Pole corral

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Dave

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Baker County, Oregon
I just finished one section of my pole corral rebuild. That is 54 poles down and 200+ to go. It is 5.5 to 6 foot tall and stout enough that they won't be running through it. I am into the poles $1 each. I am using about two thirds the existing RR tie and a third new ones. The 9 foot ties cost me $18 each. Lag bolts are about 50 cents. This approximately 100 foot cost $162. In the background you can see the loafing shed I rebuilt. It is 36x10. The entire roof and about 25% of the walls were gone. Using mostly used material I rebuilt it for less than $200. It is not real pretty but it will keep the rain and snow off calves back.
The other picture is of the corral fence that I haven't got to yet. Sort of obvious why I am rebuilding. The previous owner would just wire a mesh panel over any holes when the poles rotted, broke, or just fell off. Actual repair and maintenance were not his strong suit. He told me that when he bought the place 8 years ago the corral needed to be rebuilt but he just never got around to doing it.



 
Stocker Steve said:
Nice Dave.

How many lag bolts are used on each pole end ?

One. They are mainly 3/8 diameter 10 inch lag bolts. A few 8 inch ones on the smaller poles. The old poles which were put up nearly 40 years ago had one spike at each end of the pole. Of course the poles are on the side of the ties that pressure is expected to come from.
 
If it were me, I would wire an upright on the inside of the poles to the post. They will never come loose then.
 
way to go dave. your doing a lot of work. those cross ties are hard to deal with, but they ought to last a lifetime. hadn't planted one in 30 years-thought it was hard back then.
 
That's a big undertaking. Seeing the pictures brings back a lot of memories. We rebuilt our corrals with rails years ago, and at that time when we were admiring our handiwork we mistakenly opined that we shouldn't have to do that again. But we did, only not with rails the last time.
We did ours like gcreek mentioned, in fact we used no fasteners. We stacked the rails against the post, set a smaller pole on the other side against the rails and used #9 wire to tie it to the post effectively sandwiching the rails in between.
 
Silver said:
That's a big undertaking. Seeing the pictures brings back a lot of memories. We rebuilt our corrals with rails years ago, and at that time when we were admiring our handiwork we mistakenly opined that we shouldn't have to do that again. But we did, only not with rails the last time.
We did ours like gcreek mentioned, in fact we used no fasteners. We stacked the rails against the post, set a smaller pole on the other side against the rails and used #9 wire to tie it to the post effectively sandwiching the rails in between.

We will be building about 100 panels like that shortly. 7 to 10" x 10 ft treated posts and 5 logs with 5 to 6 inch tops. Our home corrals that were built the first time by me in 1987 have been completely rebuilt in the last few years. Funny how it is more like work now!
 
gcreekrch said:
Silver said:
That's a big undertaking. Seeing the pictures brings back a lot of memories. We rebuilt our corrals with rails years ago, and at that time when we were admiring our handiwork we mistakenly opined that we shouldn't have to do that again. But we did, only not with rails the last time.
We did ours like gcreek mentioned, in fact we used no fasteners. We stacked the rails against the post, set a smaller pole on the other side against the rails and used #9 wire to tie it to the post effectively sandwiching the rails in between.

We will be building about 100 panels like that shortly. 7 to 10" x 10 ft treated posts and 5 logs with 5 to 6 inch tops. Our home corrals that were built the first time by me in 1987 have been completely rebuilt in the last few years. Funny how it is more like work now!

Might be a better experience with the use of an auger for the post holes. We dug ours in with the two handled hole diggers from hell, and tamped the blue gumbo back around the posts with a big iron bar that is hopefully never to be seen again. :lol2:
 
Silver said:
gcreekrch said:
Silver said:
That's a big undertaking. Seeing the pictures brings back a lot of memories. We rebuilt our corrals with rails years ago, and at that time when we were admiring our handiwork we mistakenly opined that we shouldn't have to do that again. But we did, only not with rails the last time.
We did ours like gcreek mentioned, in fact we used no fasteners. We stacked the rails against the post, set a smaller pole on the other side against the rails and used #9 wire to tie it to the post effectively sandwiching the rails in between.

We will be building about 100 panels like that shortly. 7 to 10" x 10 ft treated posts and 5 logs with 5 to 6 inch tops. Our home corrals that were built the first time by me in 1987 have been completely rebuilt in the last few years. Funny how it is more like work now!

Might be a better experience with the use of an auger for the post holes. We dug ours in with the two handled hole diggers from be nice, and tamped the blue gumbo back around the posts with a big iron bar that is hopefully never to be seen again. :lol2:

Vibrator on the excavator...…….. ;-) :D
 
When I start to install the posts in the new part I will be digging the hole with an excavator. Those cottonwoods in the middle of the first picture are on the river bank. This area is an old gravel bar from the river. Rock too big for an auger and lots of them. The pole permit from the forest service only allows a maximum diameter of 6 inches. I went with a minimum of 3 inches. I put the smaller poles on either the bottom or top rail. I use to handle the RR ties by hand. Now they get put in the hole using the FEL on the tractor. If they need to be turned in the hole I use a Peevee to spin them. Hydraulics and leverage are a good thing.
There is the remains of an old corral about 10 miles from here. It is between old Highway 30 and I-84. I am sure that when they built I-84 that it cut that corral off from the pasture. All the RR ties are still there and a few of the poles. I am not sure when they built that corral but they built I-84 in 1962 so you know it was before that. The poles only last so long but here in the desert the RR ties seem to last forever.
 
That looks neat Dave! Now I'm jealous :mrgreen: have always wanted to build a corral fence here...maybe one day. Hope you have assistance or are you doing it on your own?
 
alisonb said:
That looks neat Dave! Now I'm jealous :mrgreen: have always wanted to build a corral fence here...maybe one day. Hope you have assistance or are you doing it on your own?
Three people working on it. Me myself and I. Actually the wife is able to help about 10% of the time. Whenever she gets a break from everything she is doing. That sure helps. Holding the rail in place while drilling the pilot hole and getting the lag screw in is really a two person job. This is especially true on the top two rails.
 
Dave said:
alisonb said:
That looks neat Dave! Now I'm jealous :mrgreen: have always wanted to build a corral fence here...maybe one day. Hope you have assistance or are you doing it on your own?
Three people working on it. Me myself and I. Actually the wife is able to help about 10% of the time. Whenever she gets a break from everything she is doing. That sure helps. Holding the rail in place while drilling the pilot hole and getting the lag screw in is really a two person job. This is especially true on the top two rails.


Been there, a person sure starts looking for shortcuts and innovative ideas when working alone.
 
We put up 22 panels today in a snow storm.






End panel has staples holding wire in place and upright is nailed to logs.


Wiring diagram.


If this was an actual corral pen it would have bigger logs and be a foot or two higher.
 
I get so jealous when I see beautiful pole fences. It would corrode too fast down here.
 

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