East corral fence rebuild

If you remember from back in May when Buddy was sequestered in the corral to keep him away from the cows, whenever a cow would go near the fence Buddy would lay his head on the top rails of the east corral fence and ended up breaking several of them.  Also several posts started to lean outwards.

Buddy had caused even more damage after this photo was taken.

Buddy made a rebuild of this fence a higher priority, especially before the calves are placed in here for their weaning.  I finished the rebuild a few days ago.

I replaced the fence posts - which were still good - with railroad ties to increase the fence's height and to make a more solid post.  I replaced the rails with boards shaved off of logs and tossed on their burn pile by a company down the road.

I also replaced the posts going from the east side over to the water trough and then to the gate against the barn.  The gate was solid and Buddy hadn't bent it like he did the other gate, but he did cause the posts around the gate to lean outwards until I temporarily added braces to support them.  The post next to the water trough is still a post and not a railroad tie but now I use a large diameter and taller than average post in that location.

The post next to the barn has been replaced by a heavy railroad tie.  I added a small metal plate going from the post over to, and attached to, the side of the barn to add extra support to the railroad tie.

The fence is now higher and matches the height of the rest of the corral fence.  At this height Buddy can't get his head over the top of the fence.  As you can see I kept the rails going over to the water trough and then to the gate.  I did add an extra rail to make the fence higher.  I kept the rails here as I often slip through these rails for easier access to the south corral.

The old fence also had wire additions otherwise the cattle could get their heads through the rails to eat grass in the yard.  Eating the grass was not the problem, the problem was when they strained to get more grass and then broke a rail.  While the boards make a narrower space between and most likely will stop the cattle from getting their head through the gaps, I still nailed two of the wire sections onto the new fence.  I have a small nut tree growing just outside the corral and I didn't want to chance that a cow or calf got their head through the fence to eat the small tree.

The third wire section I cut smaller and used on part of the rails on the side.  I can slip through between the supporting middle post and the water trough, and while I haven't had problems with broken rails since adding the middle supporting post,  to be on the safe side I added wire from the east corner to the middle supporting post.

Since I now had a railroad tie to attach the gate to I could now raise the gate a little higher.  Buddy may still get his head on the gate but now he shouldn't be able to get his head over it in order to smell a cow drinking at the water trough.