It was time to build a new fence line on the property. For longtime readers of the Farmer Ron Blog, you might remember the saga I went through to get a basic survey done so I would know where to put this fence.
The actual property line came in less than 5 feet from my neighbors house. Although I could have put the fence right on the line, it seemed like really bad karma, so we ended up putting it down at the bottom of the little hill his house sets on.
First off, a quick homage to the Cowgirls new F-250. It carried a shocking amount of weight with ease. I had 50 bags of cement and about 1000 lbs of lumber in the back of this thing, and it didn't even hiccup.
Stacking all this stuff was a bit harder when you don't have a fork lift like Home Depot. That'll put a kink in the 38 year old back... Where's that hot tub again?Next on the agenda was digging post holes. I'm no stranger to the working end of a post hole digger, and after several fence building sessions where my hands ended up feeling like clubs the next day I decided this time I'd rent a post hole digger.
I was super pumped and spend more money to get the Easy Auger that sits on its own trailer. I went to the tool rental the day before and had all my supplies and the auger ready to go. We got through about 1 hole with this and it kept dying on us.
So it was back and forth to the rental place 3 or 4 times, and finally we came back with the Little Beaver - I know, who names these things? This one had an engine on wheels and an umbilical cord that powers the auger. It actually worked just as good. The auger was a few inches smaller in diameter, but it did the job just fine.
After we got the Little Beaver going, it made relatively short work of the 175 feet of fence. Only one problem: Blackberries. While I love whipping up a batch of blackberry jam as much as the next guy, when a giant blackberry plant is in the way of your straight fence line, it's not that fun.
We hit it with a machete this time, but I want to see if I can borrow my neighbors llamas to eat it down.
We then had our little garden tractor incident as described above, dropped all the 4x6 posts into the holes, and called it day.
Next up, we'll be adding the cement, then the pressure treated stretchers, and then finally the 5 foot fencing that I scored at the auction.
See you next time.
