Blue paint & a Saw

Adventures in fencing.

What is a perfect time to go out and see what needs to be done to make the woods above the creek usable as pasture?
A storm had destroyed most of the electric fencing down near the creek in 2007 and then again in 2012. In 2015, it was our intention to finally
clean up the barbed wire fenceline and replace sections of it for the Dexter Cattle.
2015 was the year that Throat Cancer put everything on hold.

Oh, we'd get to it 'next' year. 2016 saw us remodeling the house and I kept thinking about that pasture and how nice it would be to have the cattle or the equine in it.

2017. Rich had his stroke. Dreams of working on the pasture went to the back burner as we tended to downsizing the equine. Our dreams changed and we decided to concentrate on organizing and figuring out what came next.

Thank goodness things seemed to settle down in 2018. I started to think about those woods again.

This summer I even temporarily fenced in a small section of the woods just to see how well the mules would do clearing the underbrush.

Donkeys are much better and so are Dexter Cattle, but the donkeys had been sold and the Dexters were all sold in the fall.

The temperatures were hovering around the mid thirties and the winds promised to pick up later. I grabbed a can of blue spray paint and a saw. I was going to walk the line fence and mark the areas with paint that needed work.

I marked missing clips and X'd a few trees that could be hand sawed down. Big X's went on the large log that was laying across the barbed wire fence. I peered at it. I'd need a chain saw or an axe to clear the fence and fix it. The good news was that this was the only spot that needed barbed wire attention.
I could run a singe line on the inside of the fence that would prevent the mules from reaching through the fence.
I made it to the creek and sprayed some lines on a tree to mark where I wanted the new 'creek' gate to go.

I walked above the creek and noted that all my work last spring of clearing was still pretty good. I'd given it all up when it got too hot and nasty last summer.

I spritzed some saplings that needed to get chopped down and swiped at the berry briers that I'd have to come back and clear. I didn't want to use a killing brush spray but there were so many of them.

Again I wished I had at least a donkey or two left. They delighted in eating multiflora rose and briers.
Goats?
Hmm.

I kept walking and marking. I cut down a fair sized pile of brush and had to stop when I heard the winds overhead begin to howl.
Off across the north hillside I heard a tree crack and crash with a huge thump that shook the ground.

It was time to head back home.

I entered the house after dropping my dirty boots off on the porch. I closed the door softly as not to disturb Rich.

That pasture was doable.
Now I had a good winter project to work on.

And it sure wouldn't be sweaty and buggy.

I fell asleep on the couch for a short nap with Charlie and dreamed of spray painting blue X's on trees... and chopping down briers.