New gate by garage

I am still feeling lousy from this cold.  Now I have a scratchy throat and this evening an occasional cough is starting. I slept in until 11:15 am this morning, but still today I finished my work on the new gate by the garage.  This gate will allow me to drive into the NE pasture without having to go through the corral when the cattle are in there.  And avoid the hayfield as often it is not the right time to drive in there.  And I can avoid having to use the gate out on the road and so avoid driving on the road.

The old posts were just four feet above ground and, while I had no plans on increasing the fence height now, I wanted slightly taller fence posts in case I wanted a higher fence in the future. And with a gate I needed a taller fence post.  I was going to use railroad ties as new posts, but after dragging them over to the fence I decided to use other posts.  The 8 1/2 ft ties would tower over the fence as I have no plans on increasing the fence height.  Currently the fence height is around four feet.  A railroad tie would be 6 ft tall when in the ground.

I found some large diameter round posts that looked to be hardly used.  They were 8 ft tall.  I put them in the ground three feet so the posts are 5 ft tall above ground.  They don't tower over the fence as noticeably as the railroad ties would.

I had to use my tractor to pull the old posts out of the ground.  They were 30 inches deep in the ground - deeper than the typical fence posts.  Surprisingly all of the old posts were in excellent condition in the ground and showed no sign of decay.  Some of the tops of the posts were what showed signs of decay - which is opposite of the normal fence posts.

I had to pull out of the ground one of the posts I put in the ground.  I reused the original post holes but somehow one post was not in alignment with the other posts and I didn't notice this until I put all the posts into the ground.

I moved the fence boards from the yard side so they would be on the pasture side.  I understand why the previous people put the boards on the yard side - the boards somewhat hid the fence posts.  However when the cattle and horses push against the fence boards, having the boards on the yard side means the nails are the only thing stopping the boards from coming off the fence post.

I didn't rebuild all the fence as I could go on and on and I have other things I want to get done right now.  So I only rebuilt a little over half the fence - from the garage to the old power pole.

I am very happy I put this 12 ft long gate here.  It is convenient to use and looks nice.  The new posts are the right height for the gate.