Posts Tagged ‘fence’
Partial Accomplishments
It was kind of a slow day yesterday at Wintervale. We are approaching the first freezing overnight temperatures, so it is time to pull the pump out of our little landscape pond, and drain all our hoses. I got part way through that project. It has been that kind of week for me. I seem to only get part way to completion on everything I choose to do.
We had some luck with Delilah behaving well, a couple of days ago, so I gave her some time off-leash. I was walking around the area that I recently mowed, on the north side of the driveway, taking measurements for future fencing, and she was having the time of her life. She was running back and forth at amazing speed. It was going so well, I offered to take her for a walk through our woods. She bolted down the trail, getting way ahead of me. When I got to a place I could see her, she was facing the neighbor’s woods, locked in on something.
I called her, but she had tuned me out, and then she darted through the rusty barbed wire fence that separates our properties. I didn’t see her again for about half an hour. Our period of lucky good behavior had come to an end. While waiting for her to come back, I killed time by pulling Buckthorn up by the roots. Upon her return, she got shuttled directly to her kennel where she spent the rest of the day.
I tried to do some work shaping the main drainage channel beyond the paddocks, but it was too soon after a recent rain, and my boots and tools became a comical mud disaster. I switched my focus to the deck, where I proceeded to dismantle our gas grill to troubleshoot a problem with gas flow. I hope it is the regulator, because I have exhausted all other logical possibilities. That’ll require a trip to the store where I bought it, to swap out that part.
As the afternoon wore on, a little sunshine appeared, so I headed down to mow the labyrinth pathways. It was still a little wet, but manageable. I guess that one did get accomplished, although it doesn’t feel like completion because, by walking the path to mow, I keep seeing all the things we still want to work on down there. I’m wondering how well it will survive the winter, and whether we will be able to walk the path throughout the complete snow season.
It wasn’t one of those dramatically rewarding days here, but that’s okay. There is something valuable to be gained from days like this. The horses have a way of dealing with things, and then just going back to grazing. At one point yesterday, I decided to go down and be by the horses, to immerse myself in that kind of energy. Being with them can provide a sense of calm.
It was good for me, but I must admit, I don’t think I could rate the visit as being anything more than just a partial accomplishment, in that regard.
Thorny Challenge
Today, Cyndie’s and my forearms look like we have been through a shredder. On Sunday, we decided to try tackling the chore of locating the old fence posts along the front half of our northern border, and then cutting out the old barbed wire. That section is a complete tangle of junk trees and vines that have been left untended for a very long time. Any area like that is bound to include that scourge, Common Buckthorn, and ours is no exception.
Cyndie had a thorn puncture her head, which we made sure to wash thoroughly and apply an antiseptic cream to, after my experience of having a puncture wound become infected, earlier in the year.
I said, “Ow!” so many times that Cyndie finally stopped inquiring as to what happened. The last one did require an explanation though, since it led to my taking a break to clean and bandage the wound. Regardless how careful I tried to be, one of the rusty barbs finally bit me, and it was deep enough to bleed a fair amount. Luckily, after washing the scrape, I found that the portion doing the bleeding was just a small section at one end that had broken through the skin.
I probably let my guard down about the barbed wire, after suffering so many stabs from the barbs of berry bushes and the thorns of trees in all the bramble. I think the thorns on the bushes were more lethal than the fence wire. Heck, they were probably the original inspiration for the idea of barbed wire.
One of the reasons we were doing battle with the tangled mess, instead of just clear-cutting it to get at the old fence, is that we want to keep as much growth as possible to maintain the visual barrier that already exists. The dilemma which that presents for me is to decide whether I allow the Buckthorn to remain or not. I seem to recall that it was originally brought to the U.S. for use as a hedge, and so I would be using it for its strengths in this location, if I keep it. But the problem with Buckthorn is that it out-competes native plants and can totally take over. I prefer a more natural diversity of native plants, if possible.
I may go for a compromise of trying to have both. I just need to be active in tending the growth in that area. When left to neglect, like happened over the years, trees grow through the fence, and send runners in all sorts of crazy angles, searching for the best sunlight. Buckthorn leafs out early in spring and holds its leaves late into the fall, creating shade that helps it to steal the light from other plants.
By the end of our effort of battling the nasty thicket, we had just a small distance completed. On the positive side, we found all 4 strands of wire, and all the old rusty posts for the distance we worked. I know the fence posts will disappear for a portion of the remaining run, and expect the wire will have gotten buried at those places where there is no bramble. At least we will be able to dig for the wires without getting stabbed all over our bodies!
Growing Grass
I have developed a new fascination with growing grass, which seems funny to me, since I put so much energy into not growing grass during the 25 years we lived in Eden Prairie. Now, as I drive through the countryside, I take note of the neighbors who have grass fields for cutting hay. There are a couple on the way into Ellsworth that look pristine, and have inspired me.
The other thing that inspires me is watching the horses graze. I want to give them the best of what they want, and I’d sure like to have more than they need.
Toward that goal, we decided to mow the area to the north of our driveway. Cutting down the weeds rejuvenates the grass that is already there. I used the brush hog behind the big tractor, and had to navigate around the pine trees planted in the west portion of that area, which made it a bit of a challenge.
I took pictures of the ‘before and after’ view. One of the first things you can see in these images is how the weather changed yesterday. It got chillier as I worked, becoming a dramatically different day over a span of just a few hours.
The other thing to notice is the trail we had that was cut around the border of the field. You can see how green the grass is where it was mowed. That’s what we are after.
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I wish it was as simple as knocking down the weeds to get what we are after, but it’s not. We plan to have this area for grazing, and to keep the big field for cutting hay. If we are to let the horses graze here, we need to get it fenced. How complicated is it to add fence? Now we know. We need to think ahead to where access through a gate, or gates, will be located. We have to establish the most logical perimeter, which won’t necessarily end up being the area that’s cut.
Fencing the area will block our trail. We could move the fence that will contain the grazing area in a bit, to leave space for a trail around the outside, but that can tend to make the northern property border ambiguous. The existing property border has remnants of rusty barbed wire fencing, which we want to replace. If we update the border fence line and fence the grazing area inside that, we end up with double the fence.
That’s a tough decision for me. I don’t want more fence, I want less fence.
It’s not as simple as just cutting the area to get everything we want, but at least just cutting it will be a pretty simple way to grow grass. That’s a start.
Horses Run
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Get out and run, they did!
We accomplished some significant steps yesterday, and that allowed us to open up the front field to the 4 horses.
First order of the day was to finish covering the old existing fence on the far side of the field. The type of fence that previously existed around that field, which we kept intact along that back side, has 4″ squares of woven wire. We were told we should cover those to keep a horse from putting a foot through. It took several days, with Elysa’s help, to finally get it hung the full length
, working our hands raw through a variety of weather, running out of material part way, and negotiating the tangle of old growth along the entire length.
It was a major milestone, and key to feeling comfortable opening the space up to the horses.
Before allowing them out there on their own, Cyndie wanted to walk the horses, two at a time, along the inner perimeter of the fence-line to familiarize them with the border. That causes a bit of a stir, because those who are left behind make a big fuss. Cyndie and Elysa took the horses for a walk,
and I stayed behind to watch each of the remaining pairs calling out to their missing herd members.
The final thing we did prior to letting the four of them out together was to energize the electric fence. It wasn’t immediately needed while they were initially in the paddocks, but we want them to learn to respect our fences, especially around the front field, so this was the time to finally turn it on.
They didn’t go near it while we were around, so we haven’t witnessed whether they have received their first lesson or not. When the gate to the big field was opened, they stepped out a short distance and immediately began to graze the new territory. It was a little anticlimactic.
Slowly, they increased their range of movement out there, eventually getting out of sight over the hill. My curiosity got the best of me and I headed up the hill with my camera to look for them. They were doing great, grazing in some really lush grass. As I lifted my camera to capture the moment, they spotted me and came running. It was kind of funny, looking as if they thought they weren’t supposed to be there, or something.
As I walked back into the paddock, they decided to follow me, so we closed the gate behind them and I went back to finishing the chore of wrapping the trunks of the two trees there, so they won’t chew them up.
At the end of the day, they seemed pretty happy with their situation here, having gotten a taste of that grass they knew was on the other side of their paddock fence.
Needless to say, we are pretty happy, too.
Idea Realized
Carrying on with yesterday’s theme of ‘before and after,’ this time I compare my design concept with the actual end result. Last night, I searched out the images I created back in February to mock-up what our idea for a hay shed and new driveway loop might look like. I see now that I didn’t put enough attention toward getting the scale correct.
If you were following along back then, you may recall that my first mockup attempt had the shed at the wrong angle. You can see that one on the right.
When I realized that mistake, I took a second shot at it, rotating the shed, bringing the size up a bit, and then adding some fence. In the end, we didn’t use the two-tone wall that the barn has, but we were able to match the colors close enough so that the two buildings look like they belong together. Unfortunately, the seasons don’t match in these two views, but otherwise, I think you can see that we came pretty close to achieving our vision for the hay shed and driveway loop.
Stay tuned to see the realization of some of our other visions in the days ahead…
Precious Present
Our fence contractor called the other day and during our conversation he asked if we liked dill pickles. Of course we do! But do we like them a lot? That’s a hard thing for me to measure. How much is a lot? Next time he stopped by, he unveiled a gift of a gallon jar filled to the brim with fresh homemade dill pickles. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a jar of pickles that big. It looked like A LOT!
After Cyndie and I unsealed the jar, we quickly decided that it probably wouldn’t be enough pickles to last us very long. There is something about them being homemade, produced locally, by someone we know, presented to us as a gift, that enhances the essence of a food beyond anything a commercial product could ever achieve.
I think there is a feature related to the fact that there are so many pickles, we are subconsciously moved to grab two every time the jar is opened… because there are plenty! We happily oblige the urge.
By the way, the fence around the front field was completed yesterday. That’s a milestone I was wondering if we would ever see. We’ll take a breath and then start plotting our next phase. We are contemplating whether we have it in us to take on doing some of the next fence work ourselves. The main disadvantage I see in such a plan is that we’d lose the opportunity to be the beneficiaries of some pretty spectacular homemade foods.
Tom and Sue Sherry of Best Built Fence Company have been very, very generous about sharing produce and custom concoctions from their personal kitchen. It is a wonderful gesture, and has produced some very precious presents for us over the past 10 months.
We are hoping that we have made a connection with them that will last well beyond our initial client/contractor relationship. Looks like we are off to a good start, as we have been invited to their “booya” at the end of this month.
Slow Process
Last year, late in the fall, we kicked off our big fencing project, enlisting the services of a fencing company to remove a portion of old fences, including some very old barbed wire that was entangled in years of tree and brush growth. When that work was done, the ground in those areas was a mess of deep divots with tangles of root remnants protruding every which way.
Two giant piles of root bundles and brush were created from the tree debris that was removed. Slowly and methodically, we worked to burn those piles through the winter and spring. Meanwhile, the fencing crew moved on to build new fences, creating our two paddock areas attached to the barn.
The incredibly wet spring disturbed most of our progress and planning, and the areas of dirt and divots that were too muddy to go near, fell to neglect. We ended up leaving them for nature to address. They eventually became less conspicuous beneath a cover of grass and weeds that grew through the summer.
A couple of weeks ago, when the excavator was here to dig the trench for our new water line to the paddocks, they dug two huge holes and buried what remained of the piles of root bundles that never did burn.
Last fall, a large pile of cut logs from those trees was left at the bottom of our back hill for me to split and stack for firewood. Yesterday, I finally got the last of that pile moved up to the top, near the wood shed.
The uneven terrain remains to be dealt with, but 9-months after we started that first phase of our initial fencing project, we are just now feeling close to having completed the entirety of that goal.
Of course, I still have all that wood to split and stack, but that task will get lost in a never-ending exercise of firewood production here. There are a couple of perfectly burnable dead trees waiting to be felled, and a few new ones that came down in the spring snow-pocalypse, that are all awaiting being cut into logs.
Mission Creep
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but our simple project to install fences on our property, in preparation for safely securing horses (in case we should ever get any horses), has grown well beyond the scope of our original intentions. Planning and budgeting doesn’t really factor into dreams and inspirations as well as we need it to. Now we are in the midst of a water management project, that was triggered when trying to finish the front fence, and it became obvious that we could benefit from a gate in the front corner, but the access from the township road was on the other side of a drainage ditch. How are we going to pay for this? Creatively.
My favorite camera returned from the Canon service department yesterday afternoon, so I took some pictures of the new culvert being installed, to test the camera out.
Big Day
Lately, every day seems to be a big day around here, but yesterday was bigger than most. We had excavators and fence installers working at the same time at two different locations on the property.
A ditch was dug to lay in a water line and an electrical wire to supply an on-demand water station between the two paddocks, which will be heated to keep from freezing. They need to move a lot of dirt, to get below the frost line, and to make a ditch wide enough to be safe for a person down in it. It was a fascinating process to watch.
The backhoe is like a toy. I can see why there are “big machine” camps where adults can go to “play” with them.
The man running this one was a real artist. After they finished with the water installation, he drove around behind the barn and shaped the ridge beside our new driving lane. Then he moved out to the fields where he buried what remained of our two brush piles.
They worked non-stop till after 6 p.m., pausing only briefly for lunch.
Now that the work requiring the backhoe is complete, they can finish the fence around the paddock.
If we don’t pay attention, these paddocks will be ready for horses, and we won’t have yet prepared to bring some on. We’ve been waiting so long – since we moved in last October, really – it would be a shame to have not prepared in advance for the moment we’ve dreamed of for a long time.
After all that waiting, it suddenly feels like things are moving real fast.
That’s good, but also, a little scary.
Got Boards?
Progress continues on the fence project. I think they chose to attach the boards on the lower end of the paddock now, so they won’t need to be working down in the muddy areas in the coming days, since temperatures are predicted to remain high in the afternoons for the next week.
There is still a lot of snow in the fields that has yet to melt. The drainage ditch beyond the paddock now has a babbling brook flowing, non-stop. Last night, just before sunset, I followed the flow to the end of our property toward the south, and discovered that it doesn’t immediately drain into the ditch that exists along the border of our property line and the farm fields next door. It is spreading out to form a large wet spot on the edge of our cut field.
I can tell, now, why some of that wasn’t already cut when I was mowing the area with the brush hog last fall. It probably remains wet most of the time, when we aren’t experiencing drought conditions.
Maybe I can dig it out a bit, in order to encourage the pooling of water (instead of fighting against it), creating a small pond. It may take a few years of seeing the seasonal tendencies of water behavior here, before I take that kind of action. Ultimately, my goal would be to work with the natural tendencies, and not endeavor to reshape them away from the natural. No sense digging a pond if it is only wet for a few weeks in the springtime.
I also want to be on the lookout for possible springs on the property. Most recently, we were informed there may be one near the willow tree that has now been made part of this first paddock. I am confident the future horses will help reveal the presence of a spring, if there is one there.
Something leads me to believe that the springs here will all be seepage springs that create wet spots, or dry out, depending on the amount of precipitation and ground water levels. The recent trends have delivered longer and hotter heat waves, and increasing drought conditions around here, so I am not inclined to expect any possible springs will be dependable for offering pools of water for more than short periods of time.
I have much to learn here. The last few nights I have been noticing how far along the horizon the sunset has changed already, from not so long ago.
Every day here –certainly in the period of our first year– is a brand new experience. In addition, the changes we are introducing on the property since we arrived, are reinventing the place from what it was before.
Yes, Mary, change is good!
Relative Something 