Baymule’s Fence

[Baymule]

I had fence crew drop leftover barbed wire in back of my truck. I didn’t want them to put it on the ground, I’d never be able to dead lift it from the ground and would have to scoop it with tractor bucket.

I couldn’t pick it up from tailgate either but I could do this.

 

[canesisters]

My road in front of the farm yesterday after the rain. Had a funeral visitation to go to yesterday afternoon, my little car sloshed through it. Most of the road is good, but not this part. LOL

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Now more fence pictures!

This is a homemade gadget for rolling out barbed wire. It’s a tractor implement disc blade, wheels on it, pulled by a 4 wheeler.

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This is the wire stretcher they used. Those pins are hammered down, holding the wire firmly. When Bennett, Peggy and I put up fence, they had a home made stretcher, two 2x4s bolted together with the wire between them. But the tighter it was pulled, the 2x4 stretcher slid down the wire bunching up the vertical wires, or stays, rendering a good length of that expensive wire useless. This marvelous wire stretcher did not slip or damage the wire.

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Beside every H brace they drove in. 6 1/2 foot T-post. They used the heavy homemade T-post driver, then turned it upside down to use the flat top to finish pounding the post down to ground level. I asked why and was told to keep the H brace from moving. They wire wrapped it and secured it firmly.

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This was the huge rotten tree on front fenceline , they cut the stump as low as possible without getting the chainsaw in the dirt (dirt dulls the chain and damages it) then they cut a groove through the stump for the wire. The stump will eventually rot away and I’ll fill it in with dirt.

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This is the H brace I built months ago, when there was still forest behind it. I watched the men inspect it, decide to use it and they reinforced it. On every cross bar on every H brace they pounded four 6” long galvanized ring shank nails on each end. Galvanized, they explained, holds up a long time. Regular nails are corroded by the chemicals in the posts.

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From the H brace to the corner where the fence goes to the right to make that L shape.

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I had them put a 16’ gate in the corner. That’s so I can go out on my tractor and maintain a fire lane on the other side of the fence. The ground takes a dip so I filled the gap with pieces of pine from the clearcut. It passed Anatolian inspection. I will get dirt to fill that in and probably lay a hog or cow panel under the gate to deter digging in or out.

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This is the corner where the fence turns right. It goes to the dividing line between me and Peggy and Bennett.

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Hope y’all enjoyed the fence pictures! I’m loving my new fence!

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL to this farm girl's eyes.

 

[Baymule]

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL to this farm girl's eyes.

Ain’t that the purdyest fence you ever did see?

 

[Ridgetop]

Isn't it amazing how much affections you can feel for a bunch of fence posts and rolls of wire?

 

[Baymule]

I have a gate at the ewes pen, the one I just replaced when the old one broke the weld and fell off. Opposite it is the gate to the front field. They open in different directions and form an alley the ewes can go through to cross the driveway. Sunday I moved the ewes to the front field, dragging both gates. I wrenched my back and it showed up on Tuesday morning. I could barely straighten up. I needed to set a round bale for the sheep, it didn’t feel good but I did it.

So yesterday I bought a gate wheel at Tractor Supply. I assembled the tools I needed and got to work. The gate clamps had slipped, so I raised the other end of the gate with a 4x4 and a brick. I reset the clamps and got the wheel out.

Is it just me or does anybody else see a problem here?

No problem. Just beat the crap out of it with a 22 ounce framing hammer.

That’s better!

After a whole lot of finagling and cutting a piece of wire out of the way with my trusty bolt cutters, I got the wheel put on.
I gave it a test run while ewes yelled at me.

It rolled perfectly. But there was a problem. The gate post was not set to accommodate a wheel and I would not close, leaving a lamb sized gap.

So I fixed it by screwing a piece of a 2x4 to the post. Dropped it too low, the wheel hit it, making the gap bigger. Took the board off, raised it up to clear the wheel and screwed it back on. I closed the gap.

Ewes were waiting!

I went to put a wheel on the gate to the pen, but there were no bolts with it. So tomorrow I’ll take it back and get bolts for it. Then I’ll have two easy to swing gates.

 

[farmerjan]

I get that when you have gates that with the lambs and sheep, you don't want a big space... BUT.... gates should be hung with AT LEAST 6 inches clearance at the post (8 inches is much better) if you want them to swing either way... that means allowing 3+ inches on the hinge pins, and 3-4 inches on the side where the gate closes to the post...
Sometimes you can shorten the side with the hinge pins to fit tighter to the post... but that will affect how far the gate can swing....
Your putting the 2x4 on the gate post, ABOVE the wheel is the best way to "stop the gap" for the lambs and get the full use of the gate.
I am all for the gate wheel to keep the weight of the gate from pulling down the hinge side and the adjustable hinges. I also do NOT like to put the gates on with the top pin down.... I understand the whole prevent it from being "picked up off the pin" thing... BUT that pin does NOTHING to help hold the weight/swinging of the gate.
There is another trick to putting the pins UPRIGHT on both the top and bottom hinge... put a 2x4 piece above the top hinge pin... then another attached to it above that... so it has a small piece that sits over the pin top... but can be swung away to lift the gate off the pins when needed... but the gate cannot be just "lifted up" say by a cow that wants to get it up... and it swings on both pins with equal weight and stops some of the pull on the post that they are swinging on...
Still the wheel on the non-hinge side is the very best way to prevent the weight pulling it down. I HATE dragging gates around... and believe me, we have a bunch of them... I get so P.O.ed at DS sometimes...

Good fix @Baymule

 

[farmerjan]

16 ft wide driveway or 20 ft? The best way to get around a wide heavy gate is 2 shorter gates... like 2 10footers instead of a 20 ft ...easier on the hinge posts, but then you have 2 hinge gate posts.... but to move anything you have to be quick to get both sides to open back.... has advantages and disadvantages... I like the single gate but got to have the wheel on it.

 

[Baymule]

Driveway is a little over 16 feet wide. The front gates are taken down because of the work I did to the driveway. They are 10’ gates. When I rehang them, I’ll have to put wire on them because they are just bars with dog sized gaps. They are a pain to open and close.

 

[SageHill]

Don’t know if this helps - it’s what a friend did. I would think you ~could finagle something similar on a side.

 

[Baymule]

Yup, something like that.