Hillbilly corner post

[Ouachita]

On a neighboring property I'm trying to buy. I tried to buy it 33 years ago, but it was landlocked without an easement. It's still landlocked. I didn't know that I would end up owning the adjoining land at that time.
I knew the man that owned it and lived here in the '70s. The shack is long gone, but he did collect and deposit some of his trophies. Ralph was an interesting character.

 

[uplandnut]

I see corner posts made out of wire cages loaded with rock around here as well.

 

[TCRanch]

See those corner posts all the time around here. Closest neighbor (1.5 miles) has them all over his property. But we're also at the base of the Flint Hills with a ridiculous amount of rock.

 

[moses388]

Got some junk sitting around, too. I say anything about hauling it to the scrap yard and the old man gets bent out of shape....

 

[Rafter S]

I've been known to make a hillbilly corner post or two myself. One of my favorites was when I needed a gate between two rent pastures. I found a reasonably straight tree in the fence line. I cut the wire at the tree, and screwed in some eye bolts to attach the wire on one side and hung the gate on the other side. I drove in a T-post for the gate to hit against, dropped an 8' piece of pipe over it, tied a wire from the top of it to the tree to keep it straight, and then tied the barbed wire to the pipe.

I did it all myself, it didn't take long, and it worked well.

 

[BFE]

See those corner posts all the time around here. Closest neighbor (1.5 miles) has them all over his property. But we're also at the base of the Flint Hills with a ridiculous amount of rock.

Do you have any of the stone posts like they have around Wilson Lake?

 

[greybeard]

Do you have any of the stone posts like they have around Wilson Lake?

Years ago, on another board, I was discussing creosote corner and line posts and a fella from Kansas told me something along the lines of "Be a man Don, Drive or plant stone posts!"

Having not ever been to Kansas, I had no idea what he was talking about till he posted a picture.

 

[hurleyjd]

People at one time had to utilize what every they could use for fence post. This was before Tee post, treated post and cross ties and upset oil field tubing. I can remember when most corner post here were a mulberry post about 12 to 28 inches in diameter. Line post would be split post made from a post oak tree. There was a man in our area that made the split post for you. If you got over in to the black land area you would see a lot bodark post corner and line . Crooked as all get out. Other areas of Texas would be using cedar post. Understand that a lot of black locust was used in other areas. Most of these wooden post would outlast the treated post we buy now. People had to utilize what ever was growing in the area. The rock post shown was where you had a lot of rock also a lot of fence was made using stacked rock.
pm

 

[D2Cat]

Those "hillbilly corner post" are common in area with surface rocks. It was an inexpensive way to clean a field and have a fence at the same time. In the days when families had many children the youngsters picked up the rocks and brought them to their father who either put them in wire cages to hold a fence on stacked the flat one to form a fence.

 

[shaz]

I've built a couple myself. Then I got a rock auger.

 

[TCRanch]

Do you have any of the stone posts like they have around Wilson Lake?

We don't but one of our neighbors does. We do still have some hedge posts.

Spent a lot of time at Wilson Lake as a kid.

 

[TCRanch]

Those "hillbilly corner post" are common in area with surface rocks. It was an inexpensive way to clean a field and have a fence at the same time. In the days when families had many children the youngsters picked up the rocks and brought them to their father who either put them in wire cages to hold a fence on stacked the flat one to form a fence.

We still have a lot of the stacked "fences". Or, what's left of them. We handpicked stones from the fences for the fireplaces when we built the house.

 

[D2Cat]

We don't but one of our neighbors does. We do still have some hedge posts.

Spent a lot of time at Wilson Lake as a kid.

Good pheasant hunting in that area!!

 

[Rafter S]

People at one time had to utilize what every they could use for fence post. This was before Tee post, treated post and cross ties and upset oil field tubing. I can remember when most corner post here were a mulberry post about 12 to 28 inches in diameter. Line post would be split post made from a post oak tree. There was a man in our area that made the split post for you. If you got over in to the black land area you would see a lot bodark post corner and line . Crooked as all get out. Other areas of Texas would be using cedar post. Understand that a lot of black locust was used in other areas. Most of these wooden post would outlast the treated post we buy now. People had to utilize what ever was growing in the area. The rock post shown was where you had a lot of rock also a lot of fence was made using stacked rock.
pm

There are still a few old bois d'arc posts around here that have probably been in the ground for close to 100 years. There's at least one in my line fence that was old when we moved here in 1969.

 

[Walking W]

There are still a few old bois d'arc posts around here that have probably been in the ground for close to 100 years. There's at least one in my line fence that was old when we moved here in 1969.

Did you know that the female bose d'arc is great for posts but the male tree doesn't have the same resin and rots away just about like everything else? I made the mistake of cutting down a male tree and using it for a corner post. The termites and carpenter ants had it down in three years. Lesson learned.

 

[Philip-TX]

Did you know that the female bose d'arc is great for posts but the male tree doesn't have the same resin and rots away just about like everything else? I made the mistake of cutting down a male tree and using it for a corner post. The termites and carpenter ants had it down in three years. Lesson learned.

I found out when I was a teenager that females make harder wood.

 

[Rafter S]

Did you know that the female bose d'arc is great for posts but the male tree doesn't have the same resin and rots away just about like everything else? I made the mistake of cutting down a male tree and using it for a corner post. The termites and carpenter ants had it down in three years. Lesson learned.

I did not know that.

 

[Ebenezer]

Rocks in wire cages - what is the least diameter that is going to remain stable if the wire is 4' tall? I need to put in several where rock is shallow. Thanks.

 

[BFE]

We don't but one of our neighbors does. We do still have some hedge posts.

Spent a lot of time at Wilson Lake as a kid.

We visit the lake some when we go out to see the wife's sister, they live in Bennington. No matter the weather, seems the water in Wilson Lake is always frigid!

 

[Dave]

They are call rock jacks here. There are lots of them. They come in various forms but all the same theory. Something to hold a stack of rocks which holds the fence. Here is a couple on the sides of a gate made with lumber. And another in a property corner made with Juniper which would have been cut near the site. I see then made with the wire basket, with wood the most common, and I have seen them made of welded up scrap iron. I have a neighbor who constructs then out of old bent Tee posts. I have couple that I have made that way. Some of the rocks I see utilized were put there by men a lot stronger than I have ever been.