In which we don't make hay while sun shines, but rather make fence in the rain


I was hoping for good weather today so I could go pound some fence posts. Early morning forecasts called for rain, so I ran a few errands, including collecting some amazing Craigslist scores:

I picked these up for less than half the price of new, and they still have their original labels from the feed store.

These t-posts are obviously used but mostly-unbent, and I got them at a total bargain price because the seller lives in Oso, which is 20 miles east of everywhere...but only 11 miles from Haiku Farm. I've gotten stuff from this family before--they've sold all their horses now, so they said if they scrounge up more fencing supplies, they'll call me. They also threw in some wooden pencil posts and two buckets of safety caps and fence insulators...AND Joe helped me load all the stuff in my truck while Mimsy played with the baby. Now that is a great deal!

By the time I got home the sky was...well, Dark. Also Grey. Also Full of Serious Rain Clouds.

Dang.

But I have meetings all day tomorrow, and won't have another chance to work on fences until the weekend, so out I went, into the damp.

And hey: fencepost-pounding keeps a body warm, and rain not only felt good, it softened up the dirt. I'm not going to complain about rain if it makes the work easier!


I used a rope and a wooden stake to keep the fenceline relatively straight. I put white buckets on my corners and used the rope and stake to sight down the lines, and pounded posts until I ran out of posts to pound--I need to relocate posts from other parts of the farm to finish this run.


Late in the day, Jim and Willy came home from their normal work/school gigs. Jim went straight to work on the new Chicken Tractor--a model he's designed for 6 hens, but it will have sufficient room for 12 half-grown peeps.


Mimsy finally got to meet the peeps up-close-and-personal. Her first impulse was to lick them, as in, "you are the ugliest puppy I have ever seen, I will kiss it all better."

Then she tried to bite the peep, and was scolded. We're hoping that the peeps will peck her nose soon, as hens have done in the past. Mimsy is very sensitive about her nose.

Luna, not so much. She's mostly clueless.

Willy checked on the bunnies as soon as he got home. I thought that they were gone, i.e. sacrificed to the Great Owl Goddess, but when he was investigating the empty nest, Willy accidently stepped on one of the babies! They've moved out of the nest and are eating grass part-time, though Momma Bunny still stops by with the lunch wagon twice a day or so. The stepped-on baby bunny was just fine.

Their white forehead blazes are getting smaller. When the blaze disappears, God is done cooking them, and the bunnies can leave the nest to become fully-fledged vermin. At that point, Mimsy will be allowed to chase them. Until then, it's not permitted.

We have an amazing sunset view from the dining room tonight. I have a glass of wine, a fire in the woodstove, a warm computer on my lap, and these colors in the sky outside the window.

I'm serious when I say this:
Life is good.

Comments

  1. Last spring we found a bunny nest in our manure pile. It was fun checking in on them and watching them grow. Once they hopped the nest, I rarely saw them around and was sad to see them go. We don't have any gardens that they can destroy, to I can enjoy their cuddly cuteness.

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  2. What are the criteria for bunny nests, one wonders. Certainly safety and privacy aren't big items on the list. And if they plant babies in the manure pile, perhaps sanitation isn't a huge concern either....

    I guess the big question is "how do we end up with so many adult bunnies when they treat their babies so carelessly?"

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  3. I think the criteria is quantity, not quality. Mom

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  4. Still raining here too, for which I blame you. Good for pulling dandelions like it's good for pounding t-posts, but I have about a million to go and I don't want it to rain for that long.

    I found a snake in my manure pile yesterday, but no bunnies.

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  5. we copied you and put in tposts today in a rainstorm. and we were wearing tshirts cuz it was a warm afternoon, but we really froze out there! baasha was running around tossing his head - something was bothering him in a neighboring field and he was very expressive about it! he was kind of fascinated by our ladder work and pounding, and the precise measuring of 3 meters, 3 meters, 3 meters....

    great to see him self-exercise!

    the rain really really helps us get those things in, and after we were too exhausted to do anymore, we looked at what we have left, and i'd estimate about 50 meters. that's it! then all our posts are in, and i can have the joy of finishing the job with the caps and wire. it will be another 2 months before baasha can go out there - after harvest. i'm really excited about that day. i just found an inchworm on my shoulder and i'm surprised i don't have way more bugs on me - we were actually pounding in posts in the branches of trees, because the posts stick up so high before they're at the right level. it's fun to discover new trees, new corners of our land!

    the grass (hay?) is up to my elbows now. that means walking thru it after rain is a miserable experience. we're lucky to have very few weeds out there. there's some buttercup and another weed i keep pulling out, but for the most part, you can just see timothy and orchard grass heads. apparently the pasture was not overgrazed and destroyed, like so many fields.

    i'm starting to be able to feel my feet again, oh it's so nice to have dry things on!

    p.s. do you use those corner or end sets? are they necessary? we wanted to do everything by the book so we have all these corner sets we put in today. haven't used the end/start sets yet.

    p.p.s. your mom's comment is so funny!

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  6. oh yah, and life IS good in the country, isn't it?

    nothing like it. i breathe deep and thank god every day.

    oh and my man is curious what you'll do with your panel set. he recently installed panels for a tent/panel runin thingy, and so we're familiar with them here. i am guessing you'll make a roundpen? oh, i'd love a roundpen! i'll have to use tposts i guess, for mine.

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  7. Let's see:
    Corners will be by-the-book regulation corners with a Very Sturdy Post (i.e. railroad tie) cemented in, bracketed by two Basic Sturdy Posts 5 feet in each direction. Hmmm...that's not a very good explanation. I'll take photos of the posts they installed for the front gate to illustrate.

    Panels will be used to create a safety paddock/sacrifice area to contain the mares whenever
    a. the pastures are too wet to allow horse feet on them
    and/or times when
    b. I take one horse away and leave the other at home.

    Don't worry--I'll post photos of THAT, too! It's just all so...expensive.

    ReplyDelete

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