Starting the fence fix-up

We want to be able to use our bottom paddock for our sheep. The paddock is about 120m long by 30m wide and is mostly used as the driveway to our house. The fence that is our boundary between us and our neighbours’ is deeply overhung by trees, many of which have branches that are crushing the fence. We also let our chooks out in this paddock and I want to keep the chickens on our property so that there is no repeat performance of the disappearing rooster (that is, if the rooster was taken by the neighbours’ dog).

Our neighbours’ property is virtually all gardens of native trees and shrubs, whereas ours … is not. To fix the fence so that our sheep can use this paddock means that I have about 120m of fence-line to clear of fallen branches, dead trees and other shrubbery. Not that I am complaining, I rather enjoy the borrowed landscape from next door.

The easiest way that I can think of to do this is to take my time and cut back the trees and shrubs using our goats as a shredder for the offcuts. This will slow me down somewhat as I can only cut down as much material as the goats can eat before the leaves become unpalatable to the goats. When the goats have finished defoliating the branches, they will go into the bonfire pit ready for marshmallow toasting activities.

The feeder above is filled with the trimmings of a large wattle bush. The thickest branch was as thick as my wrist … but most of it was as thick as my thumb. I guess that isn’t an imperial scale, you’d have to know how thick my wrist and thumb are to really understand. I will avoid using these scales when talking about stuff that requires actual measurements … I promise.

I’ve started at the bottom of the driveway and I’ll work my way up to the other end of the fence. I really need to uncover all of the fence so that I can assess how much of the fence is salvageable. I have the distinct impression at this stage that not much of the fence is able to be recycled. Probably most of the star posts, but I guess that none of the dog fence is usable and the supporting wire is pretty rusty. If I put much strain on the supporting wire to straighten the fence, it is likely to snap. Many nasty injuries have been caused by snapping high tensile fence wire, I don’t want to be injured.

At least the goats will enjoy the spoils of my labour.

They like their port-a-tree.