More Fence work

The long awaited replacement of the fencepost that is the corner post for three paddocks is upon us.

This post joins three paddocks, and I need to re-tension all of them. The fence that needs the most work is the fence that runs off in the upper left of the above picture. This fence separates our lower paddock from our neighbour’s property and it is the one that has taken the biggest beating from fallen trees and branches. Also, I want to let the sheep graze in this paddock.

Taking the wire off the post wasn’t too hard, the staples came out fairly easily. The main problem with unwiring this post was that the ends of each of the fences wrapped around the post and each other … making it a bit of a puzzle to unwrap it.

When the staples were out and the wire unwrapped, I folded the wire back so that it held itself out of the way. Then, out came the post.

This post wasn’t rotted too badly, but it did have a terrible lean … so, out it comes and onto the bonfire for later.

I attached the fence from the sheep paddock to the end of the gate using a bit of twisted wire, so that I can leave the fence as it is until the fence posts have set in the ground without having to worry about the sheep getting out. It isn’t a long term solution … so I’ll need to rewire the fence as soon as I can.

Next, I dug out the holes for the posts (I had to move one hole because the cross piece on the new hurdle is shorter than the original one was), set the posts into the ground, backfilled and packed the soil down as hard as I could. I wanted the posts to be able to stand upright without support so that they didn’t need extra posts while the concrete set. After digging the holes out, I had a bit of a sit down in the shade.

When I had rested enough, I got the concrete mixed and poured into the holes. My darling wife had to go off to the hardware store to get some more concrete (I didn’t check how much I had before I started).

The concrete was then smoothed out and cleaned up. Next, it’s back to the house to clean the buckets and tools and I get to sit and relax for a while.