Maintaining Fences
It takes a lot of work to maintain the fencing here at my Bedford, New York farm.
My pasture fencing is made from 100-year-old white spruce railings I purchased in Canada. When the fences were built, I used new cedar uprights to support them. They've held up very well over the years, but a number of posts are now deteriorated and need replacing. Pete Sherpa and Fernando Ferrari, longtime members of my outdoor grounds crew, take on the task whenever they can. It's a tedious process and has to be done by hand so as not to damage the antique wood.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- I have lots of fencing here at the farm. It surrounds my horse paddocks, my orchard, and various other trees. The antique railings were constructed into a split rail fence and are in good shape, but many of the cedar uprights are deteriorated, wobbly and no longer support the railings as they should.
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- This fence surrounds a maple tree inside a paddock to keep the horses from rubbing against it.
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- Many of you have commented on how much you admire these fences. The railings are sandwiched between two cedar posts buried deep into the ground.
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- My donkeys, Friesian horses, and Fell pony get turned out into their paddocks every day, so it is important to maintain the fences and ensure they are all in good condition. Truman “TJ” Junior and Jude “JJ” Junior spend most of the days in their large fenced-in enclosure.
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- I pay close attention to everything at the farm. Here is one upright post that needs replacing. It was part of a broken fence section around my orchard.
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- One of the tools used is this post hole digger on the right – this tool is available at any hardware store. A post hole digger is also known as a clamshell digger, because of its resemblance to the seaside shell.
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- Strong, metal tamping bars are great for digging postholes and tamping the soil around a post once it is set.
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- The nails used to secure the railings are quite long – four inches. It takes a bit of time to remove them so they can be reused.
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- Pete already removed the visible section of post, but it broke in two and the bottom is still in the hole. He tries to loosen the soil around it by hand using the tamping bar.
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- Pete uses the post hole digger to try to pull the rest of the post out, but it doesn’t budge.
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- He tries again with the tamping bar. One can see the remaining piece of the post still wedged in pretty tightly.
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- Pete secures one end of a chain to the piece stuck in the hole and the other end to the bar.
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- Pete then pulls out the old, deteriorated base.
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- These posts will be chipped and repurposed as top dressing for woodland trees at a later time.
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- Fernando takes away the old post…
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- … As Pete brings in the new.
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- All the new uprights are placed next to the ones being removed.
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- Once a new post is positioned three feet down into the hole, Pete and Fernando adjust it for level, and turn the post so that the nicest side faces out. The new posts will be very secure here – and no cement is needed.
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- Once backfilled, Pete uses a tamping bar to pack the soil tightly around the post.
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- Fernando rakes around the post to make the area neat and tidy.
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- The new upright is secured with the same four-inch nails to keep it in line with the railings and the other post.
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- The next step is to cut the tops of the new posts, so they are all the same height as the fence. This project will take some time to complete with all the fencing on the property, but we’re making good progress. Thanks, Pete and Fernando.
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