Fencing with a Vengeance

Fencing with a vengeance again.  I am now working on the fence that splits the lower pasture.  There is a wobbly 2 strand fence with a few marginal rock jacks and some wooden stays there now.  Yesterday, I drove in steel posts along the bottom.  It is nice soil so it wasn't too bad.  I started up the rocky hillside and only managed to get 1.5 posts into the ground.  It was awful.  It was over 100 degrees by 1030 in the morning so I just quit.  Last night I went out with my nephew near dark and we pounded in the rest of the steel posts all the way up the hillside!  I was very happy that we got posts in the ground all the way up the hill.  Another week of this hot weather and even with two people we would not have gotten the posts to drive into the ground.  I will have to turn three rock cribs so they are out of the way of the fence and rebuild one rock crib.  After those are done I can start stretching wire.  Yesterday we rolled out woven wire alongside the new fence line so I will just have to lean it up and stretch it.  I use three fence tighteners at once on the woven wire and it works pretty slick.  Unfortunately, I ended up with 7 blisters after an hour of fence pole driving.  My calluses are obviously gone.  I had to pop the blisters this morning so I would be ready for work.  My goal is to get this section done and then I just have two small sections and I can turn the sheep loose.  Once they gain access to this new section we will not run out of pasture for the rest of the summer.   We will even be able to run the cows in this lower section without fear of anyone escaping or running out of food.  

I will post Sarah's front rock wall progress occasionally.  She is making progress.  The back creek is dried up.  I went and purchased another 10 gallons of 2-4-D for use on the fields.  The star thistle is finally growing back.  It is only about 5% of what it was last year so I want to see if I can totally get rid of it this year.  I will be happy with killing 90% every year!  It will just vanish eventually.  The deer are everywhere.  We have 5-10 living all around the houses.  I am always afraid I will run over a baby hiding in the weeds, but they always leap up just before I hit them and run off.  It can be quit startling.  The pheasants are doing the same thing.  I just about have to step on them to get them to fly .  The pump repair guy did not call today so on Monday I will have to call and check up on the pump.  When I was in buying chicken food I remembered to take in two old pitchfork heads to get new handles that fit.  I found some handles and then stopped at my parent's house and ground all the obvious rust off of them.  There is a nice black patina over the tines now.  I will hose them down with WD-40 so they don't rust again.  These are hand forged forks, nowadays these sell for around $60/each.  The handles were only $15/each.  A great deal, plus we now have four pitchforks out in the barn so you should be able to find one.