RE-CLEARING A FENCE ROW AND BURNING OFF THE GARDEN

The fence row between the goat pasture and the garden was cleaned and ready for fence over five years ago.  The materials were purchased and the fence was started on the other side of the pasture (the fence between my property and the neighbor).  A series of injuries, infections, recovery time and other factors beyond my control, made it impossible to proceed with the fence project.  Now, I am fully recovered and ready to build the fence.  However, during my down time, the brush and trees grew back, thicker than ever.  It is amazing how fast a cleared area left unattended can become a

thicket.

Last week, I went out with the chainsaw and cut the trees and brush.  It took a couple of afternoons, but it was good to finally see progress.  With lots of brush to burn, I planned to take Sunday and make a day of it. Unfortunately, Sunday was a damp day, making it harder to get a good fire going in green brush.  Progress was slow at best, then it began to rain in the afternoon.  With less than half of the brush burned, I had to stop for the day.

By Tuesday afternoon, the rain was over.  Bright sunshine and some wind dried things out a bit giving hope of finishing this part of the project.  I was not disappointed.  After work, I got the fire started and began dragging brush.  There was a lot of brush remaining so I had to keep moving at a pretty good pace, but by late afternoon it was down to just pushing in the unburnt ends and watching the fire.

Just before sundown,  with a little time on my hands I had the bright idea of burning off the garden.  Amazingly, so soon after several days of rain, the dead grass was dry enough and there was just enough.  The wind carried the fire through it for a fairly quick and reasonably clean burn.

At the end of the day, I was plenty tired, but truly satisfied to have visible signs of accomplishment toward not one, but two projects.  Soon, the fence building and garden tilling can begin.

NEIGBORS, FENCE BUILDING AND FIREWOOD

My neighbor contacted me back in mid October saying that he was ready to get the fence row between my property and his cleared so the fence on two sides of his property could be partly replaced and partly re-stretched.  He had scheduled a bulldozer to do the clearing (at his expense) the following week.

I had set stretch posts and bought goat wire about 5 years ago, with the intention of turning part of that fence into one side of a goat pasture.  Infections in my feet and legs had prevented me from continuing the project, for quite some time but by now I am back able to stay on my feet long enough to get some work done.  The timing was great.

Over the next few days, I took down barbed wire from the stretch which would be the new goat fence, and waited for the bulldozer.  Turns out that the bulldozer operator was a longtime friend who I have had do work in the past.  Awesome.  He did a wonderful job and worked around the line posts so I didn't have to pull and re-drive them which saved a good bit of work.

There were several trees that were too big to be pushed with a small bulldozer, so I agreed to cut them.  The neighbor needed a few ricks of wood so I traded it to him to cover my part of the clearing cost.  He had not intended for me to pay anything, so there was a bit of negotiation involved.  In the end, he accepted enough wood to cover my part of the bulldozing, then bought a couple more for cash.


When the clearing was done, the neighbor replaced the really old fence and re-stretched part of the newer fence.  I re-stretched part and replaced the rest with goat fence.  I finished my part on New Years Eve.

It is good to finally have that much of the fence finished.  Now I can continue with the rest of the goat pasture.

Sorry there aren't more photos.  I really must start taking the camera with me wherever I go.