Dividing the Pasture: First gate

One of the most laborious tasks of the rotational grazing on the two main pastures at the farm is running of the long center line fence. This takes a full morning or afternoon to move every time we need to move from the North to the South Pasture, or vice versa. The long bundles are too heavy for anyone except Daddy or Uncle to move.

To eliminate this task, we are subdividing the pasture with a new (semi) permanent fence.

I say “semi-permanent” because it will be a fully built woven wire fencing, but the posts will not be set in concrete, so we can remove them 10 or 20 years down the road if necessary. Also, this cuts several hundred dollars off the cost of the project. This means that the fence anchors need to be built solidly.

Last Tuesday, (April 29) Winnie and Daddy started on the first fence anchor on the west end of the north pasture. The first step was layout, getting the pasture measured and a tight line run down the center.

We had two gates that we purchased for another project that ended up not materializing. I thought one was 16′ and one was 14′ so we set the first post 16′ off the center railroad tie on the barn-yard fence.

Using segments of conduit cut from the low tunnel project as our line stakes.

Sod for the first 8-10 inches, then some loamy hardpan, then nothing but silt sand as far as the shovel would reach.

We are using 8″ x 8′ pressure treated round posts for this section. Because we are not using concrete, it is essential that they be sunk as deep as possible. This works because the soil drains so well, it will settle around the post over the next year, and allow water to seep away from the post. So we dug each hole a minimum of 42″ deep.

That’s almost the depth of the shovel handle.

Then we ran into our first real snag.

The gate that I thought was 16 feet, was actually only 14 feet.

Which means that the 14 foot gate was actually only 12 feet.

You know what they say:

Measure once, cuss twice.
— They.

So on Thursday we went and bought a heavy-duty 16-foot gate.

This was actually the correct length. I had drill weekend coming in hot, and a meeting for work, so I didn’t have much time, just about an hour to get the gate hung, and the post set.

Then Daddy was off to Yakima for three long days.

Silly National Guard.