Posts Tagged ‘temporary fence’
Last Steps
We are down to the last preparation steps before erecting four new shade sail posts. I have been holding off from doing this work because we wanted to minimize the disruption to the horses’ normal routine. Since they appear to be coping just fine with the changes I’ve made prior to yesterday, Cyndie agreed we could temporarily relocate where we hang their feed buckets. That meant I would no longer need the hoakie fence I put up a few days ago, and instead close off the small paddock entirely.
I quickly went to work installing a different temporary barrier that finally allowed me to remove boards from posts, pull up a second post, and relevel two leaning posts on either side of the waterer.
Using all that I learned from pulling the first post, trying to straighten a leaning post, and installing the first temporary fence, everything I worked on yesterday went incredibly smoothly for me.
Posts are standing straight up, and the two spots along that line are open, ready, and waiting for the new tall posts to go in.
Is it obvious that I am chomping at the bit to get this done? Just have to wait one more day for my professional help.
What will I do with myself until then?
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He Scores!
Inter Miami and Lionel Messi came to the Twin Cities to face our MNUFC Loons yesterday, and Cyndie had a chance to be at the game with a friend.
The Miami team is loaded with talent and performed impressively, holding possession for many more minutes than the Loons could, however, Messi only scored one goal. The Loons scored four. Well, three plus an own goal.
Before the game started, I put up the hoakiest-looking temporary fence in the small paddock. I seem to be in a mode of remission from my habit of perfectionism lately. The horses spent a lot of time just staring at the new monstrosity now cutting their space in two. I think they all noticed it was a pretty wacky-looking barrier, but at least they didn’t demonstrate a need to defeat it.
Not right away, anyway.
I spent the first part of the day risking my health due to tick bites by crawling around in the leaves to weed out more volunteer tree sprouts around Cyndie’s strawberry patch. After finding three ticks on me in the three previous days, I somehow escaped getting more yesterday, even though I was doing everything wrong in terms of tick avoidance.
By the time the soccer match got underway, I was safely back in the house to watch it. We got everything we wanted out of the game, seeing Messi score and the home team getting the win handily. It was the best of both worlds.
Speaking of best… a shout out of “All the Best!” to moms on this Mother’s Day! You know who you are.
We are headed to a brunch shortly for a celebration with our kids and Cyndie’s mom. Moms RULE!
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Visiting Walkers
Asher is home with a dog sitter and we are up in Princeton visiting George and Anneliese and getting a chance to spend some time sharing fencing chores, good food, and fun games.
Cattle grazing is on some leased land where temporary fencing is installed to allow moving the herd frequently for maximum health of land and animals. We tagged along and helped a little to run a new line encircling a fresh plot of grass.
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We got a close look at what weed control via goats looks like.
I was most impressed by the way the goats tip down tall young saplings so that others can reach the leaves which sets off a feeding frenzy.
In the evening after dinner with George’s parents, we were introduced to the yard game, Kubb.
The turf of the playing field provided a vivid example of the drought conditions area farmers are enduring.
Coping with weather extremes is not for the faint of heart.
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Temporary Fencing
While I was in having lunch yesterday, the buried electric lines were marked with flags and paint. I had been watching for them the whole morning while I was down cutting tree branches along the planned new fence line near our southern border. Nothing happened. I walked out of the house after lunch and —boom— there were the red flags. It was magic!
It’s a good thing we thought to have the wires marked, because they don’t run in a straight line at all, and my planned gate location was right over them. I moved in a bit.
Having the electrical lines marked instantly changed my afternoon itinerary. It was time to put up some temporary fence so the horses can graze on the north side of our driveway. The first thing I wanted to do was bury a couple of wood posts so we could hang a gate. The rest of the fence will be pounded t-posts. I dug about a foot and a half down and water appeared!
I set the post in the hole and hung the gate on it, just to see if there might be a way to make it work. Then I called our fence guy and he confirmed that I needed to come up with a different plan for a gate. I’ll rig up something using t-posts and the webbed fence line. That meant I was on to pounding posts.
That is one heck of a workout. I was pounding posts all afternoon. Everything was laid out for me from the preparation work we did on Sunday, which helped smooth the routine out a bit, however I ended up making a couple changes to the route.
We think the horses will like it. There are a lot of evergreen trees scattered through half of this space, and I moved the fence to include a variety of other overgrown areas. It will give them some places to explore, in addition to the areas of lush grass they will be able to graze.
Since this fenced area of grazing is remotely located, we will have to escort them on a lead line to move them in and out of it, as opposed to the other spaces we have where we can just open a gate from their paddock. I’m considering rigging up a line with something hanging off it every 6 feet that I could hang across our driveway to create a visual barrier to help confine them to the direction we want them to go. We DON’T want them getting away from us and heading down the driveway.
We still need to buy a device to allow us to electrify the fence, since it is on the other side of the driveway from our existing system. Legacy has proved that he will mess with pretty much everything he can get his mouth on. A little electric shock potential does wonders to help him mind his manners. Until the white webbing is electrified, we will not be able to leave them in there unsupervised for any extended amount of time.
It will be tempting for me to try to put them over there during the day today, but I will wait until Cyndie can be present for their initial introduction to this new space. That will allow us to move them in pairs, which will make them a little more comfortable while they learn a different way of getting to this new grazing space.
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Grazing Gratefully
We seem to have turned a corner and there are finally areas starting to show signs of drying out. It is a very uneven process, and the spots that are still wet remain ridiculously saturated and a muddy mess.
We let the herd graze together on fresh grass yesterday! I pounded down the posts for our temporary fence to the desired depth, and when the ground around them dries out, it will be like they were cast in cement. 
With the posts ready, I was able to string up ribbon fence lines that will be electrified, but not before I first had to fix a connection on the existing fence.
I found a splice that wasn’t sufficiently crimped. While I was troubleshooting the problem, I had Legacy’s full support. I’m pretty sure he sensed I was on a project that would lead to him getting access to better grazing. He stood front and center on the spot where I focused my attention.
I wish I could have talked him into using his powerful bite to accomplish something positive for once, and get him to clamp down on that splice. My hand tools were all sub-par for the job. I achieved enough of a crimp to give me electrical contact for the time being, which allowed me to prove the concept and proceed.
Cyndie made a heroic journey on crutches, navigating the uneven and uncertain terrain, to provide moral support, showing up in time to witness the completion and testing phase. All that was left after that was to convince the horses that the gate was open.
It was late enough in the day that we needed to put out their afternoon pans of feed, and that had their undivided attention. It also seemed to temporarily satiate their appetite, so they lolled around in a just-fed stupor, paying little notice to the fact I had opened a gate to the grass.
Hunter was the first one to show some interest in why I was walking around in their paddock. I was able to entice him to come toward me, but only up to the area where the mud got thick. They will cross mud, but they need a big enough incentive to do so, and he hadn’t yet figured out why I was urging him to come across. Before long, Legacy wandered over to see what was going on.
I pulled out the trick that I learned from Dunia at the Epona seminar, walking an arc in front of Legacy until he took a step, and then I turned and lured him along by my energy. We pulled Hunter and Cayenne right behind him. I needed to go to the hay feeder in the far paddock to convince Dezirea to join the fun.
While they grazed, I wandered back to the paddocks to restock the hay feeders. When I returned, Cyndie had gone back to the house, so I phoned her to confirm how short a time they should be limited to on this rich spring grass.
“Now would be good.”
“How do you suggest I do that?” I asked.
I tried calmly coaxing them to head back into the paddock, but these Arabians move from calm to panic in a blink, and you’d think I had slapped them on the butt and fired a shot from a pistol.
Of course, they were all juiced up on fresh grass. They carried that sprint into the paddock far longer than was necessary, from my perspective, but who can blame them? They had finally gotten what they wanted for so long, and that quick, had it taken back again.
I will not be surprised if I find them lined up and waiting at that gate when I show up to put out their feed this morning.
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Busy Day
Under a sky that alternated between peeks of sunshine and downright threatening yesterday, Cyndie and I started early and worked most of the day to establish a temporary fence around an area we want the horses to graze before the serious winter weather arrives. When we weren’t bathed in sunlight, which happened only rarely, we were being showered by occasional cloud bursts of light to moderate rain, and one blast of ice pellets that don’t deserve to be referred to as snow.
It was our first try at setting up a temporary fence, and now that it is done, we are feeling good about the accomplishment. It was a challenge of trying to figure out the best location, the distance of the run, how many posts that would be, and how to get the tape strung and connected to our existing electric fence. This kind of task is one of those that involves walking back and forth to get one more thing. I bet we made over a dozen “one-more-thing” hikes yesterday.
In addition to getting the fence up, we took advantage of the weather and our proximity, and lit fire to the brush pile located over toward the labyrinth garden. It burned so much easier than the two piles we had from last fall, because this one didn’t have any stumps or root bundles packed with dirt. It was all dead, dry branches that accumulated from projects like making room for the road behind the barn, or cleaning up sticks and branches that continue to pop up in the areas we cleared of brush last year. There was hardly anything left but a small smoldering pile by the time I took the photo below.
It felt like a day of non-stop effort, except for a couple notable breaks. One, to accept a gift from our neighbor. He brought honeydew melons from his bumper crop. He said he liked one he bought from the store, so he kept the seeds and put them in the ground. His wife told him that would never work, but now he as more melons than he can eat. He gave us 8 or 9 and still had plenty in the trunk of his car. Sounds like the story of magic beans!
The other break was when Cyndie made lunch over the brush pile fire. She roasted a couple of brats and we had a little picnic during one of the rain showers. Just 10 minutes earlier, and we could have had a much more enjoyable meal. As it was, it turned into a rather utilitarian affair of eating for the sake of eating, while trying to put things under cover to keep them at least partially dry.
Then it was back to work, toiling away on tasks in the vicinity of our temporary fence so we could watch how the horses would adjust to the new area opened up to them. We were so occupied with our tasks, we barely got in a wave goodbye to Elysa and friends, as they departed up the driveway after an afternoon visit with the horses.
As for the horses, they hardly took notice of the fence, putting their attention almost exclusively toward the ample grass finally made available to them.
Relative Something 