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| The view from the pasture gate towards the road. The new fence stops even with the large oak tree on the left. |
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| The opposite view - towards the pasture gate. |
3. We have been kayaking every weekend. Last weekend we went to Loon Lake which is located high in the mountains, at the timber line. The lake is surrounded by granite boulders; the sky is typically sapphire, and the water a matching brilliant blue. Despite being breezy, windy even, it is one of our favorites. Unfortunately, last weekend the sky was hazy grey from smoke and the lake was a dull green-blue. The skies have been clearer the past few days and we are hopeful they will remain so on Sunday when we will be kayaking on a lake we haven't tried before.
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| This is what the existing fence looks like beyond the point where Brett stopped. Pretty sad. |
4. I will try to post pictures of the chicks, as they grow, here each week. I am really hoping that at least one of them is female. We don't need, or want, anymore roosters.
5. My summer vegetable garden and the orchard have been an unmitigated disaster this year. I have been invaded by ground squirrels and rats. I don't want to use poison because 1) I hate it and 2) our cat hunts in the garden and I don't want her to eat a poisoned animal. I also don't want her to get caught in a trap so I'm stuck. The varmits have taken every tomato, every plum, every apple and the one pomegranate that was hanging on my little bitty tree. Next year, I'm going to plant flowers in the raised beds and buy my produce at the farmers market.
The fence is beautiful. Your place is coming along.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is also pretty fence obsessed. I read him this post and he chuckled at the part about not buying hay.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful fence, Brett and Richard. Look forward to seeing the ongoing building. Did you use cement as the base or those concrete/bracket gizmos from Home Depot? Are you recycling the old fence?
ReplyDeleteThe bloody rabbits are nipping off the bottom of my new Valencia and Navel orange trees. GRRRRR! I'm not ready to give up on them just yet. Unfortunately, the dog, a yellow lab, is the gentlest of souls and won't chase the rabbits. The cat is interested but the rabbits are big, so the cat crouches and watches, but never chases.
Came across an article about donkey whisperer Meredith Hodges and thought of you and Tex. Here's the link:
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/12/meredith-hodges-donkey-whisperer/
Hey, Karen. Brett sets everything in cement. He uses those bags of ready-mix cement where you dump the bag in the hole around the post and add water. He takes the old fence to the dump, where it is recycled. It's not worth anything to us here -- the wood is totally rotted and is only staying upright because of the (twisted) wire fencing. I'll check out that donkey whisperer link -- thanks! And, Kersey (also a yellow lab) is worthless with rabbits too.
DeleteI only have a tiny bit of wood fence that isn't protected by electric wire and my animals are determined to chew it down, even painted with nasty-tasting stuff. How will you keep your animals from chewing on (leaning on) that lovely new fence?
ReplyDeleteSo far, they are chewing on the old fence and not the new (must taste better). Eventually, we will put up electric tape.
DeleteThe fence looks beautiful. It's a shame about your garden. We've got some rats this year and we've never had them before. We used to have a bunch of foxes living on the property and they took care of them. Unfortunately,my daughters dog Gunnar harassed them so much they left. Now we're trying to figure out how to get rid of them before they multiply.
ReplyDeleteIt's our first year with rats too. Kersey is a wonderful, sweet dog but she is useless when it comes to chasing critters (except the neighbor's cat). I actually lobbied Brett for a rat terrier the other day (I lost; we need another dog like a hole in the head) but I think that is what we need -- or a couple foxes.
DeleteI'm sorry to hear about your veggies and fruit!
ReplyDeleteIs there some kind of fencing that could prevent the critters from going into your produce?
The new fence line looks wonderful!! =)
I have beautiful fencing around my garden that keeps out the deer. I also have raised vegetable beds with wire on the bottom to keep out deer. The problem is that rats and squirrels can climb over and through any fencing.
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