Fixing a gate

Last Wednesday, after sleeping late to recover from working Tuesday as an election judge for the Primary election (see earlier post), I decided to fix the gate in the middle/south pastures that is down by the river.

This gate has been broken for as long as I can remember. I didn't mind in the past as I let the livestock roam freely between the middle and south pastures. But as this year my plan is "pasture rotation", I decided I had to fix this gate now. Any day now I will have to rotate the cattle from the north pasture into the middle one.

Of course it would have been better and easier to fix the gate before now. This gate is in a low lying area near the river. Other years, other times... no problem. This year with the very high river level the gate area had water as it was now a swamp. The ground here is very porous and areas lower than the river bank will get standing water.

I took a pair of overshoes along with me but found that in the mud and muck some areas of water were just a little higher than the overshoes, especially when I sank into the mud. I took the overshoes off, then my shoes and socks. I quickly rolled up my pants legs and headed in to the water. I should have done a better job rolling the pants up as they would slip down and get into the water. *sigh*

I decided that I didn't want the gate here if it would be underwater when the river level was really high. Better to have the gate up higher, on what is the typical level of ground that never goes underwater. I will create the new gate later. Today I will seal this gate with barb wire.

The old gate simply was barb wire strands attached to a post which, to close the gate, would be fastened via a couple wire loops to a permanent, in-the-ground, post. The gate's post was now in pieces, which is part of the reason the gate wasn't functional. Before I could seal the gate shut I had to disassemble what was left of the old barb wire gate.

The old gate was lying in the water, mud and tall grass. As I walked with bare feet in the water, mud, tall grass and Canadian Thistle weeds, I also had to watch I didn't step on the old rusty barb wire gate. I didn't. The only sharp things I stepped on were an occasional Canadian Thistle. *ouch*

Still I did get scratched by the barb wire. As I moved a strand after taking it off the gate the strand twisted and coiled and ripped across my left leg's calf muscle. Muddy river water is good to wash the blood off, isn't it? Ya know, after getting a scar on my hand this past winter from the mystery cut, I wouldn't be surprised to get a scar from this cut. I've lost count of all my scars.

Another "sharp" thing was of the flying kind: mosquitoes. It was late afternoon and some were out even though it was a hot (80s F) and humid day. The high water made this area swampy for now, and you know how mosquitoes like swamps! Rain clouds were building from the west for the predicted rain that evening and Thursday. Now that the sun was behind the building clouds I guess the mosquitoes were getting their lunch time in before the rain arrived.

Once I got the old gate apart I added a new metal post in the middle of the old gate opening. Funny how easy it is to drive a post into dirt that is under water. Then I wired shut the old gate opening.

Now with this gate fixed I will be ready for the cattle in the middle pasture.

On the way back home I stopped and sawed off a few more branches from an old fallen tree. I didn't do this very long as with the heat and humidity, the sweat ran like a river all along my body. I guess standing in the water while closing the gate area wasn't so bad after all. The water seemed to keep me cooler.

For this I gave up a job writing operating system software for IBM?