Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

[Baymule]

I can't stand knick-nacs and collectibles. If it has to be dusted, I don't want it. I have made this plain and clear to my kids. They can give me a gift card to Tractor Supply, I'll buy chicken feed or something. Or a gift card to a grocery store, I'll eat it, flush it down the toilet and it's gone.

T-posts, 5 pound boxes of screws, lumber--these are the things that warm my heart. LOL

 

[Latestarter]

So I finished up the first small piece of fencing today, hung the first gate, and laid out the next/first long length of fencing. It's stapled at the far end & tomorrow I'll hook the stretcher to it and hopefully completely finish that length. I didn't realize just how much work is involved with attaching 13 strands of wire around corner posts. By the time I'm done fencing here, I think I'll have a lifetime's worth of fencing behind me and no desire to do any more. I only did a single "H" brace today and the gate, and I'm sore and tired.

GB I want to thank you sincerely for the stretcher bars. They worked like a champ and I'm sure are tenfold better than the 2x4 boards bolted together I had made, would have been. Those 2x4s got repurposed into the hay feeder. Tried using the come alongs but they were pretty badly rusted. So I ended up using 3 ratchet straps instead. They worked just fine.

Anyway, supposed to be more rain headed in this coming weekend. I hope to be able to continue doing a stretch of fencing each day. The next length (for tomorrow) is about 240'. No gates tomorrow... the next gate is after the section for Thursday.

Ended up throwing that ham I took out into the oven ~8pm when I came in from chores. I then steamed up a couple of heads of broccoli to eat while I waited for the ham to cook. Had slices of ham with mustard for dinner at 10-10:30.

 

[greybeard]

Oil up the comealongs and maybe they'll be ok. Or just trash 'em.
Did I send both stretcher bars or just one..I don't remember.
I showed you how I was tieing the terminal ends..no more twisting and sore fingers for me. Works for net wire too.
gripple

 

[Bruce]

Would be nice to have a backhoe to dig that rotted post out and a trench to drain the water!

So @greybeard, there isn't any need to have the wrapped wire tight?? I GUESS the fence staples are holding the tension of the fence??

 

[Latestarter]

GB, you sent both stretcher bars... do you need one back? Yes, I remember the gripple you showed me. That would be a quite substantial time (& finger) savings. I didn't have a major problem with doing them except the very bottom one as I have to dig a trench along side the post to allow the twisting tool to rotate around the fence wire with the bitter end. & the lower wires as my back and knees are really giving me hell right now after several days of abusing each. I haven't "hurt" my back but the muscles are very stiff and sore. I'm really hoping that I don't throw it out.

Today I hand pulled the fencing as tight as I could then hooked up the stretcher bar and commenced to pulling. The fence length is ~230-240 feet. I pulled out about 6 feet before it was tight. I'm having a real bear of a time with the damned fence T post clips that came with the T posts. They are so fricken short and twisted at an odd angle to be able to clip the fencing to the T post easily. I can barely get one twist on one side and the other looks like crap as it's bent wrong to be twisted neatly. I'm gonna have to devote the better part of a day just to do those. I went back to TSC and complained about the clips and she gave me a free pkg of name brand ones to try. When I got them home it turns out they are those alternate ones that were discussed on here that requires that special 2 pronged tool to install.

Bruce, when using the puller bar it has all strands pulled tight. The top and bottom strands are heavier gauge. I staple the wires to the post before cutting any of them. Then you cut the wires and wrap them to the post one at a time starting at the center and working out. The top and bottom wires are the last to be cut and since at that point all the others are already attached to the post, as well as being stapled, they don't retract.

My back and knees were so sore by early afternoon that I took a break for the rest of the day and ran the lawn tractor till dark. I'll be back to work on the fence again tomorrow. While mowing I looked at my rotten fence post hole and the water is down to a couple of inches. Might be able to get back to work on it before the next wet weather gets here early next week.

As an aside, I'm officially on kid watch starting tomorrow. Dot could go any time starting tomorrow (Day 147). Rechecked the dates & 150 days is the 25th. That is of course assuming that RJ was effective on the day he arrived when he spent hours chasing Dot trying to mount her. Hope it doesn't go much later than that as we're supposed to have T-storms starting early next week.

 

[Bruce]

Bruce, when using the puller bar it has all strands pulled tight. The top and bottom strands are heavier gauge. I staple the wires to the post before cutting any of them. Then you cut the wires and wrap them to the post one at a time starting at the center and working out. The top and bottom wires are the last to be cut and since at that point all the others are already attached to the post, as well as being stapled, they don't retract.

That is how I did it as well. I guess the wrapping back to the fence is just "tying off" given how the guy in the video just pushed the wire into the gripple and cut it off?

 

[Baymule]

LS when I was clipping the bottom of the T-posts I used a short stool to sit on. Like the style a child places in front of the bathroom sink so they can reach the sink. Because my knees are crap, it was a big help. Then to get up, I grabbed the T-post and pulled up. I couldn’t bend my knees nor could I kneel, so it was my best option. It might help save your back.

 

[greybeard]

GB, you sent both stretcher bars... do you need one back? Yes, I remember the gripple you showed me. That would be a quite substantial time (& finger) savings.

No, but if if I ever do, I know where to come to get it.

Today I hand pulled the fencing as tight as I could then hooked up the stretcher bar and commenced to pulling. The fence length is ~230-240 feet. I pulled out about 6 feet before it was tight.

Pay attention to and watch the little pre-formed bends in the horizontal runs of the wire--probably have one between each vertical stay. You do NOT want to pull so much that you straighten them out, but you do want to pull enough that they are a little less of a 'hump'. Those pre-formed bends are what keeps your horizontal run tight.

This fence, I can tell just by looking, was not pulled tight enough.
http://i.bosscdn.com/product/56/57/1e/75e3e702fa279e68c892f667af.jpg@4e_220w_220h.src|95Q.webp

This one is tight and is fixed knot HT..notice how far apart you can go between posts with HT:

 

[greybeard]

I'm having a real bear of a time with the damned fence T post clips that came with the T posts. They are so fricken short and twisted at an odd angle to be able to clip the fencing to the T post easily. I can barely get one twist on one side and the other looks like crap as it's bent wrong to be twisted neatly.

You can imagine how many tee post clips I've put in. The only time I've ever had trouble with ties was when I had a young fellow helping me and we were driving tee posts with my backhoe bucket. I wasn't watching him close enough and he stood 4-5 of them up backwards and the teeposts clips wouldn't go around the post and reach the wire. (the nubs on the flat of the post have to face the wire) Pretty sure you didn't do that tho.....right?

 

[Latestarter]

right... The T posts are facing the right way. Guess I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and do the best I can with the crap clips. I could cut a couple thousand pieces of wire from the roll I bought to use for "H" tensioning... Then "twist tie" the damned fence to the T posts...

Went out for dinner tonight. Had an order of buffalo wings followed by a rack of ribs with onion rings on the side. Someone is out back popping caps right now. No idea what they're emptying clips on at 11:30 at night.