Monday, August 29, 2016

How to put up goat fencing

  To be 100% clear, Hubs isn't the one writing this and he is the one who actually knows how to do the whole fence putting up thing. That being said I helped. I took pictures while I helped. I will try to explain what he did and what tools he used but since I don't know what tools are other than a hammer and the difference between a flat and phillips screw driver there are no promises. Feel free to comment with any questions though and I will find out from Hubs if I don't know the answer which is highly probable. I didn't take any pictures of our first time putting up a fence which is probably good since Hubs got two pairs of pants ripped up and the fence is all saggy and loose. This time he got the fencing nice, tight and straight.

    As you can see from the picture of the first fencing we did it doesn't look so great. On the other hand it does keep the goats in so that's really all you can ask for right? We got redbrand sheep and goat fencing for anyone who is curious. We figured that anything that said it was for goats would work best. Before Hubs could start on the actual fence installing he had to mow since things grow here.

   I tried to convince him that mowing wasn't important to the job. I thought he would mow down the whole pasture. Hubs didn't do that, he mowed paths along where we want the goat areas. The far right grassy area is soon to be the new goat pasture and on the left we planned to turn it into the boy goat area. (Actually, Hubs has already done the buck pasture and finished fencing it in. He's awesome like that.) The mowing seemed to make straight lines easier but hubs still used a string to make sure everything was straight and placed an equal distance apart so it wouldn't bother me.
   Our two youngest kiddos 'helped' lay out the t posts straight and at regular intervals. I think this was the point that Hubs wanted me to stop taking pictures and help. FYI, I didn't. 
He drove in the corner t post first, there was a reason for it. He said it would be easier to make it straight this way but I honestly don't know if that's true or not.
  I told him to smile for the camera. Heads up, not a thing to say while driving t posts. According to Hubs its hard work and not something you want to smile and pose for the camera while you do it. He made it look easy though. A few slams with the t post driver and they went in. I think that is because we have good soil here. When we were in Nevada they were hard to drive in and Hubs hated doing it. Now he only whines it its hot and humid, which it was.

   I mentioned before that our soil is softer than what we were used too so our first fencing was not holding up well, especially at the corners. Hubs found these nice corner brackets called wedge-loc. They are great, they've completely firmed up the fence and made it much sturdier even after a good rain. We found them at tractor supply and they come with directions. Hubs absolutely loves them. In the last two pictures he was wire wrapping the corners since we didn't wrap the fence around the corner, it just doesn't get as tight. We found later on the buck pasture that it works better to clip a bit of extra fence and wrap the fence around the t post. I wish I'd taken a picture. Hubs did a great job. 



   This time around Hubs decided he needed a fence puller. We went to Lowes and looked at their fence pullers but they were not what Hubs wanted. He came home and built this. Its got a winch that connects to the tractor and Hubs pulls it all nice and tight and then parks the tractor which holds it all in place while he attaches the fence. I thought it was a pretty good idea, a lot easier than trying to tighten it by hand which is what we did the first time. 
   After the corners are connect he connects the fence to all the t posts. I googled what they're called, t post fence clips and the tool is a clip bender. He did 3 per t post. I helped with these, I untangled them and handed him the next one he needed. I know people out there doubted my help but obviously I was essential. 
Finished pasture area with strong, tight and straight fencing
Hubs releasing the goats into their new area.

Happy goats :)






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