The Fence: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

So, onto the fence — the good, the bad, and the ugly. This project was a big one, and not cheap either. I did hire someone named Lee to pound the posts and stretch the fence, but finding the property lines, moving materials, and clearing the brush? That was all me — at least until my neighbor saw me out there with a brush cutter and chainsaw and decided to ask what the heck I was doing.

So, let’s get started.

(Fair warning — there’s a photo of the ugly later that might be disturbing to some.)

Like I’ve said before, the main reason for the fence at the time was to let my dogs roam the property without me constantly worrying they’d run off. But I was also thinking ahead to future plans for owning livestock. There were other unexpected benefits — and a few drawbacks — that came with it.

Before the fence, we used to get a black bear in the middle of the night helping himself to the apples off our tree. Usually, a spotlight was enough to scare him off. But ever since we put the fence up, I haven’t seen a bear — at least not inside the fence line. Now now yes…, I know a fence like this won’t stop a bear. If one really wanted in, it would go right through it, especially since it’s not hotwired. But these bears seem to be fat and lazy. They hit the fence, decide it’s too much work, and just go around — sometimes leaving a nice pile of crap right on my fence posts to let me know they were there.

The fence also kept deer out for a few years, but that didn’t last. These days, they wander in pretty regularly. But anyway, back to actually building the thing.

Step 1: Finding the Property Lines

First, I had to figure out where my property lines actually were — which was no easy task. To get close, I used my legal description, some county maps, and online measuring tools. I used known landmarks like my house, the shop, and the front mailboxes to get a general sense. Then I took off with a long tape measure, a metal detector, and a bunch of pink flags.

After hacking my way through salmonberry and blackberry bushes, I was shocked to find that four out of my six property corners were still staked. It took some serious digging through the overgrowth, but I found them.

The west front corner was tricky — I eventually found it with the metal detector since it was just a buried metal marker. The east front corner? Never did find that one. I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere in the seasonal roadside ditch, currently underwater. So, I ended up using a combination of the legal description, a compass, a string line, and some good old-fashioned trigonometry to figure out where that line should be.

Step 2: Clearing and Prepping

Once I had my corners, it was time to run a string line between the posts at the property corners. This was to make sure the brush I was clearing was actually on my property and that the line was straight. It also helped the fence crew later, so they could drive the posts and set the concrete corners and a post every 50 feet in a nice, straight line.

Then came the fun part — cutting and cutting and more cutting. Clearing brush was a major chore, and I only got about halfway through a 3-foot-wide path before my neighbor wandered over, asking what the heck I was doing. When I told him I was clearing for a fence, he just laughed and said I was making it way harder than it needed to be.

Turns out, he had an excavator with a brush cutter attachment and was more than willing to help. He followed my string line and cleared a beautiful 10+ foot wide path along the rest of the line. That made my life a lot easier and saved me who knows how many hours.

Step 3: Installing the Fence — Enter Lee

With the path cleared, it was time for Lee to do her thing. When I hired Lee, we only communicated through email and text. I assumed Lee was a guy — after all, pounding posts and stretching fence isn’t exactly light work. Lesson learned — never assume. Lee turned out to be a hard-working woman who took no shit from anyone.

She rolled up in her Subaru, brought along her summer helper, and they got to work. They were funny to listen to, once they were on the back side of the property, I wasn’t able to see where they were. But Lee cussed like a sailor and was quite loud, so I always heard where they were! It took them a couple of weeks, working on and off, but they got the job done — and they did it well.

The Ugly — Nature Fights Back

Now for the ugly part.

Trees do not like fences. Over the years, they’ve attacked my fence over and over. Branches fall on it, bending it down and twisting the wire. One time, a whole tree came down and just shredded a section of the fence, turning it into a lovely bridge for my dogs to explore.

Fixing the fence has become a regular part of life.

And then there are the deer. Most of them clear the fence just fine, but one poor doe didn’t make it. I didn’t even know until a neighbor walking his property found her, caught by her foot in the very back corner of my fence. She most likely died from stress. Thankfully, that’s only happened once — most of the deer have no problem jumping over and eating all my plants.

We also found another dead deer just outside the fence on my neighbor’s land. Its hindquarters were eaten out. At first, I thought it might be a cougar, but cougars usually don’t leave their kills like that. My neighbor told me it’s more likely coyotes — apparently, they’ve learned to chase deer into fences to slow them down. Not sure if that’s true, but it definitely drew in the ravens and eagles.

Anyways my neighbors enlisted me to help move that carcass with my tractor bucket (spoiler: I eventually got a tractor, but that’s a story for another day). It was way easier than trying to move it with an excavator bucket. We hauled it to a hole he was getting ready to bury it.

Final Thoughts

More to come, more back breaking stories — especially about life before I got my tractor and how much of a back saver that thing actually has been. But those are tales for another day.

That’s all for now!