The weather has been getting hotter and the grass is getting more and more brown. This has meant that the local wildlife is more desperate for food.
We now have a wallaby that is pretty much always hanging around.
Not too fantastic a video … I should have set up the tripod, sorry about the wobble.
Today, after getting home from another day in the office, I spent some time on the fence. Yesterday, I took all of the clips off the mesh so that I could tension the 3rd wire. That left me with a clear run at the job today. There were loads and loads of clips on the 3rd line and they were very badly rusted. I got blisters on my hand from the pliers and the repetitive twisting of the clips left my wrists a bit sore.
Today, I pulled the 3rd line through and tensioned it. The 3rd line is the line that holds the top of the dog mesh, so it didn’t need to be as tight as the top two lines.
The line was tensioned and then I went along the fence and put new clips on the mesh to hold it up. There were a couple of holes in the mesh that I had to knit back together.
The mesh didn’t reach all the way along the fence. The mesh stopped about 8m from the gate end of the fence and it is a Frankenstein combination of dog mesh, welded 4x4” mesh and chicken wire. The 4x4” mesh is OK, but the chicken wire is draped over a 3 rail timber fence (the timber fence was also falling down) and only covers the bottom half of the fence.
I put up some new chicken wire that covers the timber fence from top to bottom and did some repair work on the timber work as well. Finally, I had to knit the end of the chicken wire to the 4x4” mesh.
The fence is now sheep repellent … the sheep should be able to roam around the front paddock without fear of them escaping. We enlisted our lovely little daughter to get some sheep peanuts and try to entice the sheep into their newly opened paddock. Initially, the sheep were very … sheepish. After they did a circuit of the paddock the sheep seemed to get very excited (or at least excited in sheep terms). The sheep wandered around the paddock and ate lots of seed heads. After the sheep had their fill of excitement, they headed back to their normal daytime paddock.
All in all, the fence seems to be doing the job and I am very happy to have finally finished the thing. HA HA FENCE, I WIN!
This morning I got up and got on to fixing the fence. I needed to replace the temporary barrier by re-joining the two ends of the fence that runs east-west. The wire was in a pretty horrible state and it was too fragile to twist very much.
I reattached the tensioning wires and then attached the mesh using netting clips.
The mesh overlapped a bit, so there is at least some support for the mesh, the staples will be holding the fence to the hurdle.
I stuffed up a little bit … the gate no longer opens past the hurdle. Never mind … the slope always made this a difficult way to open the gate anyway.
The top line was then tensioned using the ratchet and then I walked down the fence to check the tension and to make sure there were no kinks preventing the line being tensioned. Halfway down the fence I noticed that a previous repair job on the fence had twisted the top and midline wires around each other, on the other side of the twist, the top-line was very loose … hrumph. I will need to cut the mid-wire and untwist it from the top, then I will put a tensioner on the other end of the fence as well.
Now that I have done what I can today … it’s time to go fishing!
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.
Today I was planning on starting on the next fence hurdle. Before I did that, I wanted to strain up the previous fence. When I started to put pressure on the fence wire, the middle fence post fell over. The post was completely rotten and it had a huge population of ants in it. Oh well. The post was about 8” diameter, but under the ground, the post was about 1” in diameter. There is a lot of water under the ground here, so it isn’t going to have a good life.
I pulled the post out and it’s diagonal support leaving me with a mucky muddy hole. I dug the hole out a bit and put in a new post and packed some rocks around it, then back filled. I put in a pair of temporary supports and nailed them to the post and then poured in some concrete. Now all I have to do is to wait for it to cure.
Right, it’s off fishing tomorrow!
I need to buy a few more bags of cement and I’ll see about that other fence post.
This weekend, I’m hoping to start work on the next fence hurdle. This one isn’t in as bad a state as the last one, but it is pretty bad. The fence post is part of the gate to the bottom paddock and the gate doesn’t close properly any more. Fixing this hurdle will allow me to straighten the bottom fence as well as fixing the gate, so it will be a good job to get it done.
The cross bar from the hurdle is long gone. I used a piece of steel pipe to prop the fence post up, but it still isn’t straight enough to allow the gate to close properly.
I’ll need to pare the old wire away from the post so that I can lever the old post out. I can’t afford to take too long with this, or leave the fence down at all, my sheep are in one of the paddocks that this post is the corner of (in fact, the paddock that I am standing in to take the photo).
After getting the post out, I will put in a star-post to hold the fence up while I get the new fence post set. It is going to be difficult to set the hole because of the fences that will still be attached in-situ. I can’t use the petrol auger, so I’ll have to resort to using the manual auger and a spade.
When the hole is in, I will put the fence post in and concrete it. Then I will need to wait for the concrete to cure before I can reattach the fence.
While I am waiting for the concrete to cure, I’ll take the second post out and replace it and get the cross bar put in. The second post will be concreted in too, added strength is always good. The main reason that the fence has come down over time is that the next door neighbours property has lots of trees, and occasionally, they come down on the fence and it damages the wire. I can expect that the wire will be damaged again in the future, but that’s just the way it goes.
The final piece of the hurdle construction was the addition of a step that our smallest daughter can use to reach the letterbox.
In the past, the gate post had a small platform attached to it so that milk could be left at the gate, or bread … or parcels.
The step is simply an extension to the rails at the bottom of the hurdle with some timber attached across it to form a step or shelf.
The rails have been attached to the posts using decking screws and have been set level rather than parallel to the ground. I have also screwed the shelf laths onto the rails using the decking screws. This should make the shelf last pretty well. The timber that I’ve used is treated exterior grade rough sawn pine, so it should last pretty well too.
The last task for this fence is to attach the fence wire to the hurdle and then tension it. I will probably need to cut the mesh around the shelf so that it will wrap around the post properly.
I got my daughter to climb up onto the step to make sure that it was high enough, and it worked out pretty well. I thought that the lathes might come out too far and stop the gate from closing, so I was prepared to cut some of them for the gate … but luckily, the gate closes just fine, with about an inch to spare.
While poking around in the letter box, we noticed that there was some water pooling in it. I will need to put a couple of holes in the bottom of the letterbox so that the mail doesn’t turn into paper soup.
I’ve put the gate hardware onto the hurdle. The drill bit that I used was a little large for the hardware, so I have set it into the post with a 2 part epoxy. I know that that means that when I have to replace it (eventually) it will be a pain … but, whatever. I’ll burn that bridge when I cross it.
The fence post is a little bit high for my youngest darling daughter to reach into the letterbox. So I am going to build a step into the post for her. I’ve seen these steps on other fence posts before, they used to be used for putting things like milk bottles on back in the old days when you used to get milk delivered. They are also used for parcels, etc. I think that it will be useful for our daughter.
The step is simply a pair of rails with a cross piece to step on.
I still have a couple of fence rails left over from making the sheep pen, so I will simply screw these into the hurdle at both ends, with a bit extending out of the front. The step is another offcut that is then screwed to the rails.
This weekend, I want to put the fence wire back up and strain it against the hurdle. It shouldn’t take long … but before I can do that, there are some other parts of the fence that need repairing, plus, it is the Brighton Show this weekend and I have promised my youngest to go (we want to watch the goat judging for more experience).
Today, I finished making the fence hurdle for the farm gate. I still haven’t put the gate hardware onto the fencepost, but it is done for now.
The first job today was cutting the checks and fitting the crossbar.
The check was cut by cutting across the post and then using a chisel to chip out the rebate. I marked the rebate by placing the cross bar across the two posts and marking where the cross bar would sit. Then I marked the depth of the cross bar using a square. I used a bush saw to make the cut as it was in a difficult position and the bush saw has an aggressive cut.
The next thing was to drill through the post and into the cross beam and then drive the coach bolt into the hurdle using a crescent wrench. I was going to drive a “nail” made from a piece of steel reinforcing rod, but the coach bolt seemed a better choice as it would also draw the pieces together.
The post was then cemented in properly. I mixed up the concrete in a big bucket and then poured it into the hole. After that, I tapped the concrete so that the mix was smooth on top. I also wanted to avoid having water sitting in a hole where it would rot the timber over time.
The final job for the day, was to put on our new letter box. I had already drilled and riveted the house number onto the letter-box. The letterbox was my darling daughters choice. I’d like to replace the rivets that the letterbox was constructed with, as they are pretty poorly done. Some of the rivets are set at an angle and it would be easy to catch clothing or skin on these rivets.
I will need to make a small step at the foot of the fence post, as our youngest daughter isn’t quite able to reach the letterbox.
I’ll make a fence style type step for my daughter so that she can stand on the step and see into the letterbox.
I also intent to put some fence rails on the hurdle to make it stronger and more attractive.
Today, I bought some fence posts and tools for fixing the fence. The fence post at the farm gate has been in a terrible state since we moved in to this property and it has been my intention to replace it when I had the opportunity. Well, the opportunity presented itself. I want to be able to run the sheep in our lower paddock (where our driveway is). To do this, I need to fix the fence between us and two of our neighbours.
I bought six squared fence posts and ten round posts.
The first thing that needed to be done was to remove the old rotten fence post and it’s supporting pair. The old fence post had a bazillion old staples in it from previous “enhancements” but it was populated by a huge host of detritus eaters (slaters mostly) and several spiders and scorpions. The fence post was also being supported by a star-post. With the fence wire and the star post removed, I was able to pull the post from the ground and then lug it to the bonfire pit. After that, I dug out the fence post hole and enlarged it so that the new post would be OK for the gate.
The supporting post was broken off at the ground so it was just a matter of detaching it from the fence wire. However, to dig a new fence post hole, I had to dig out the broken off bit of the fence post that was under ground. This took some doing as the fence post was set in wet clay and the ground didn’t want to give up it’s bit of rotting wood. When I measured up the hole so that the two posts were set far enough apart for the cross-beam, the old fence post was precisely in the way. So it did have to come out.
This is all that was left of the old fence post. I had to use a crow-bar to lever the post out … the sucking sound it made when coming out of the ground was … special.
Next, dig out the fence post hole.
After that, I set the posts in the holes and did some back-filling and packing. My darling wife was on hand to hold the posts in place while I did the shovelling and packing. The next job was putting some cement into the holes so that the posts are well strengthened.
You can see that the fence posts are set to the right distance so that the cross beam sits properly. When the concrete goes off, I will cut a check into each of the fence posts so that the cross beam sits flush with the top of the posts.
The check is simply a shallow rebate cut into the top of the fence post. When the fence wire is attached to the final fence post and it is tensioned, the final post is pulled toward the supporting fence post and the cross beam is held tightly between the two posts.
After the two posts are connected via the cross beam, I’ll drill a hole into the posts that passes into the middle of the cross beam and hammer a 1 foot piece of steel reo, kind of like a really big nail.
I have another fence post to replace which will be a bit more tricky because it connects three fences. When I have set the other fence post, I will be able to tension the fence between us and the lower neighbours and then I’ll hang the new fence netting. For that, I’m going to use an old fishing net and I have bought a pair of shears to cut the heavy nylon netting to fit the height of the fence.
After the fence is finished, I’ll be able to let the chooks out again and the sheep into the lower paddock.
Today I went along the fence line today and cut down all of the brush and dead wood that is hanging down onto the fence. Some of the bushy plants were growing through the fence and weighing it down. These were cut away. There were also a couple of trees that had come down on my neighbours side of the fence and were laying across the fence as well, they were cut away and taken off the fence too.
Next, the cuttings were hauled up to the middle field so that I could move it all to the bonfire pit. Some of the cuttings were hauled off to the goats for their nourishment.
My darling youngest daughter helped me move the cuttings, and that was such an enormous help.
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.
Our State Governments Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE) has notified us that they will be undertaking a baiting program using 1080 baits on properties that adjoin ours. I am not very happy about this.
Looking into the information provided, and using Google Earth to find the properties, it seems that our property is adjoining one of the 10 sites being targeted.
1080 poisoning is a horrible way of killing an animal, and it is (IMHO) indiscriminate. All of the information from the letter tells me that it is all very safe and that there is very little chance that one of our animals will be poisoned … but … a native, non-targeted carnivore or scavenger (Quolls, Devils, Native Rats, Bandicoots, etc.) takes the bait. It takes a while before the animal dies from the poison and they tend to die hours after they’ve take the bait. Should the animal come onto my property and die, it is there to poison our animals (most likely, our dogs).
Our chickens have been free-ranging on our property for the last couple of years and we have never had to worry about foxes, and we have never lost a chicken to a fox. The nearest evidence to our property of fox activity (scat) is quite a long way away in Campania (about 22km in a direct line, but a fox would have to be a good salt water swimmer to take a direct line).
I believe that the likelihood of foxes in my area in this 14-28 day period of baiting is worth the risk to native scavengers or to my animals. I’ll be honest … I am more interested in my animals, but that is more a question of investment.
The letter from DPIPWE does not give me any choice, just “here we are, we are doing it and if you don’t like it … tough”. I think it stinks.
Last week while I was sick, one of our goats (Holly) escaped from the goat field a couple of times. Yesterday she did it again, so I thought “Enough!” it was time to fix the fence and, hopefully, make it a little more goat proof. Now I know that the only way to make a fence truly goat proof is to make it a 30 foot high sheer concrete wall … but my budget doesn’t go that far, nor do my neighbours think that that would make for a particularly attractive country idyll.
I had some 3m long star posts from the dismantling of the goat quarantine pens, so they would be the foundation of the higher, improved fence.
I wasn’t about to remove the old fence, but bolster the existing fence and increase it in height. As you can see, we had a lovely Sunday here in southern Tasmania. I then went along the fence and put in some plastic electric fence clips. These clips are great, they have a pin that goes through the star post fence-line hold and then another pin holds the electric fence tape in place. The idea is that you can have your electric line close to, but not touching the steel post and with enough space that the line will move with the wind.
I put a loop at both ends of the line and made the electric fence reasonably taut. Now the electric fence line runs at just over 1.8m above the ground.
Next, I ran a new support line along the length of the fence-line. The support line is attached at the top end of the fence with a simple loop and twist (so that the wire “knot” tightens itself when it is pulled taut) and then attached to a line stretcher at the other end.
The stretcher is kind of like a winch, it has an in-built ratchet and pawl with a box nut on the outside so that you tighten it with a wrench. The stretcher is attached to the end fence post with a kind of wire slip-knot (again so that it tightens when pulled). Then the stretcher is tightened and the wire becomes quite tight. I am always very careful when doing wire stretching, my wife’s friend lost an eye from a broken wire, and I have had a couple of nasty cuts on my face from wire breaking under strain (thankfully, I have never had any serious injury).
The support line is then attached to each of the star posts with a wire twist. I cut about 4” of wire and make a V. The bent wire goes through the hole in the star post with the point of the V in the middle. I then twist each end of the V around the support line three or four times. I find this method to be quite easy as I can bend both ends of the V simultaneously and just wrap them around the support wire.
Next, I rolled out a length of dog-proof wire mesh. The mesh has smaller holes at the bottom than at the top, this is also good for keeping out rabbits and other smaller animals. The mesh is then attached to the support line in much the same way that the support line is attached to the star posts. I attach the mesh to the existing fence at the bottom as well so that it is held in place. I left a gap of about 3” between the top of the dog mesh and the electric fence tape so that the electric fence doesn’t earth on the mesh. It is possible that a bird will alight on the tape and make the tape droop, but the bird will get a shock and it should just spring back.
Now that the fence and mesh is all connected up, I just need to power the electric fence and, presto … new fencing in the goat paddock.
Normally, I can handle the electric fence with my hands when it is powered without any pain, but when I was leaving the field, I got zapped on my upper arm, just below my armpit and, wow, that was a good jolt!
It’s spring, so the plovers are having their chicks. Around this part of Tasmania, we have hooded plovers. The plovers hang around their nests for about 8 months, raising their chicks. These are a protected species in Australia and you are not allowed to come within 10 meters of their nest … plus the males very aggressively defend their nest. The plovers are a ground nesting species and love open grassy paddocks. Usually, they get along okay with other animals, so long as they don’t get too close to the nest. Males have spurs on their wings.
The chicks look very much like a grey, white and black pom-pom on sticks, they are very cute indeed.
In the above picture, one of the young can just be seen under the mother, another chick is ranging out at the far right of the picture.
Above, you can see Dad with two chicks on the right with Mum still protecting the third chick.
Another photo of the family.
The coming of plovers into the paddock is a sure sign that Spring has arrived. They are such lovely birds and I really don’t mind being bombed by the protective male. From here, however, the prospect isn’t particularly good. Plover chicks are prey to hawks and falcons in the area, that’s kind of okay, it’s natural. What I really object to is that what the hawks and falcons don’t get, pet cats get. I just wish that there was something that I could do to make them safe from these incredibly efficient introduced predators. It would be very nice if the owners of these animals took greater care of their animals.
Today I made a new water feeder for the sheep. There have been a couple of days here in Tasmania where the water in their bowl has dried up and they have taken water from unreliable sources (the water from the top of an oil container). This resulted in the sheep getting scours and me getting very anxious.
We bought some auto-feeders for the goats and chickens a while ago, but they are small, fiddly and (because of the additional cost of the hose fittings and plumbing) worked out to be very expensive.
I bought an 80 litre water basin from the hardware store for $7.00.
I also bought a ball-cock tap from the rural plumbing supplies shop for $50.00.
Finally, I bought some garden hose attachments so that I can plumb the tap to the hose in the sheep paddock.
Using a forstner bit slightly smaller than the thread on the stop-cock, I drilled a hole through the basin near the top.
Next, the stop-cock was screwed into the side of the basin.
Because the hole was smaller than the thread, when the stop-cock was screwed in place, it cut a thread into the plastic. This makes for a pretty tight fit and doesn’t require a grommet or rubber washer.
On the outside, I put some hot melt glue around the base of the thread, I know that I don’t need this … but it is better than a leak. The screw collar was then tightened over the thread and the tap fitting was screwed down tight.
Now, I moved the fitted basin out into the sheep paddock and connected it to the hose. The tap is turned on and, woohoo, water starts to happen.
This isn’t the exciting bit … the proof of the system is when the ball rises up and shuts the valve, stopping the flow of water.
Yay, it works. Full basin for the sheep, no more walking out into the sheep field to fill their water bucket. Win-win! I still need to check the basin later to make sure that the stop-cock is stopping the water flow, that the pressure in the hose doesn’t split the hose and … that the water doesn’t leak around the point in the basin where the plumbing goes through the side.
What did the sheep think of their new water trough?
Not a lot … not a lot, at all.
Tonight we had a bonfire. My youngest daughter has been after me for a while to have another. I think that it is the combination of a roaring fire, cocktail frankfurts, roasting marshmallows and family that makes these such a wonderful affair.
We never do anything much for our bonfires, they are pretty much just fire, food and family. Although tonight we had two of my youngest daughters friends over for the bonfire (but very much for the food and fizzy drinks).
The fire started very easily. The trick for starting a good bonfire is to make sure that the fire is set on the side from where the wind is blowing. This makes the fire go through the stack and everything burns quickly and easily.
Initially, the blaze rose into the late afternoon sky, up to about 8m high. When the main fuel had settled down and all of the thin sticks had burned down, the coals go on burning for ages. Just 20 minutes after the photos above were taken, the fire looked more like this:
A great coal bed that was almost ready for marshmallows, but still too hot. About another hour later, the fire was very well settled and at potato roasting and marshmallow toasting stage.
Here, you can stand quite close to the fire and reach in with the marshmallow forks (about 1.25m long) and have some utterly yummy toasted marshmallows. I love the crunchy outside and the gooey sticky inside of the toasted marshmallow … anyone who eats these things raw is just plain wrong!
We do a bonfire about once a year, sometimes we will skip a year, this years bonfire was a lovely affair. Now I just have to get rid of my youngest daughters friends who are downstairs playing with the Wii.
After fixing the fence in the sheep paddock, I went to check on the goats. The goats were making their normal racket … but something was wrong. Holly was being much more vocal than she normally is. Then I noticed that there was a fence between Holly and the rest of the herd. Damn, she’s got out again!
Holly had gone over the fence into the blackberries and, when she saw me, she acted like some weird mojo had transported her to the wrong side of the fence and she had NOTHING to do with it. She followed me down the fence to our front gate and then bolted back to our property. That’s one of the truly wonderful things about goats, they have a strong sense of place. The only problem then was getting her back into her paddock.
I had intended to move the goats up into the top paddock for a bit of a forage, so I had some goat treats in my pocket. Collecting the rest of the herd wasn’t too difficult, and getting them all into the top paddock with some bribery worked just fine.
The rest of the goats were at the fence wanting some of that sweet, sweet grass from the other side too. Although Darius did lose his concentration temporarily … was there any food in the bowl?
Now I just had the problem of fixing the fence so that Holly can’t get back over (for a little while at least). Of course, goats love to escape, and once they have an escape route, they will use it again, and again, and again … and again.
I had to drive in another star post and tension the fence up as well as I can with the wire being old and rusty. That really has to go.
It really did seem that a memo was sent to all ruminants to remind them that today was the day to escape.
It was very nice of the sheep to wait until the weekend to effect their breakout. I had just gone down to the paddock to give them a supplemental feed when I saw one of our sheep, Apricot, in the bottom paddock. When she saw me coming, she took fright and ran through the boundary fence (the boundary fence in the bottom paddock is just 5 strand wire) and into the no man’s land between us and the vineyard. Fortunately, she didn’t move much more than that.
I poured out the sheep nuts on the ground for them and Gary and Peaches started eating their feed quite happily, but Apricot wanted to get back into the paddock and get herself some of those yummy treats. The fence is obviously harder to get under from the outside, so she just stood around looking sheepish (pun intended).
Next, I rounded up the family and we did some sheepherding. We drove Apricot back through the fence and through the bottom paddock to the gate without too much trouble, and then into her own paddock.
Finally, I inspected the fence line and found where she was getting through. I had not really fixed the fence properly when I first did it. It was dark and I was in a rush. Still, it has taken the sheep 6 months to break out, so not a bad outcome.
Now to start saving for fixing the boundary fences properly. Farm fences should really be replaced every ten years or so. I have about 2km of boundary fence to replace and about 570 star posts. If I replace the posts with a timber post every third post, then that’s about 376 star posts and 193 timber posts. The timber posts will cost me about $10 each and the star posts are about $8 each. Along with that, I need fencing wire and wire mesh (I need to make the fences goat proof). So I reckon that the entire enterprise (boundaries only) is going to cost me something in the vicinity of $8,200.
While I’m at it, I also need to divide the bottom and top paddocks for goats … and new shelters in the bottom paddock. Hrumph, more costs.
After about a half a days effort, I have finally removed the old quarantine pen. I had forgotten that I had tied a couple of 8 metre lengths of steel pipe to the bottom of the wire to stop the goats escaping from under the fence … damn but that steel pipe is unwieldy. Now it is on the top of the lean-to, along with the fencing wire.
The sheep are very happy that the quarantine pen is gone, it gives them access to another patch of grass that was unattainable previously.
I must say, I’m a bit sore from all of that wire cutting. I had to use a pair of side cutters for most of the cutting, but the 20cm bolt cutters were used for the old heavy gauge fencing wire … that stuff is tough.
The only thing left to do is to move the temporary shelters from the field and it will be job done. The temporary shelters need a little bit of attention, some of the wood has completely rotten away and the plywood that I used to cover them with is not really suitable.
I will get some corrugated iron sheets and make up the roof to a more suitable standard and reline the base so that the hay doesn’t just escape through the holes in the bottom.
Anyway, that’s my work over for the weekend. Now I can sit back and relax.
