Fencing and rocks....

[Lil Foot]

Apologies for the long post.
I have shelved most of my projects (notably my excavator rebuild & repair of my leaking B7100) in favor of working with my fence contractor to fence our high country property.
We had been on a waiting list for almost 3 years.
Fencing is virtually all done, just a few clean up details. 1712 linear feet, one 3ft gate, one 10ft gate, one 24ft gate.
2 3/8" heavy wall drill stem posts & top rail 100% welded, 7018 rod.
Posts set in concrete 18"dp, in 6-8" holes. (auger is 6", but it 1s so rocky they usually end up nearer 8" diameter)
Big gate posts are 4", set 3+ft dp.
4ft heavy wire no climb fabric, except for an area up front. ( see below)
We have a pretty big drop off at one end of the frontage, plus a 16" county culvert dumping on that end of the property also.
After looking at various scenarios, we extended the county culvert 7' to go under the fence, and used 5ft fabric in the low area.
This made the top of the fence even with the 4ft fence on the high side of the drive, and even with the neighbor's 5ft existing fence. (it looked terrible with short posts & 4ft fabric)
But it left a big gap under the fence fabric in the low area, which I am building up with (mostly) large rock.
When the "retaining wall" is complete, we will fill in the low area on the outside of the fence, up to the bottom of the fence, with some free local fill, aided by the fence contractor and his LARGE backhoe & a couple dump trailers.
My neighbor to the north had recently bought a new fully loaded BX23s, and graciously granted me the use of his old B2100, knowing my tractor was down for the count.
It is great to have wonderful neighbors!
The wife and I moved & set all the rock in the pics this past Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, but knocked off before it was done, because Monday was our anniversary.
I will rest up a few days and get back at it soon.

 

[Lil Foot]

More pics:

 

[Russell King]

Looks great.

How is wire being attached to the line posts and top rail? I don’t see anything in the pictures so may have been stretched but not attached yet. I like the no climb but it is difficult to get it to follow terrain very well.

 

[bird dogger]

Now that's impressive!!

 

[jyoutz]

Nice fence. I have a similar 5’ fence for my 1 acre steer pen. That fence will last for decades. Coconino or Navajo county?

 

[Lil Foot]

Wire fabric is tied on with .040 or .045 black wire, 3 places on each post, and two places on the top rail between posts. Kinda hard to see in these pics.

 

[Lil Foot]

Coconino County.
50 mi north of Payson, 40 mi south of Winslow, 75mi se of Flagstaff, 60 mi ne Camp Verde.

 

[Lil Foot]

Forgot to mention gates are made with Delmar Panels.
And there is a pair of small posts set in concrete to set the open gates on when open.
(visible in pics 4 & 5)

 

[Lil Foot]

The HST tractor took a little getting used to, compared to my gear tractor.
It is noticeably bigger than mine.
The HST pedal sometimes had a little creep in either direction, requiring a slight tap on the pedal in the opposite direction.
The starter did not always work each time, sometimes on the first try, other times 3 or 4 tries. Seemed like a relay problem. (click behind the dash?)
The FEL was MUCH slower than my B219, unless revved up. Lifting capacity seemed about the same.
Dash throttle was nice, but I found myself reaching for my throttle pedal more than once..

 

[Lil Foot]

This fence took a long time, but in the contractor's defense, it was the longest fence he had ever done, with the most uneven ground, and the largest gates.

 

[BAP]

Are you fencing animals in or keeping them out?

 

[Lil Foot]

Mainly keeping two legged animals out.

One neighbor pushed his driveway loop 10ft onto our property, and has large family gatherings (up to 20 vehicles) and uses our land to park them; lets little kids ride quads, motorcycles and such on our side of the line. They also set up a shooting range for BB guns, slingshots, bow & arrows, and crossbow on our side.

On another side, we had a neighbor run an extension cord over to our cabin, plug into an outside outlet, and run a space heater when we weren't there. We caught them on two occasions, so I suspect they did it more often than that.

The local rancher also has grazing rights in the subdivision, until you put up a "cattle legal" fence, so we will get the added bonus of no more cows eating everything we plant, and leaving land mines all over.

Fencing will make for a more relaxed, less stressful experience, and the deer & elk just pop right over a 4ft fence. There will be the 16" culvert for smaller critters to enter & exit, once they find it.

I would have loved to handle the above incidents in my own style, but in todays society, I would probably be typing this from prison.

 

[Yooper]

What’s that saying? Good fences make for good neighbors or something like that. Shame it has to be that way.

But I will say this. When you set out to do a project, you don’t mess around and cut corners! That is one hell of a project!

Happy anniversary!

 

[rc51stierhoff]

Mainly keeping two legged animals out.

One neighbor pushed his driveway loop 10ft onto our property, and has large family gatherings (up to 20 vehicles) and uses our land to park them; lets little kids ride quads, motorcycles and such on our side of the line. They also set up a shooting range for BB guns, slingshots, bow & arrows, and crossbow on our side.

On another side, we had a neighbor run an extension cord over to our cabin, plug into an outside outlet, and run a space heater when we weren't there. We caught them on two occasions, so I suspect they did it more often than that.

The local rancher also has grazing rights in the subdivision, until you put up a "cattle legal" fence, so we will get the added bonus of no more cows eating everything we plant, and leaving land mines all over.

Fencing will make for a more relaxed, less stressful experience, and the deer & elk just pop right over a 4ft fence. There will be the 16" culvert for smaller critters to enter & exit, once they find it.

I would have loved to handle the above incidents in my own style, but in todays society, I would probably be typing this from prison.

Oh my…not sure how I would deal with that. The fence looks great though.

The last paragraph seemed sort of ironic. Good luck with the neighbors. If fence no workee, I’d be thinking about some helpers of the 4 legged variety.

 

[Lil Foot]

What’s that saying? Good fences make for good neighbors or something like that. Shame it has to be that way.

But I will say this. When you set out to do a project, you don’t mess around and cut corners! That is one hell of a project!

Happy anniversary!

Thanks Bob!
(for both comments!)

One hell of a project, with one hell of a bill to go with it.

 

[Lil Foot]

I’d be thinking about some helpers of the 4 legged variety.

If we lived there full time, yes!
But if we lived there full time, I suspect a lot of this wouldn't be happening.

Our current pup is not too intimidating.

 

[rc51stierhoff]

If we lived there full time, yes!
But if we lived there full time, I suspect a lot of this wouldn't be happening.

Our current pup is not too intimidating.
View attachment 133952

That’s really tough if your residence is remote.

Looks like about 12 lbs of chaos and destruction right there. Lb for lb a force to be reckoned with.

 

[Lil Foot]

On costs:
At the risk of being censored for being too political:
Before a certain economic program was instituted about 3 1/2 yrs ago, contractor was paying $24 to $30 for a 31 ft stick of pipe, delivered.
Now it is $90 to $100 a stick, not delivered. ($3000 delivery for the last load)
Fence fabric was $150 for 200ft roll.
Now it is $450.
10ft 16" culvert was $150, now it is $625.
Tie wire, welding rod, welding gases, premix concrete, grinding & cutoff wheels, fuel, and labor are also up.
Makes for a pricy fence.

 

[Russell King]

Be sure you have water out for small fawns that will be too silly to get out. Our dogs find a lot of carcasses when it is dry here (which is not really a pleasant experience).

Our fence is not four feet tall and is net (small spacing at bottom graduating to large at top) so they can get through the fence if they want to but don’t seem to have the will or sense.

One of our dogs is 70 pounds and loves a good deer chase. Even the grown deer forget how to jump a fence when they most need to.

 

[Lil Foot]

We keep a 15gal water tub out at all times.

We recently watched one of our local does walk up to a 5ft fence till she was almost touching the fence with her nose, then just effortlessly pop right over the fence. Amazing.

A woman near us (about 800ft as the crow flies) has a 4 1/2 ft fence around an acre, and two does have been birthing their babies there for the last several years. One always has a single, the other almost always has twins. They seem to feel safe leaving the fawns in the fenced area until they are bigger.
The woman is worried the does will move their nursery to our place because we have 3+ acres with a lot more cover.
The wife would love that, but we will just have to see.