Fence, Fence, Fence!!!

I tip my hat to ranchers and farmers everywhere.  Fence is no joke!  It's probably the most important part of raising livestock, right up there with food, water, and shelter.  And today was yet another day of fence repair!

Yesterday we started the slow yet methodical task of dropping the cattle/hog panel down from its elevated position around the pasture.  It sits about 8 inches off the ground, and any little pig would find a way out.  So today we decided to tackle the entire looooooooong western edge of fence.  That was our goal today!

But first!  I had a meeting with a professional plasterer.  Number one, these folks are hard to find in central Illinois.  The professionals most often hang out in bigger cities that have a ton of older homes that might be in a revitalized neighborhood.  Those houses get new families, new money, and new leases on life.  Unfortunately, here in central Illinois, the older homes get shoved outside.  It's quite unfortunate, as they deteriorate rapidly over the years with no money put back into them.

I had to work my other job this morning, so I didn't even get to the house until about 1:15 for my 1:30 P.M. appointment.  The man and woman didn't seem too intimated by the project (re-doing all of the plaster in the house), but they did mention on a couple of occasions, "You've got your work cut out for you."  Yes, yes, I do.

As I walked around and surveyed the walls myself, this project just seems daunting almost.  The walls are paramount to this house remodel, and the more I looked at them, the more I just became convinced that they need to go.  I really don't have much of a desire to gut the house, but the walls are in pretty sorry shape.  Tearing them all down will allow me to start fresh, replace electrical fairly easily, as well as plumbing.

The wall of the kitchen.

I have counted what I think is five or six different wallpapers on this wall in the kitchen.  It's going to be demolished.  It's not even worth saving.

I'm going to wait until the bid comes back on the plaster repair, but I would not be surprised to see it between $15,000-$25,000.  The more the contractors talked, the more I realized they work on big projects like the governor's mansion and historic homes with funding backed by the city, state, or national government.  Cha-ching!!!

I would love to honor the home with keeping the plaster walls, but in terms of functionality, I might honor the home better by giving her a new, nicer, cleaner lease on life by gutting it and installing drywall .  Plus that would allow me to properly and effectively insulate the walls and add moisture barrier protection.  I could see and touch the insulation that was blown in the first floor in the 1970's, and it INSTANTLY turned to powder upon touch.  It looks kind of like yellow popcorn, but the moment I touched it, it went to instant powder.  Weird.

The contractor stayed for 55 minutes.  After they left, Dad and I headed out to work on the pasture again.  Our goal was to complete the western edge of fence (by dropping it down to the ground).  Again, it's not hard work, but it just takes time.  Today was a bit more chilly with hardly any sun, so that didn't help matters at all!

Dad and I started in the northwest corner of the pasture and slowly worked our way down.  Untwist baling wire, drop fence, re-twist baling wire.  Replace wire as needed.  But slowly and surely we made our way down the fence!

The west side of the pasture.  All of this fence had to be lowered and re-secured.

I even went further south than the barn.  My dream is to use all of that area southwest of the barn for pasture, but it is just covered in junk.  It's all mud and would need to be cleaned out first with a backhoe or front loader, then re-seeded.  But it's a great area for pasture!

After we completed the west side of fence, we decided to clean up the front of the property.  The previous owners had installed cattle panel all around the front of the house.  It's apparent that the purpose was to prevent animals from coming close to the house when the whole property was pasture, but since it's now going to be baled as a field, there is no need for the fence.  Plus, I was happy to see it go.  It's very ugly!

The house is surrounded by cattle panel when you first pull up.  It's not very inviting!

We are choosing to remove all of this fence to give it a cleaner, sleeker look.

This ugly fence lines the driveway.  It's not a great first impression!

The fence tangled in a mess of trees.  I think I am just going to take it ALL out.

One last view of the house with the fence.  It's all gotta go!

Unfortunately, we learned that most were held in with steeples in the wood.  So we took down what we could, but we did not have a steeple puller.  So those pieces of fence will have to wait.  But we worked our way around and took down what we could.  And, oh, the property started to freshen up!  Just taking down the fence helps a ton!  It was a dirty fence!

Taking down the cattle panel fence in the front yard.  It just opens up the view so much!  Unrestricted!

The neat thing is that the front edge of the property is absolutely covered in bulbs, though!  They are already starting to grow, so I can't wait to see what that looks like!  It's going to be gorgeous!

We then decided to finish off and square up the northeast corner of the pasture.  Currently it had two gates and jutted out in an odd way.  I think these gates were used for when the front field was pasture, but because it's not, we just decided to clean it up a bit.

This wooden post and fence will be staying right where it's at!  See the wooden post in the middle right?!  It has been completely enveloped by the tree!

Unfortunately for us, that meant digging some post holes for the wooden posts!  Mom had just got off work and brought out the tools, and Dad and I dug the holes for the posts.  I am happy to report that I am on BEAUTIFUL black dirt, and the post-hole digger was happy to go deep!  It was still work, but it went pretty smoothly!  So we set up a couple of new wooden posts and put T-posts in between.

Dad digging a hole for the wooden corner post.  We had to go deep!

We now have a nice squared-off corner!  I plan to sell the swinging gates.  I actually listed 30 gates this evening.  I don't need them.  They are cattle panel gates, and they are $82.99 new.  I listed them for $60...that's $1800 sitting out there!  I plan to use that money for the pasture and pigs.

Mom and Dad working right up until sun-down!

The two swinging fences here are now no longer a part of the pasture.  They formed a weird "jutted-out" extension anyway.  These will be sold, and the wooden posts will be removed.  It squares off the pasture and the backyard quite nicely now.  You can see the freshly-dug dirt on the wooden posts.

The sun was setting fast, but we had a very productive day.  Fence does not go fast at all, but we are happy to report that we have three of the four sides complete!  All we need to do is finish the fourth side, bring out the feeders, build a waterer, clean and secure the barn, and we are ready for pigs!

You can still see some wooden posts, but the front yard looks better already!  The focus is on the house now!

Without the fence, all eyes are on the farm home!!!  (Also, don't tell, but that pine tree probably won't be around in another year!).

A pretty good day.  We left around 7:20 P.M. as it was getting quite dark!