Saturday 18 August 2012

Fencing the hill park

Work started this week on the boundary fencing behind the house. Its sheep netting and plain wire, good enough for sheep and goats ( with an electrified top wire) but not for cattle, they need a barbed wire on top and barbed wire is nasty stuff.

Strainer post and stobs
Erecting a stock proof fence is a skilled and arduous job anywhere, but here on thin soil over stone and rock its even more difficult. The holes for the strainer posts should be as deep as the depth of the spade and the whole integrity of the fence depends on how well set the strainers are.

A bottom wire between the strainers acts as a guide for the placing the stobs. The stobs (intermediate posts) are set 3m apart in a pilot hole made with a steel bar, then they are hammered into the ground with a mell (heavy broad faced hammer).

John Alec and his brother Dougie got all of the materials up to the hill, placed eight strainers and the stobs in four days. The gates; netting and the wire go on next week then the goats can spend the daytime out of doors.

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