South pasture fence is complete

As mentioned in Monday's post about the cattle jailbreak, Monday afternoon I finished the rebuild of my south pasture's south fence.

I put in 74 new(er) fence posts, four railroad ties as posts, and a 10 ft gate.   I rebuilt 614 ft of fence.  I didn't expect to complete the fence rebuild this year.  Over the past two years I only was able to rebuild around 250 ft of fence before getting pulled off to work on other projects.

I rebuilt the four strand barb wire fence to have seven strands of barb wire.  I also added five rolls of field fence to the barb wire fence.  No way will be the cattle stick their head through the fence to eat from the other side.  And the odds the cattle will get through or break the fence are very small.  ("I've learned to not say 'never' when it comes to cattle.)

Speaking of cattle, my goal was to finish the rebuild before I had to let the cattle back into the middle or south pastures.  Did I?  Yes and no.  I had all the rebuild done except for the final four fence posts between the gate and the old historic riverbank where the rebuild ends.  Years ago I had rebuilt the fence from the river over to the top of the old historic riverbank.

A day before I rebuilt the final section I let the cattle into the middle pasture only as the cattle started to complain about the grass being greener on other side of the fence whenever they saw me out and about. I thought it would be a day before they made their way to the south pasture.  Within two hours two thirds of the cattle crossed the river around the fence and were in the south pasture.  They wanted their favorite part of the pasture: the east side of the south pasture.  While they ate there for the rest of the day I was able to finish the last section of the rebuild.

While the newer posts and seven strands of barb wire made a solid fence I had a number of rolls of field fence I either should use or else get rid of.  So I added, over two days, five rolls to my rebuilt fence.

Here are a few photos of the new fence, though photos don't capture how nice this new fence is.

Here are photos of the old historic riverbank.

Sliding hoof print on the bank.

Here is the tree the turkey partially walks up then flies into.  The turkey walks up the tree until it bends to grow more upright.  Then with a jump it flies higher into the tree to roost for the night.

The rebuilt fence is much nicer than the previous fence.  That fence had old railroad rails, 1/2 inch pipes, rotted wood posts and only 5 1/2 feet tall steel t-posts as fence posts.

I am happy I completed the entire rebuild, even if I am very tired of fence building right now.