Most likely someone in our family will know. A little something about our farm....our goal is to have our property pastured or paved. :)

Good night all!
~Bethany~

3 comments:

Regan Family Farm said...

Looks Beautiful:)

Jenna said...

Bethany,
It's awesome:)!!! What animals are you planing on pasturing there?? Goats?!

We will hopefully pasture the little "field" next to our house (by Mom and Dad's bedroom) and then sort of in front of our big barn...that's about all we can do.

Love you friend:)

~Jenna

Josh said...

Wow Bethany,
Looks great! Does the fence come right up to your garden in front of the house? Can't wait to see it in person.

BTW, great play-by-play with the pics...
God Bless,
Josh