Fence Day

 Back in November we put up a fence with the help of friends.  We needed something economical that would keep our dog in and safe.  It certainly won't keep out determined deer, racoons, or groundhogs, but we'll work on that.  So, here is how we put up our fence on 3 sides of a 1/4 acre property (house and chain link run along the 4th side)

Chris and Jason setting posts in November.  A chill was in the air this day!

Behind the chicken wire deer guard to the left are 8 new blueberry plants: Duke and Surecrop, perfect for our acidic soil.

There's my dad, tamp, tamp, tamping away.    When my folks came to visit he helped us re-tamp a few loose posts.

Bob, Chris and Jason pulling the wire tight.  

And tighter.

Working on the gate.

The gate.

And, it's a fairly tight fence, installed on a budget.  Ida is one the wrong side, silly dog.


Supplies:

Split black locust posts ($1 each found on craigslist)
Welded Wire Farm Fencing 4' tall (Tractor Supply)
Galvanized Fence Staples (Tractor Supply)
Gravel (we had on hand)
Metal tamper and 2 x 4s for packing posts in
Gas Powered 2 Man Auger ($70 for 1 day rental from Home Depot)
Scrap wood for gate, leftover wire fencing, galvanized hinges, bolts, and latch


So, the auger was a beast and I think we gave several friends back pain from operating it, but it did speed up the work since we had a lot of post holes to dig.   You could use a manual post hole digger as an alternative.   The trick seemed to be getting two tall, (equalish height) and strong people to operate that sucker.  We used gravel we had on hand and clay soil dug from the holes to backfill around the posts, tamping in with 2 x 4s.  Fill a little, tamp a little, repeat seemed to work best.  The posts are set at 8 feet apart.  With several friends to help, we completed the fence in a day.  For awhile, we had a raggedy piece of white plastic mesh for the "gate" but we finally put together a decent gate with scrap materials.  We are fenced!