Fences

Rose Valley, Victoria, AU

March 18, 2010

Trip Day 40

This is my last day with Stephanie, Matt, Lindy, Pipper and Charlotte at the farm. Stephanie will drive me to Wangaratta (about an hour) this afternoon for an express train to Melbourne. Won't have much time in MEL, but the extra time spent here has been wonderful. It's more than offset a longer stay in the city.

Yesterday we fenced. There's a lot of fencing on a 3000 acre farm, and it needs attention. Stephanie has bought an additional 30 acres close to the 'Brown House' (her new house, where we stay) both for use as well as for an additional buffer. Matt has begun the process of erecting a new electrified, 'dog' fence (wild dogs are a menace to the flock) along the new boundary. Before it's finished, though, the old fence still needs care.

A eucalyptus tree had fallen recently and taken a section down. Matt met us at the house with his chain saw and we got underway. Clearing the deadfall was simple. We simply cut it up and rolled it down the hill where it will dry and be burned sometime later. Closer study of the trees lining the fence, however, told us that some others needed attention. They or their branches would come down sooner or later and cause more work, so Matt cut them as well. One large tree in particular overhung the fence, and there was no way we were going to fell it without taking the fence out with it. We opted to cut it, down the tree and then repair it.

The fences are simple yet complex, the products of experimentation and modification. They consist of 7 wire strands, two barbed and 5 smooth, each separated by about 6". There may also be an additional electrified strand. [The dog fence, in contrast, also has 7 wires but 4 of them are electrified.] Fence posts are usually wood, similar to our cedar, spaced about 40' apart. Every 5' or 6' apart are 'droppers.' These are narrow hardwood stakes with shallow channels in them at the proper spacing interval. They're not dug into the ground, but attached to the fence strands by pre-formed wires that allow lateral movement (flex) but secure the strand in its channel at its proper spacing from its neighbor.

Stephanie's and my first fencing tasks were to straighten and realign a fence that needed some help. We learned how to do that day before yesterday after treating the fly-struck flock and before we could have our dinner. [It was just Matt's way of assuring we'd a) savor a cocktail a little more and b) have a better appetite for the roast Lindy had in the oven. Worked on both accounts.] We kicked and muscled the droppers (you can see them in this picture) into vertical and horizontal alignment and then applied new attachment wires where needed.

We did some of that yesterday, too, but spent more time helping Matt repair broken strands and address a particularly neglected stretch of fence that the flock had discovered and defeated. Between that and our little logging endeavor we all felt we'd done a good day's work. Dinner was, again, late, but accompanied by the satisfaction of knowing we'd helped this fine young man get a job done that would have taken him much longer alone.

And how do you put a price on the comedy of watching me stumble around trying to make inanimate objects do what and go where they're supposed to?

This is a picture of one of the paddocks. The circle in the middle highlights a wombat hole. I wrote in an earlier post about them being substantial critters and their holes presenting a hazard to horses, vehicles, stock and, of course, humans. The tree to the right of the hole is smallish, but it gives a sense of scale to the hole itself.