Alternative Roots Farm: Frost and Fencing

Monday, November 23, 2015

Frost and Fencing

The long fall is over and winter is beginning to take hold of the landscape. Frosty mornings and plants finally giving in to the hard cold. The muddy, mucky soil firming up, but not yet frozen.

Frost on clover.

The hard frost always brings some finality to the season, sets us to shift gears. It's always welcomed, it's always beautiful.

Frozen broccoli plants drooping, giving in to the cold.

The long fall meant a more work, in some respects, but it also gave us more time to get farm projects completed. Our biggest project this fall was getting a second "winter pasture" set up for the grower pigs. This meant a second winter-proofed shed and another permanent fence.

Two weekends ago we harvested the cedar fence posts. That may sound like a lot of work (trust us, it is) but with the price of cedar it's worth it! The hillside where we harvest also has native pasque flower, which needs open area, so we are in essence helping to restore the habitat as well. Cool beans.

We moved the kids into the area with electric fence and began to build the fence around them. We got all the posts in place weekend before last and hurriedly filled in the post holes (with mud) as the rains began.

This past weekend John put in the t-posts and we aimed to finish the job up. Next step, bracing the corners and gate posts. Below you can see the horizontal beam on the H-brace stabilizing corner posts.

After the braces went in we added tensioners for increased stability. The thick wire is wrapped high on one post, to low on the other post. Then, the small piece of wood you see is used to wind the piece of wire, until it is tight. Now time for the fence!

H-Brace in the corner with tensioner in place and Dot hanging out in the background.

Hog panels (16') went up, a small gate for us humans and two big gates for moving animals and buildings. Huzzah! Pulled the electric fence out and there we go :)