Middle / north pasture gates and fence work

Back in the end of May and beginning of June (when Blogger was not forwarding posts in emails), and before all my crises in June and July, I added several gates to, and rebuilt a section of, the fence that separates the north and middle pastures.  Crises aside, I have completed a long term improvement project this year.

There was only one gate in that fence, and that gate was on the east side of the pasture.  There were no gates elsewhere, especially the west side near the river.  The fence was a three strand barb wire fence and I could step over the fence, but more gates were needed.

First I had to rebuild the end of the fence.  The fence formerly ended on a high river bank where the barb wire was wrapped around a tree.  The tree died and last year broke off.  Enough of the tree remained standing to anchor the old fence.  The fence line also bent to go to the tree.  Eventually the rest of the tree stump will rot and fall over.  So I put two railroad ties in the ground as posts to anchor the end of the new fence and removed the small bend in the fence

New anchor fence and old fence.

Once the anchor fence was built I had to pause as the cattle needed to be rotated into the middle pasture.  Once the cattle were rotated back into the south pasture I continued with the fence.

Length of fence rebuild: from left to right of photo.

I installed a 12 foot gate I had bought on Craiglist last year.  The bottom of the gate has an extra rail.  Before I bought the gate the previous owners had left the gate sit in horse manure and the bottom (now second to the bottom) rail was rusted out.  I had my neighbor Curtis weld a pipe I had to make a strong bottom rail.

I rebuilt the fence from the gate to my anchor railroad ties.  I upgraded the fence from three (and in a couple short sections - four) strands of barb wire to six strands.

Once I completed that work I rebuilt some of the fence going east.  I wanted to rebuild the fence past the apple tree.  Each Fall Buddy the bull would break the top wire of the three strand fence and hop over the fence into the north pasture so he could eat the apples that had fallen on that side of the fence.  While I no longer have Buddy I don't want Toby the new bull to learn this habit.

Apple tree

Out past the trees, about at the point where I decided to end (for now) the fence rebuild, I decided to add another gate.  I had a galvanized metal 10 foot gate I had no plans for.  At times, I cross this section of fence and therefore this would be a good spot for a gate.

While the holes for the one gate and anchor end of the fence were easy to dig in the soft dirt in the trees (other than adjusting for a tree root or two), the railroad tie holes for this second gate were another story.  I was back digging in rocky and gravel territory.  I only dug holes for three posts and two of the holes were a lot of work breaking loose, with a metal bar, the rock and gravel in the ground.  A 45 minute job per hole.