Progress on Fence & Shelter

[HobbyFarmerJen]

I'm just dropping in to see how other members build their shelters. Yours is very cute! Good job. I will keep the red paint in mind when designing mine - looks like a mini barn.

 

[greybeard]

(I realize this is a 3 year old thread) and I know nothing about goats or their shelters but that is an excellent job on the fence.
BUT, I'm going to say a few things that may at first seem unflattering, but they are for the benefit of those of us that often find it difficult to find the $$ and time to build good fencing. You are using high tension wire. For those members with not-so-deep pockets or like me, a thin wallet, one of the advantages of high tension wire is that it doesn't require as close line post spacing as traditional woven or even barbed wire. Traditional fencing rule of thumb was 10-16' minimum distance between line postsfor woven, welded, or barb wire. That, is a lot of posts, and a lot of post holes. A lot of backfilling and a lot of tamping. I know, I've built those type fences since 1966. HT wire has been very popular overseas, especially on the cattle and sheep stions of Australia/New Zealand for decades, but is relatively a late comer here in North America. It has caught on quick tho and there are reasons for it. Because HT wire can be pulled so tightly, adequate spacing between line posts is considered to be as much as 100' apart. I'm presently building an electric HT cattle fence and am placing line posts 65' apart. If I had a more docile breed cattle, I would go maybe 80' apart. (My breed is 1/2 Brahma-1/4 Hereford-1/4 shorthorn).
I like your insulators--the tube type are much better than the old nail in plastic pieces of crap.
Another $ and time saver on an HT fence is being able to use floating braces both in corners and in the middle of a long stretch instead of the traditional H braces you used. Nothing wrong with an H brace corner, but again, to save $ and time, and still have a very strong corner, a floating brace is more than adequate. You only dig one hole for each corner and one hole for each mid-run brace. You use 1/3 less big posts per fence. With 8"x8' posts running close to $20+ ea, that is a lot of savings.
Please understand I DO like that fence!! But, I have always put the wire on the containment side of the posts. If you want to keep something out, the wire goes on the outside. Keep something in, the wire goes on the inside of the posts. This, is to prevent the contained animals from just pushing against the wire and popping the staples out, then pushing up or down on the now unfastened wire and squeezing thru. (A fence charger always seems to malfunction the same time animals get frisky)

For those who have never built a HT fence, take notice of the apparatus on the lower right of picture#1. It's a spinning jenny, costs from $40-$100 most anywhere and is absolutely a life saver and a necessity when playing out HT wire. It's an investment. Don't even think about cutting the bands on a 1000 or 4000' foot roll of HT wire until the whole roll is firmly secured in the spinning jenny. (don't ask how I learned this)

A little information on HT fencing here:
http://beefmagazine.com/pasture-range/grazing-programs/0301-common-fencing-mistakes

Again--a very nice, efficient and strong fence!!