Saturday, December 3, 2011

Project Update: Back Pasture Fence and Drainage Project



My Dad and I have been in the process of laying out and installing a new pasture fence in the back pasture.  I have had this pasture "closed" to horses for almost 2 years now in order to give it a chance to re-grow and re-establish itself after re-seeding; having been over-grazed previously and decimated.  It is doing beautifully well and the fence is coming along nicely. 
We have had over one hundred holes to dig and my bit of advice is DO NOT EVER use a 2 man post hole digger to do so.  They are awful and I'm pretty sure they made the job more difficult.  Digging with a shovel and manual post hole digger has been easier.  Unfortunately it rained way too much this October to be able to use a tractor back there.  It simply would have done too much damage.
We have a natural gas distribution line that runs diagonally across our property and the fence crosses it twice.  The day that we dug the posts around them we had to have National Fuel on site in order to know where the line is and standing by in case we hit it.  This is the day that we rented the 2 man digger and it was a waste of time for sure.
At the end of summer I installed a culvert pipe to help drainage in a low spot that will get a lot of traffic and also ordered 15 tons of bank run gravel to cover it, in effect making a small bridge ove it to get to the pasture.  It turned out amazingly well and with the serious amount of rain we had in October it tested quite well and actually works.  And next time if someone wants to buy we a tractor with a front end loader we won't have to use a wheelbarrow and shovel next time to move 30, 000 pounds of stone.  ;)





Thanks to my Dad for all his help on this project.
Tractor?  Anyone?  Anyone?  55 holes left out of well over 100!




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