Since my last post, the main focus has been to finish fencing off the driveway, or at least make a serious dent in it. Daryl goes up to the block every other Saturday and also went up for the Queen's Birthday long weekend which included taking another fairly decent load with him.
The first fence up was along the first portion of the driveway, this one just using Waratahs (the steel posts) and wire, including electrified wires, so bear in mind if you visit our block, our fences are HOT!!
Having witnessed this type of fencing going in before I can tell you that it looks like lots of hard work as you have to ram each of the posts in quite deep and then of course tension up the wire
Having witnessed this type of fencing going in before I can tell you that it looks like lots of hard work as you have to ram each of the posts in quite deep and then of course tension up the wire
As we'd actually like to get the cattle & vehicles in and out of the paddocks, we needed to add some gates to the fences, which led to another first for Daryl as he was the one who had to hang the gates (with some assistance from our neighbour).
After finishing the waratah fence (including gate) which closed off a paddock from the driveway, the next step was to begin the wooden fence that is going to go up along both sides of the driveway in what we've named the 'Home Paddock'. This post rail fence also involves a lot of work as a hole has to be positioned & drilled for each post, although the auger on the tractor does make it easier, and each rail gets cut, levelled & hammered on - no nail guns unfortunately.
By the time they ran short of wood for the rails, Daryl and his mate Paul who was helping out for the weekend had managed to progress quite far up the driveway. The next step is to keep going with the fence until it reaches the house and then add the bottom two rails and an electrified inside wire to finish it off.
By the time they ran short of wood for the rails, Daryl and his mate Paul who was helping out for the weekend had managed to progress quite far up the driveway. The next step is to keep going with the fence until it reaches the house and then add the bottom two rails and an electrified inside wire to finish it off.
Daryl's weekend wasn't all fencing, he and Paul also had the task of separating our calf and its mother from the herd and getting them down to the stock yards to tag the calf's ear and put a winter jacket on it. The calf now has a unique identifier and is officially registered. However it has been growing so much that the biggest jacket available was already to small for it so we are taking that as a sign that it is doing well with its growth and we are confident it will survive the winter. Just in case though we had a shelter custom made for it to give it and its mum somewhere dry and warm to shelter when the snows come. Daryl also did some more temporary fencing to break-feed the herds to preserve the grass.