rachels.haven's Journal

Miss @rachels.haven,

If you are unable to locate anyone to do it for you, then I think you should strongly consider doing it yourself. You have proven yourself quite resourceful, and I believe you and your DH (when he can help) can do it. Watch A LOT of YouTube videos of how to install woven wire fencing. See if you can locate a rental place that will have a post hole digger, such as what Miss @babsbag has used. There are a number of people on this forum who have installed fencing: Miss @babsbag of course, Mr. @Bruce, Mr. @Mike CHS, Miss @Baymule, Mr. @CntryBoy777, Miss @farmerjan, and I think Miss @Ridgetop, and maybe Miss @RollingAcres. There are almost certainly others who know as well. Either way, you will have that fence up to protect you, your family, and your animals from that nasty coyote and anything else that comes your way.

Senile Texas Aggie
 
This is my fencing thread. I got some things wrong and some things right. It was a good discussion, with added input from others much more practiced than I was. Read the whole thing before starting on a fence, so you get the benefit of correction and better ideas on the things that I didn't get so right. LOL I will say again that you should use the 4"x4" sheep and goat wire, just in case you get cornered up and need to get over that fence!

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/non-climb-2-x4-horse-wire-fence.32922/
 
@Bruce, we get snow. And sometimes we REALLY get snow. The last 2 winters have been sparse, but we often get 4-8" snowfalls at a time. My son was sent with VDOT, with the huge snowblower (that is on the front of the machine) to Hampton Roads for their nearly 24" + snowfall a year or 2 ago, and has been sent elsewhere several times for big snows. One winter, the snow was so bad, and the winds had it drifting, they were getting roads open only to have them blow shut again in a few hours. One place, he used the snowblower, opened up the road partway to a community that was totally closed in, got an elderly lady that was supposed to have dialysis, into the cab of the snowblower and took her out to where they could get an ambulance to take her to the hospital. This is when they were supposed to get 2-4". Along the coastal areas they are not equipped as well to handle big snows. They do have some plows, but often it does melt fairly fast. Here in the Shen Valley, between the Blue Ridge Mtns, and the Alleghaneys, we normally get 10-30 " in a winter. About 15-20 yrs ago, we got 2 back to back storms that put down over 30" in 3 days. We didn't have any 4 wd tractors then. Took the one 2 wd tractor to break open the road, and I drove the 4x4 truck with hay on the bed right behind him, so he could get hay out to feed the cows. It took 10-12 hours a couple days in a row just to get hay out. We were supposed to get a small storm of 3-5 ". When I moved down here in 1981, I think it was the next winter, we got 2 storms back to back. Had over 4 ft on the roads, they didn't get to the back roads to plow for 4 days. I rode my horse from the house out to the barn in the back where the cows and hogs were because the first 2 days I couldn't walk in it and this is when I had "healthy strong" legs. Luckily my horse liked snow, and would come to a whistle, so I would call her to the fence line behind the house, ride her bareback out to the barn to feed and all. They had to make do with the creek water and what I could carry to the hogs. After a few days there was a path I could walk. It was about 1/4 mile from the house to the barn out back.

And no, this isn't one of those 5 miles up hill both ways in 2 ft of winter snow......stories.......
 
and Tennessee. When my mom first moved to TN from OH over the winter she enjoyed going out when it was snowing and the whole no waits for anything part...except then things started closing down and all the recently turned out drivers had no snow driving skills at all. Can't win them all, I guess.
 
Well, Bailey the wonder dog is afraid of whatever she's barking at. She started snarling and barking while I was milking at around 8 last night, so I stupidly decided to try to walk the barn pen perimeter with her and see if there was anything we could see. I went 16 feet before she was hiding behind my legs and I reconsidered. I took her with me to go get eggs and she was very, very uptight. I think she does need friends and a fence for them to patrol and feel secure in. She's a good dog, but apparently not stupidly courageous and I am the boss and the boss deals with the threats if she's taken outside of the pen at night. I don't think I'll do that to her again. The barn pen is nice and small and well lit and a nice defensible position on purpose (although it could be better, I wish it were ON a hill instead of at the base of one, and had no brush around it).

DH said go head with the fence. So I need the conservation people to get back to me. And i need to apply for a permit because I WILL be putting a fence within 150 feet of swamp and the creek (state rule is 50 feet, town is 150 and all are in town in Massachusetts). And I need a surveyer's sketch of our land with my fence on it. And there needs to be a public hearing. And it may not get approved. BUT I don't need to pay any fees because this is an agricultural project.

Very tempting to see if I can say nope to all that and try to do it without that nonsense because the penalty for violations is 1.5x the fee and my fee will be $0 and not $500 like some residential projects, but somehow I'm sure they'd find a way to punish me for using my land without consulting them (although they sure aren't answering email). I think I may head out to the road where we have phone reception and call the agricultural commission officer and see what he says. You can not have a farm without fences in this proximity to others (everyone has less than 10 acres, animals roam). And people here have fences near to water features. The question is, do they just have connections, a lot of $$$, or can I actually legally get this done? (Or maybe they don't legally get this done and just rack up an ag violation)

Then the property boundary and buried electric lines will need to be marked, then I'll actually need to find someone to do it, which I may be doing sooner than later.

I'm concerned I'm not going to get this done before the ground freezes making it impossible, but I can at least try. At least maybe I can fence in the half of the property on my side of the creek. But spring is a backup plan if I can't get our act together fast enough.
 
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