Subdividing the Pasture: First and Second Fence Anchors

Last Monday, after National Guard, we were off to a slow start. We often are after a National Guard weekend.

Winnie in particular gets pretty clingy. We had some sickness in the house too, so we didn’t really have time to do much on Monday, other than set up the irrigation in the garden. It has been a lot drier than usual this spring, so this was a priority.

Even that wore Seppi out to the point he fell asleep on the way to violin.

Tuesday, however, we got to the farm at a semi-reasonable time and so were able to get some infrastructure work done.

She is big enough to get on the horsey swing by herself now, but she still needs someone to push her.

I need a real wagon, someday.

Helpers ready!

Rather than measure and place the second post to a specific length, and then cut the cross brace to fit, we placed the cross brace in line with the string, and dug the hole to fit it.

Breaking sod.

About two feet down, below the hard pan, all silty sand.

Almost deep enough.

Attaching the support brackets. These are not a structural component of the fence anchor, they just hold the cross brace in place until the whole thing gets tightened together.

H-brace balanced across the brackets, but the second post is not filled in yet. This allows us to plumb the post before the base is fixed in place at the bottom of the hole. Turns out this is not the easiest way to do it, but stay tuned, we’ll figure it out in a couple of…

posts.

Partially filled in the hole, then snugged up the twitch wire. The more expensive in-line ratchet tensioners from McClendons work better than the cheaper ones from TSC.

Then fill and tamp the remainder of the hole.

The goal is to take all the dirt out of the hole, and then put an 8″ diameter post into the hole, and tamp all the spoil so firmly that it all goes back into the same place it came from.

Mission accomplished.

Unfortunately, after the twitch wire was tensioned, the automatic gate latch didn’t line up anymore. It was pushed too close to the gate. Not too worried about that, once the post settles and the dirt is fully compressed (rain would help with that), we will stretch the wire fence and that will pull it back into place.

Where was Ellie through all of this?

Playing with Zip the Magpie Duck.

“Daddy! Help! I stuck!”

I really need a better wagon.

We make it work though. It was free, and is better than no wagon.

Measuring the exact mid point of the field. Evie wanted to read the measurements and do the math herself. And she told us she would never have to know math!

Getting the tools set up.

Initial hole, almost deep enough.

Didn’t take pictures of most of the process, because it was getting too hot and too late in the afternoon. The kids played in the shade by the house for most of the afternoon, but Winnie was still pretty wiped out by the time I got this finished.

We’ll keep plugging away at it. Eventually we’ll get there.