The family. We are a strange little band of characters trudging through life, sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that binds us all together.

- Erma Bombeck

Friday, May 13, 2011

Preparing for Fencing

J and I decided that no matter how broke we are, we need to take $100 a month and buy something related to fencing.  There is a lot of property that is not being used because we do not have it fenced, and while the goats can "free-range" for the moment, J's dad will have goat for dinner if they wander into the hay field much more.

We had a lot of t-posts on the property, so I decided to mark out where the posts will go.  I would've actually set each post as I went, but in Central Oregon you need to drill post holes and I'm just not that good with the roto-hammer.  So I set up a string line and marked out ten foot intervals.

Something that you should know about my husband is his need for perfection where fencing is concerned.  It is not a desire, it is a need.  He has been known to use a laser sight and reset fence posts to the point of insanity (mine, at least).  So when I began this, I knew that I would be held to high standards.  I was prepared with a wheel measurer (I don't really know what this thing is called but it rolls along and tells you how far you've gone) and a level (I'm not sure what I was going to do with this, but it looked good).

I took the string line and stretched it from the goat pen to the horses.  I then collected all of the t-posts in the back of the golf cart.  I figured that even though I couldn't actually set the posts, I could lay them out where they should go.  Exactly every ten feet, I took a fence post and the sledgehammer and pounded the post in as far as it would go (usually about 6 inches).  I then made sure that the post was perpendicular.  This was really just for show as I knew that the posts would be pulled out when we drilled (if they didn't fall over before that).  I set 25 posts in two separate lines.  A good day's work.  Now I just need J to help drill the holes, set the posts, and stretch the wire.  Oh, before that, he needs to weld about four H corners.  We might be finished by the end of summer.

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