Worm Fence?

Ever hear of a Worm Fence? I hadn't until recently but apparently at one time this was the most popular american fence in existance. During the early settler days there were thousands to millions of miles of this type of fencing snaking across the country. The pros of this fence are: easy to build, no postholes necessary, and reasonably strong yet see through. The cons are: a large supply of material needed. It is basically just logs of any type stacked on each other and laid in a zig zag pattern across the area.

We needed this fence becasue of two reasons.

1. On the east side of the orchard the ground is very shallow. Hardpan is often only a couple of inches under the surface. That makes for a very difficult time installing TPosts! This fence seemed a natural fit since it requires no posts!
2. With a traditional TPosts and wire fence, the turkeys housed in the orchard area would have a difficult time getting to the open pasture. I have leanred from experience that adult turkeys can fly, but prefer not to cross woven wire fences unless necessary. We want the turkeys to have free range of the pasture so we wanted an easier way to let turkeys pass but block sheep.  This seemed ideal since the top of the fence is natrually a "perch" in their eyes.

First step was acquiring material at a reasonable price. Unlike early settlers I was not prepared to go into the forest to find, cut, and split 12 trees.  Call me lazy but I much preferred the lumber store. But this much normal lumber is costly! Fortunately we discovered one lumber yard with "seconds" of 4x6 pine posts that were inteded to be treated but didnt pass inspection. We swung a deal on 100 of these that was too good to pass up. As the forklift dropped the two full pallets of these on our flatbed I began to wonder... never had I seen the tires quite so flat! The owner did some quick calcualtions and happily stated "It should'nt be over 4500 lbs." Well, the bad news was my trailer is rated for only 2080 lbs cargo weight! It was a VERY slow ride home at 20mph :)

Building the fence was actually quite easy. Here's some pics:

Unloading the trailer to set the pieces

Cutting some end pieces

The Job Inspector Arrives - How am I doing?

Almost Done!

Checking for Strength

And here is the finished product. In the foreground you can see the woven wire fence that makes up the south end of the orchard.

Sheep arriving early!

Due to scheduling conflicts with my day job... we have made arrangements to receive our flock of sheep early. Instead of arriving on the 15th this month they will be here saturday. This has created a bit of extra work to accomodate them.

Last night we started on the orchard fencing, to keep the sheep seperate from the fruit trees. This fence will be creative, with one side being 8ft woven wire on the garden side. 2 sides being 4 ft woven wire and tposts, and the fourth side being a good old fashioned "worm" fence. These are self standing wooden fences without posts. I chose this to prevent the problems trying to sink tposts into this hardpan on the low area. The top soil for about 50 ft is 1-2 inches deep in this area.

We also started on the sheep shelter, closing in one of the old horse sehlters partly to give them a warm, dry place to escape the weather and sunshine. This will be used mostly for birthing next year.

Another project is to use some 18" rebar stakes to stake down the oldest part of the pasture perimeter fence. It is pretty loose and instead of rehanging the whole thing we are going to try to save time by driving these stakes in the hol dhte wire to the ground. That should lessen the chances of predators (stray dogs and coyotes) sneaking in under the fence to attack the young lambs.

Hopefully a few hours each night after work will be enough to finish before saturday!

More plumbing

If there was only one constant in farming, it would seem to be plumbing. For one reason or another It seems that I repair plumbing somewhere on the farm every month.

Sunday we installed new sprinkler system in the garden area, and upon testing found very little water pressure. Sure enough, close inspection found a nice new pond in the pasture, fed by a small river heading up to the pig pen. For the last month or two I was playing this game where I would tighten all the hose connections to the waterers, only to find them leaking the next day. The pigs were loosening them every day to create a mud puddle for themselves. Well, it appears they ultimately won. One of them pulled the entire pipe out of hte ground and threw it over the fence, leaving an open 3/4 inch pipe running free.

Fortunately we got it fixed today before the rain hit tonight. Since it was a "work day" for me, we turned to our old friend "Labor Ready" which is a local temp agency. They have always pulled through with a ready worker in a pinch.

This time I tried to be smart and strapped the faucet pipe to a t-post with baling wire, and extended the faucet above the heads of the pigs. Hopefully this will last longer! Not good for the winter, since the height will freeze easily, but I have a few months to figure that out.

Yes, there is a sad side of farming

To date we have lost 4 of the baby turkeys, and two more look like they may not make it. There is no obvious reason for their death, but the reality is that baby turkeys are delicate. Given the numbers 4 out of 35 is not bad, since its just over 10% it would be considered "normal".

Here's an interesting point to consider. Is it ultimately better to try to save weak baby animals or should nature be allowed to play out as it would in the wild? In my opinion this depends on the goal. For animals intended for only slaughter, it would be worth while to go to some effort in giving special treatment to save them, but within limits. Remember, a farm is still a business that must make a profit in the end or it can not exist. So its worth while to expend enough time and money on an animal to save it as long as in the end it will still be profitable. At the point that the effort to save a single animal exceeds the animal;s worth on the market, it is best to let nature play out. This is a case where I believe man should limit his involvement in altering the natural course of nature.

On the other hand, if an animal is intended to be breeding stock the argument changes. For a small farm, the animals kept for breeding must be the absolute best genetics possible. Particular animals may have genetic differences that make them less "sturdy". If those animals are given special treatment in order to survive, the weakness will become part of the farm's genetic makeup for generations and the animals produces will be more prone to problems. This is where natural selection helps the farmer. By allowing natural selection to separate the genetic "defective" animals the farm is ensured healthier, happier, and more consistent offspring in the future.  This is how nature improves the species and removes genetic defects in the wild and the farm is most productive when nature is followed, not altered.

With birds this process in nature is very obvious. As soon as any bird shows signs of weakness in any way, the other birds actually start attacking it in various ways.  This could be played out by preventing the weak animal from eating, or even by direct attacks. Either way, the reality of nature is the weak do not survive, but this is actually for the good of the group by ensuring that the weakest never breed. Genetics are ultimately the deciding factor in the success of a flock, so genetics must be preserved at all cost in nature.

So, bottom line is, this particular flock of turkeys is intended for both breeding and slaughter, so we are going to let nature show us which are the strongest animals. It is sad and hurts my heart every time one dies, but it is a necessary part of farm life.

UPDATE:

Unfortunatley we lost 2 more baby turkeys today. That brings the total left down to 29.

Reseeding the pasture

Today was another bright sunny and dry day, but the forecast calls for rain in a day or two so we decided to take the opportunity to start reseeding the pasture where the lambs will be housed when they arrive in another month. I'm hoping that we can be successful by just disking the land a bit to loosen it, spread the seeds, and let a few days of rain work its magic to sprout grass. The part of the pasture chosen for this experiment is the highest and furthest portion of the lamb pasture. If it doesn't work out, no harm done since there inst much decent grass back there anyway.

First step is the disking. I found this disc at the local tractor dealer used at a good price. Its not perfect, but seems to do a decent job. Of course my littlest tractor driving helper is along for the experience.

And of course he brought his train along to help with some extra horsepower.

The second step is spreading the grass seeds. Now here is where there are lots of options for efficient and even spreading of seeds. There is no shortage of single use machines we could spend a sizable amount of money on, or small hand held devices that could do the job with leg power.  I came up with a new approach. This might even be patentable! To spread seeds all you really need is a tractor, a mower, and a few kids!

And of course, in the drivers seat is my littlest tractor driver yet again!

  

Ok, so its unorthodox, but it did save money, times, and provided the kids with some farm fun and entertainment! The only question is just how "evenly" the grass will come out. We'll see in a couple of weeks!