I have come to hate fencing but it looks good when done

[cmf1]

GB, that looks and sounds like my fencing history here on a woody patch in south La.
I remember how proud I was when I replaced a 40 year old back line perimiter fence in spring 2005.
All nice and new and banjo tight. It sure felt good to have it done.

4-5 months later Katrina came calling. 2' oak trees scattered to and fro. Then Rita blew 'em from the other direction.

At least good strong corners allow me to keep it tight.

 

[HOSS]

Your fencing style is very similar to mine. We must have learned from the same person :cowboy: My Dad taught me. As a teen he used to fence for a living. He and his work partner ran 5 strands of barb around 5,000 acres of some of the roughest hill country in Tennessee. He and his partner had an old Willys jeep pulling an old army wagon to carry their wire, posts, chain saws and camping gear. When the ground got real steep and rough they used mules. His employer (the land owner) was adamant about it being done right and straight. That was back in the 50's and parts of that fence is still standing strong. Of course these days the 5,000 acres has been split up between Champion Paper and smaller farms and hunting leases.

I ran about 3,000 ft of fence through some very dense woods. I used a chainsaw and a track loader to clear it out. Drove the t-posts in with the loader bucket. Where you used railroad ties I used big telephone pole butt ends. They should be there forever. All of my cross-fencing is electric or woven wire.

 

[Caustic Burno]

GB, that looks and sounds like my fencing history here on a woody patch in south La.
I remember how proud I was when I replaced a 40 year old back line perimiter fence in spring 2005.
All nice and new and banjo tight. It sure felt good to have it done.

4-5 months later Katrina came calling. 2' oak trees scattered to and fro. Then Rita blew 'em from the other direction.

At least good strong corners allow me to keep it tight.

Amen brother after Rita wasn't a fence standing on this place.
Talk about a scamble to get a pasture put back together, the race was on.
Had all my cow's in a lot feeding my winter hay.

 

[greybeard]

We talked about Rita before--wasn't too bad here, but Ike dropped oaks all over the opposite fence I mentioned in the satellite view.
What didn't fall on the fence come out of the ground and the big rootball pulled up fence and posts for 20-30 ft either direction. Took me 3 weeks to get that one back up and it has never been the same good fence it was before.
Trees like to fall on gates too--especially those stamped galvanized steel gates. :devil2:

 

[cmf1]

Jogging my memory now.
I had a 5' bushhog parked about 30' from a 2 1/2' dia., 50-60 tall chestnut oak through Katrina.
Nothing happened.
Working on other things I never thought about it. Rita came through a little later and the wind was from a completely different direction.
That tree could have fallen in 350 degrees of a full circle and not hurt anything at all.
Nope!
Right on the bush hog.
Took me 2 hours of chainsawing and tractoring to get it out.
Sure didn't look any better but a 12lb mall and shortly after it still cut fine.
It was an old Bush Hog brand.

 

[1982vett]

Hey greybeard...did you pound all those in with a driver?

Yes, and if you look at the below pic, you will see a horizontal line left to right in the middle of the pic. That's a 5 wire I built in 2007 or 2008 the same way--about 2700' long. I drove em all in by hand too. I hired a guy to hold some tee posts while I drove them down with my backhoe bucket one time on another fence. All that pounding squeezed the front rubber bushing out of the motor mount right before we got thru and the fan got in the radiator. An expensive lesson--I don't do that anymore.

I use the loader bucket to push em in... do end up bending one every now and then but have very few that won't go in.

In order not to have to hire or beg some help, I drive them in just enough for them to stand then come back and push them in. In order to keep them all relatively the same depth, I lay the post out on sawhorses and spray paint a mark that represents the depth I want to drive them in. I use a 2x4 to keep that mark crisp. I can see it from the tractor and stop pushing just as enters the ground. Can generally keep everything withing a couple inches. Only have to hand drive the ones I can't get a tractor to. Even hand driving, the paint marking on the post keeps me from having to stop to measure.

 

[Caustic Burno]

GB if you would just run down to the local TSC and buy some post hole's you might not dread the chore so bad. :hide:

 

[HOSS]

Vett, I use a length of pipe over the t-post. Just push it down to the top of the pipe. Sets them to the right depth every time. Works best with 2 people. The don't bend this way either. The pipe keeps them driving straight.

 

[greybeard]

Yall must have softer ground than I have--I bent 3 into a hairpin shape last time I tried the backhoe bucket on em. No way can I just "push" one in except down by the river.

CB, I'll go get about 1/2 mile of post holes and pay for them, transport them, cut them to length, and give you 1/2 if you'll install my half. Sounds like a fair deal to me..

 

[Caustic Burno]

Yall must have softer ground than I have--I bent 3 into a hairpin shape last time I tried the backhoe bucket on em. No way can I just "push" one in except down by the river.

CB, I'll go get about 1/2 mile of post holes and pay for them, transport them, cut them to length, and give you 1/2 if you'll install my half. Sounds like a fair deal to me..

That does sound like a good deal and if I needed any post hole's I would take you up on the offer.
If you will spend a little extra you can get the predrilled one's and just set them where you need them.

 

[1982vett]

Vett, I use a length of pipe over the t-post. Just push it down to the top of the pipe. Sets them to the right depth every time. Works best with 2 people. The don't bend this way either. The pipe keeps them driving straight.

That would fix having one bend every now and then also....but I'm always a one man show.

 

[greybeard]

Yall must have softer ground than I have--I bent 3 into a hairpin shape last time I tried the backhoe bucket on em. No way can I just "push" one in except down by the river.

CB, I'll go get about 1/2 mile of post holes and pay for them, transport them, cut them to length, and give you 1/2 if you'll install my half. Sounds like a fair deal to me..

That does sound like a good deal and if I needed any post hole's I would take you up on the offer.
If you will spend a little extra you can get the predrilled one's and just set them where you need them.

I can't do that-my daddy would roll in his grave if he knew I went with the pre-drilled ones. I can just hear him.."Son--That's for old women and little children!"
When I was about 14, we were stacking some prairie hay in an old hot barn, and my brother had just sat down to rest when Dad walked up the ladder. "Boy, you gonna help or just sit there like a stale bucket of pizz?"
I :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

 

[Arkansas]

Whats your spacing between post ? 5 ft. ? And I see them spaced every 10 ft. next door to me. Anyone know why so far apart, neighbor is running cattle on his about 20 head and he has his spaced to 10 ft. each post. Is there a place where you can get T-Post cheaper then 5 bucks a post in Northeast Arkansas ? What size are you using 5 ft. ? Fence line looks great btw, looks professional!

 

[greybeard]

Whats your spacing between post ? 5 ft. ? And I see them spaced every 10 ft. next door to me. Anyone know why so far apart, neighbor is running cattle on his about 20 head and he has his spaced to 10 ft. each post. Is there a place where you can get T-Post cheaper then 5 bucks a post in Northeast Arkansas ? What size are you using 5 ft. ? Fence line looks great btw, looks professional!

11 ft--that's how the spacing happened to work out on this run, also was the length of the tamping rod I keep on my fencing trailer,that I use to get fairly even spacing. 10 ft spacing is pretty standard around here, but I've got one that is more than 12' apart. Depends what the intended usage for any particular fence is.
7ft tee posts. Dunno what someone would use a 5ft tee post for around here--be an awful short fence unless it was elec. It gets pretty soggy here in this flood zone and I need to have them in the ground at least 1 1/2 feet.

 

[Arkansas]

Thanks, appreciate the fast response.. Maybe I just cant tell how big T-post are when there in the ground..lol I had seen people using 5 on pigs around here just never thought much about the difference in size of them and cattle. I just assumed 5ft is what was used, knock a foot in the ground and then hot wire the remaining 4.. That's the difference in Farmboy's and City Slicker's..lol

 

[chippie]

that looks great greybeard! you did a nice job.