Yesterday was Gary Duncan's last day helping out on our farm and I just want to say ... Thank You Mr. Duncan (I guess my habit of using "Mr." on the blog is causing him some grief back at the office)! The help that he was able give was incredible and really gave us some help in a very important project. Beyond the teaching though I have to say that he just plain worked hard, and hopefully we didn't wear him out. By the end of the day yesterday we had all the fence up along the roads and the grounding rods installed.
We were also lucky enough to have a couple visitors today that drove down to check out the Powerflex posts and the hi-tensile fence. They were a couple we met during our Grow Your Small Market Farm class and I have to admit that I learned a bunch more with them here because they asked a lot of great questions. Later in the eveing while I was putting the finishing touches on some fence a neighbor stopped by and said, "Okay, you have piqued my curiosity". We were able to have a nice talk about fence and I shared a little about our new fence and the Powerflex posts in particular.
This was such a great experience and I am becoming a big believer in hi-tensile fencing and the Powerflex posts. But more importantly I think I have learned enough to finish the rest of the fence. As a truly beginning farmer there are a lot of things that I do on the farm that I have never done before. Thanks to the help of people like Mr. Duncan, our friends, and of course our family. Keep checking back for updates on the fence and I'll let you know how it goes!
Yesterday was Gary Duncan's last day helping out on our farm and I just want to say ... Thank You Mr. Duncan (I guess my habit of using "Mr." on the blog is causing him some grief back at the office)! The help that he was able give was incredible and really gave us some help in a very important project. Beyond the teaching though I have to say that he just plain worked hard, and hopefully we didn't wear him out. By the end of the day yesterday we had all the fence up along the roads and the grounding rods installed.
We were also lucky enough to have a couple visitors today that drove down to check out the Powerflex posts and the hi-tensile fence. They were a couple we met during our Grow Your Small Market Farm class and I have to admit that I learned a bunch more with them here because they asked a lot of great questions. Later in the eveing while I was putting the finishing touches on some fence a neighbor stopped by and said, "Okay, you have piqued my curiosity". We were able to have a nice talk about fence and I shared a little about our new fence and the Powerflex posts in particular.
This was such a great experience and I am becoming a big believer in hi-tensile fencing and the Powerflex posts. But more importantly I think I have learned enough to finish the rest of the fence. As a truly beginning farmer there are a lot of things that I do on the farm that I have never done before. Thanks to the help of people like Mr. Duncan, our friends, and of course our family. Keep checking back for updates on the fence and I'll let you know how it goes!
4 comments:
You're fence is really looking great. I'm excited for you.
What are you going to be using for temporary fencing? Do you already have your posts and reels?
I know you have been focusing on perimeter fencing but I was wondering if you will also have some single wire interior dividing fences.
Steven - We do have posts and reels that we got from Powerflex. We are going with the O'Brien tread in posts and the O'Brien geared reels. I'm looking forward to getting those into use! I think in the future we will have some single wire interior fences, but I'm going to take some time to see how the pasture works out.
We have a couple non geared Gallagher reels and one O'Brien 3:1 geared reel. I really like the geared. We're using Gallagher pig tail posts and are very happy with them because they are easy to straighten if bent but if we ever need more I might try those O'Brien white or blue posts.... I had no idea how bendable they were!
Setting salesmanhip aside, I'd like to comment as a livestock producer. The perimeter fence is somewhat of an investment for the future, giving you some peace of mind and will last a very long time - but, you will get a lot more value out of 3 reels of poliwire and a couple armfuls of tread-in posts.
Regarding the reels, I'll offer this tidbit of my own reflections: I used to use geared reels all the time, but as I've aged - my stride has decreased and I just don't walk as fast as I used to. I don't care to walk as fast. So, now I find myself preferring the standard reels.
When we were installing the posts at 30 foot spacings I had Ethan and Becca pace it off so our spacing would be consistent with each other. For me it was 12 paces, for Ethan it was 8 paces and for Becca it as 10.
Maybe there is a mathmatical lesson here, but you might consider trying both geared and non-geared reels to see which fits your pace and style. Different strokes for different folks.
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