Things have been progressing slowly, but steadily with the fencing. The main reason for the slowness is that Jess hasn't been able to join me to work on the ranch for the last few weekends. In spite of this, though, I remain optimistic that enough of the fencing will be completed this fall that we will be able to introduce our first bison. One has to remain optimistic. The first 800 feet are done, the next 800 foot section is half done, and another 2,000 feet have been nearly completely cleared. Also, another important fact to consider is that the first 1,600 feet of the fencing was probably (hopefully) the most difficult because of the dryness and higher clay content.
Below are some photos of the more tedious tasks I've been engaged in.
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| I staple each horizontal wire to each wooden post. The staples are not hammered all the way down so the wire has space to expand and contract during temperature changes. I use a staple holder to get them started, which prevents me from accidentally hitting my fingers with a hammer. |
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| The fencing consists of an upper and lower portion, which are each three and a half feet tall. As shown in this photo the portions overlap by about six inches and, where they overlap, I twist together the upper and lower horizontal wires. I do this approximately every eight feet with a 10 inch brace pin. Twisting the upper and lower portions together makes them act more as one piece and takes very little time to do. |
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| Once the staples are in, the last step is to tie the wire to the t-posts. This is the slowest task, but I'm getting much faster. The one above is probably over-kill. I probably only need to wrap the wire twice on each side of the post. I attach every other horizontal wire to the t-post starting from the top wire. |
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