This Farm Is Held Together With Binder-Twine...

One of the big pet peeves I have is that 'all' repairs on this property have been done with Binder-Twine. This kind of repair is always done on a temporary basis but always becomes permanent and will only be replaced if it fails. And of course, with more Binder-Twine.

Well... One of the first things we did when we took over was to remove 'all' the cursed Binder-Twine from all the fences. We pulled out all the old nails and reset the fence rails with new nails. Wow! That was so easy we couldn't help but wonder why our partner never did this. She always complained how much effort the farm was but we don't see any evidence of it (either the time or the work). Just neglect. What's up with that?

Regardless of the Stallion's 'good nature' we are in many civil-bylaw violations...

We have a major problem with the fencing that contains the stallion's pasture. The fence only comes up to the stallion's knee and to make matters worse... He knows how to open his gate but the true irony is that he is bred for Olympic jumping. It's fortunate how much of a gentleman (to use the girlies term) he is. When he can open (break through) the gate he is all over the conquered pastures but he would never think to walk, or jump, over the fence. Go Figure!

I'm not just making this up. This fence is in critical condition.

Luckily I had already rounded up new Ceder posts from Cousin Sean. Thanks Sean! The old posts, as you can see, had long since rotted away and were only held in place with Binder-Twine.

So the old posts and rails were removed easily and all that was left was to dig out the rotten bottoms of the old posts. We needed to dig these out anyway because the new posts will go in the holes. The wood was beyond rotten and the digging was easy. This fence was ready, and willing, to be replaced. There was, of course, the decades of crap, mostly rotten wood scraps, surrounding the immediate fence area. All of which had to be removed.

Digging, setting, filling and tamping the new posts went well. Sadly... We were told by our partner that this effort was beyond our ability and we would only fail and make matters worse. This is where we are starting to figure out exactly why the farm failing.

Finally the new fence is in place. The total operation took three people about six hours. And the concrete slabs got cleaned as well. That's a real victory.

We're still not up to code on stallion containment but we are quickly approaching a presentable environment.

The not so electric fence covers most of the property (when it's working).

The remaining fence is still original barb-wire that was never upgraded.

We have a lot of work ahead of us.