the dogs

 My pack of airedales is having a great time; they've got 70 acres of space to roam, and they're taking their job of patrolling the whole property very seriously. 

 Every day there is a concerted rush to the edge of the big field, and then they run all the way to the other end, about a mile, as quickly as they can.  There MUST be something interesting happening out there!

 Having reached the  eastern edge, they move to the northern edge and patrol the river shore.  There's still quantities of pink salmon carcasses there; they prefer them very, very rotten.  Yuck.  I'm starting to see silver salmon carcasses now; we're in the middle of the coho run now, until sometime in December . 

They spend hours running from one side of the field to the other; I'm going to figure that they run 6 to 8 miles a day on average.  I like having them have the run of the place; one of the benefits of a good perimeter fence. 

A shake and a squeal...

I have a field where the nursing mothers range; they like the grass and the weather, and I'll find them out there during the day.   I go out at sunset and make sure that they're all in the barn for the evening.  I do that because the sow really doesn't experience temperature like we do. 

 This particular sow is named terrorist.  She's a very nice pig; gentle, good with piglets,a good mother, but got her name when she was a piglet because of her constant theft of gloves and tools.  She'd hide under a trailer or behind a bush, carefully watching for you to turn your back, and she'd dash out and take your hammer or glove or whatever it was that you were working with and run off with it.  For her it was a fun game of you-can't-catch-me.  For me it was terrorism.

 Sows have a large body and a good layer of fat on them; that means that they're basically like seals and can withstand quite a temperature range.  My sows consider anything above 65 degrees a heat wave and I'll find them bathing in the freezing mud to cool off.  Brr.  But pigs are a different matter; when they're small they have no fat to speak of, and they spend most of their time working hard to keep dry and as warm as they can be.  So when the sow decides to lay down in the grass for the evening, well, that's fine if it's in July.  But not november.   So I do my rounds and everyone goes into the barn for the night.  Dry straw and good roof for the benefit of the little ones. 

 But now and then a sow doesn't want to go into the barn; that's where the shake and squeal comes in.  The basic technique is to try a bribe; a pail of feed, shaken, provides a sound that is usually enough to motivate even a sow that has just fed- sows can always find some room for more food. 

The squeal comes in if the shake doesn't work.  Carefully and calmly you walk up to the sow; the pigs will usually arrange themselves on the opposite side from you.  Squatting, you reach right underneath her and grab a pig.  And then run like the dickens as it squeals, because you can pretty much bet momma is RIGHT BEHIND YOU.  If she gets too close you put the piglet down; if she is not following you hold the piglet in sight until it squeals; she'll get interested, and the chase is on. 

Shake and Squeal. 

High tensile fences

So in the last 10 years i've put up field fence, barbed wire fence, panel fence and board fence.   I'll add high tensile fence to that list.  You'll find a complete cost breakdown at the end of this post. 

First, if I were to pick a type of fence to use as a perimeter fence around large (> 10 acre) parcels, I'd probably pick high tensile fence or barbed wire, and I'd do that based on durability and cost per foot.  

If I were to pick between barbed wire and high tensile, I'd probably choose high tensile; based because it's easier to put up.  Fencing is heavy, hard work but fencing with high tensile is easier than fencing with barbed wire; I've done both.    High tensile is easier to string because you can leave the spool on one end and draw the smooth wire to the far end.  With barbed wire it catches on everything so you have to carry the spool of wire to the far end, and that truly does suck.  

High tensile fence -- nearly invisible.  

The cost of the fence is mostly the cost of the braces.  For a properly tensioned fence, you'll need double H braces sunk at least 3' into the ground, with diagonal support.  The picture below shows a typical brace that I constructed out of railroad ties.  The railroad ties are 8' long 6x8 timbers and are buried 3' into the ground.  The crossbars are 6x6 timbers.  The diagonal wire is 12.5 gauge barbless barbed wire, and this particular fence is 8 strands of high tensile wire with the 3rd and 7th wires electrified.  The 3rd wire is to exclude coyotes and keep pigs in, the 7th wire is for cattle.  You can see the black insulators on the post on the right side of the picture.

Double H brace for high tensile fence

For gate openings you have to do a brace on each side.  The picture below shows a 12' gate opening.  The brace on the right is for a 1300' span, the brace on the left is for a 500' span.  I haven't mounted the gate yet, but you can see the opening.  I chose to run all of the wires from this central point so that I only had to move the supplies to one area for both spans.

Gate opening for high tensile fence

I was replacing generations of fencing; the apple tree in the photo below gives you an idea of what it looked like before.  the problem with this sort of fence is that it's very hard to tell if it's animal proof, and it's pretty hard to maintain.  Good perimeter fences are a way to make sure that you sleep better.

Apple tree with random fencing attempts vs....

One thing that I've found with fencing is that preparing the fenceline prior to construction is the best thing to do.  In my case I left any tree that was bigger than my wrist, but cleared small bushes and blackberries along the fenceline.  I determined the fenceline via a survey I comissioned, and I suggest that anyone who buys acreage get their property surveyed as part of their purchase.  It would be terrible to put a fence up in the wrong place and then have to move it.  It's enough work to put it up once!

High tensile fence replacement

The field posts I used were a mix of railroad ties that I found on my property and recycled and 6x6 posts that I purchased.  This is intended to be a permanent perimeter fence; pressure treated posts, galvanized hardware, everything built bigger and heavier than it needs to be so that it lasts.

Posts are placed where the ground rises or falls

This is the end brace for a 1300' section of high tensile fence.  

This is the river end of the fence; I chose to put the brace 30' from the river bank because the bank is eroding; in the next 10 or 15 years the big maple tree that you see to the left in the photo may fall into the river; or it may not.  So I put my brace back, and I'll extend the fence to the river with posts and cattle panels.  If the bank washes away the cattle panels will just hang out into space, which is fine.  

Here's the cost of the fence:  

1800' run, 4 double H braces, 16 field posts, 3 12' gates

14400' of 12.5 gauge high tensile wire @ $0.03/foot,$432

36 6x6 posts or equivalent @$22/each, $792

1 spool 12.5 gauge barbless barbed wire, $60

bucket of fence staples $36

Insulators $8

Tension springs, 16 at $7.50 each, $120

Tension ratchets 16 at $3.99 each, $64

7 man-days clearing fence line @ 150/day $1050.

6 man-days building braces, running wire, setting posts, $900

3 heavy duty galvanized 12' gates, $165 each, $495

1 25 mile solar fence energizer, $280

Total fence cost $4237, or 2.35/foot everything included.  Materials only cost of $2287, or $1.27/foot