Posts Tagged ‘fence’
New View
Not long ago, I posted a picture of what our planned hay shed might look like, situated by the barn, and with the new loop of driveway around it. Creating it had been a rather quick effort to find a shed that looks like what we have in mind, and paste it onto the existing image. A little while after that effort, I was walking down our driveway and experienced a moment of clarity. The hay shed in that image was in the wrong orientation.
We have been mulling over how it might look, and I suddenly realized that, when coming up our driveway, the view won’t be directly in at the stored hay, you will see the side of the shed. So, I spent some time last night doctoring up another photo image.
In trying to correct for the scale, I may have overdone it a bit, and made it too big this time, I’m not sure. I also darkened the new portion of driveway, to make it more visible. However, then I went and covered it up by adding some fence for the paddock that will be going in. Here’s a representation of the current plan we have in mind:
The fence line isn’t quite right, as we haven’t exactly determined where we will be putting gates, and what route it will ultimately follow, but it helps to see it there, to envision the impact it makes on the look of the new shed in that location.
I’m feeling encouraged that it might end up to be a logical and coordinated layout, and hopefully won’t look as disjointed as I originally feared it might. Now, if the weather would just cooperate, we could start making some actual physical progress on the project, not just image-manipulated simulations of progress (even though simulations are a lot easier and a heck of a lot cheaper).
Finally Fencing?
This week, I have been getting a taste of what it is like to live in the deep freeze of winter out in the country. It seems to me that things slow down a lot more than in the big city. We haven’t had any action on the fence project, so it has been more quiet around here than any other time since we arrived. It seems hard to fathom, but during this below zero spell, the most action I have seen comes from tiny birds, and a few squirrels. You’d think that creatures with so little body mass would need to stay snuggled somewhere sheltered when it gets extremely cold, but there they are, right out in the open, picking away at the food, as if it was just like any other day.
There is another factor in the pause of our fencing work. We need to decide on a place to store hay. Before we commit to locating the paddock fence lines, we have to decide where the hay shed will be. Before we can determine the location of the hay shed, we need to decide how big it needs to be. To determine the proper size, we need to figure out what form of hay bales we will be be purchasing.
About here is where our friend Mike might point out that the old rectangle bales have been discontinued, because the animals weren’t getting a well-rounded diet. The big round bales are certainly becoming more common. If we go that route, we need to figure out the necessary attachment for the tractor to move the bales around.
One factor that will help us determine what form of bales we will buy, will come from the discovery of who we will be able to purchase the hay from. It’s not like we can just go to some pet store and pick up a grocery cart of hay for the winter. It is a little more specialized a process for the agricultural industry, and we are complete outsiders, needing to find our niche in the limited local market.
So, where do we put the fence?
Yesterday, we took another step toward that decision. We are relying significantly on the local knowledge and experience of our chosen fence contractor, and comparing his advice with the research Cyndie has done. They seem to agree on the size of hay shed that should support our plan of four horses. He seems a bit hesitant to assume we will be able to stop at owning just four, based on what he has witnessed with other clients over the years, so he continues to push us to consider ALL possibilities.
We have an estimate on materials for a shed, and a couple leads on potential carpenters with skill and knowledge to build it. We measured, again, to prove it can fit. Most significant, we came up with a way to locate the shed in the best orientation, and still allow front access to receive a delivery from a typical hay-wagon trailer. We are going to add to the driveway approaching the barn, converting it to a drive-through, to eliminate any need to back up a trailer.
With that decided, they can proceed with building us some fence …when the arctic high-pressure weather system finally releases its icy grip.
Relative Something 