More Fence!!!

March 25, 2019

More Fence!!!

Wow, what a day!!! I can barely feel my legs.

I arrived at the property around 9:30 this morning. I was pretty excited, as my six-year-old nephew was going to be joining in on the fun today. Dad was also meeting me out there.

Today's job was to complete the south edge of fence. That proved to be QUITE the chore.

The MESSY south pasture. With the cattle gates sold over the weekend, I can now add this to the original (nicer) pasture!

The mess we started with today. A COLD, windy day. Our goal was to complete that far line of fence!

My nephew Gabe did not disappoint as far as fun, though. When he arrived, he was 100% boy. He brought his mud boots, and he spent most of the day happily traipsing through the muddy pasture. But he was a good help, too, helping me drag the hog panel fences across the yard.

It was windy and COLD this morning, but we three boys worked through it all.

Gabe helping Papa lift a panel into place.

My nephew jumped right in to help! He loves this farm.

We actually started on the south edge of the west fence. For whatever reason, this fence had wooden fence erected in that area. So we took that down and took down the 16-foot swing-gate. I will sell that. The wood fence is SO heavy, so I just left it in the pasture.

We took down both wood gates and the metal gate.

After officially completing the west fence (ALL the way down to the south edge of the property now), we started on the south fence and worked our way east. Since Mom sold all of the cattle gates over the weekend, we had the freedom to make the pasture just about as huge as we wanted. And I wanted to use all of the land that I could!

The long road ahead of us. Looking east from the very southwest corner of the property.

Using this extra pasture will add an additional 0.3 acres. And completing the fence now means that we don't have to do fence in the future! This pasture will be 1.1 acres altogether when it's all complete, hopefully tomorrow.

So we used what T-posts we could from the previous cattle gates, removed the ones that didn't line up, installed those T-posts again, and just worked our way across the south edge of the property.

Just before breaking for lunch, I tried to see if I could break up the poly tank in the middle of the pasture. It's an eyesore. And it broke up rather nicely! I put a nice hole in the bottom of it and let it drain out the water. Gabe instantly played in the mud, mesmerized with the river it created. He would walk ahead of the river, stomp out a path with his feet, and then let it catch him. EVERY boy needs mud to play in. But it's nice to know that the tank will break up easily. I'll just have to discard of it little by little.

I put a hole in the tank and let it drain. I will be removing this tank hopefully this week. Such an eyesore.

The flow of water created a nice little river for my nephew to play in.

Boys will be boys.

Playing in the mud. As he should!

My nephew building a path for the river coming down the slope.

I was happy to find out that I could take a pick-ax to the tank, and it broke up rather nicely!

At lunch break, Gabe humored us with his farm knowledge. This city boy just doesn't have it quite together. Two weeks ago I had to explain to him that pigs don't poop bacon. He simply thought they did. Why? Well, when we told him eggs came from chickens, he knew they "pooped" them out. So when he learned that bacon comes from pigs, well, naturally it just followed that the pigs "pooped" bacon out!

Remember the burned black pasture last week?! Well, it's turning GREEN fast!!!

Well, today, Gabe had some further insights into farming. We were talking about farm animals, and what they eat, and Gabe mentioned that penguins barf their food into their babies' mouths. I had no idea! On the topic of intriguing animals facts, I asked Gabe, "Gabe, did you know that cows barf their food up too? They have four stomachs." Without missing a beat, he said, "Yeah, and they have four pee things, too." I asked what he meant by "four pee things." "You know, the pink things that the babies drink out of." Ahhhhh, yes, the UDDERS!!! Oh, if I could just get inside this young man's brain and see what he thinks of farming!!!

He has so much to learn! But Papa and I were just dying.

Then he had a question for both of us, "What if the Mom cow eats something that the baby doesn't like, and then the baby drinks it from her but doesn't like it"? I deflected the question to Papa. He didn't have an answer!!!

From the mouths of babes.

Once back at the farm property, we continued the fence. The weather was a bit warmer (no face mask needed now), but the work was slow. Remove T-posts, set in new location, mount fence. But it was progressing.

A neat tag on found on my barn today. It says that the lightning rod is compliant...the one installed in 1956!

Papa and I were both getting tired today, though! But we kept going. Mom showed up after work, and we had JUST completed the south side fence. Not to quit with the Boss Lady watching over us, we installed a swing gate into the southern portion of the pasture. I plan to install one in the northern portion, too. That took some time, but it turned out great.

The east (and most messy) side of the barn. My goal is to clean ALL of this up.

I took the green swing-gate here and installed it on the south side of the barn.

We were able to install this swing-gate into the southern half of the pasture. That will provide easy access for my truck to get in.

So we didn't quite complete the fence, but we are SO CLOSE. We need to add three panels to the far east side below the barn, and then that will be complete. And then we will add a gate and panel to the west edge of the barn, and then we will have a complete 1.1-acre pasture! It feels so much bigger than that, but that should be enough for the piggies!!! Especially with access to grain, as well.

The pasture is HUGE! I just need some grass to grow. This is a view of the southern half.

All in all, it was a great day. It was sooooooooo cold to start, but we had great memories with a young kid happy to be on a farm, and we nearly finished the fence. I hope to have it complete by early afternoon tomorrow. I bought four more hog panels tonight, so we will have enough to complete the project.