Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 41)
Hello Everyone!
A brief introduction: Hi I am Jacob.
TL;DR: There is no tl;dr because you should have more patience and attention span than a gnat on a high wind.
Apocalyptic Homesteading Day 41!
Short Winter Days, Working To Music, A Wee Fencing Snafu & The Value Of The Fence Trench
It is a little after five in the morning and I am awake a good bit earlier than when I have been getting up of late which is more because of the weather than any inclination to do so on my part. Having been pretty wiped out physically each day has played its part in sleeping in later than I generally do so between those two things it is amazing that I can get myself roused as early as I have been lately. This morning the temperature is warmer than it has been this early in the morning in quite some time and the day is supposed to be very warm and sunny so I will most likely get an early start on working outdoors as well so that I can get in a long day at the new shelter site. As much as I do not mind (and enjoy the writing) each day it does take up a lot of my 'free time' and if I do not get up super early and get it done with then it can easily eat up too much daylight and that is just something that I cannot afford to have happen too often at this juncture of things and especially so during the winter when the days are short.
After getting the water system turned back on again (because the temperatures got down below freezing) I got my work clothes on, let the chickens out to roam and headed over to the new shelter site with the dogs to start working on the fencing project some more. I got started a little earlier than I have been able to of late because it was very warm and even quite sunny much earlier in the day than it has been for the better part of two weeks now. Since I was going to be at the site all day I even opted for putting some music on and per usual that made the work day rather enjoyable to say the least. As a side note that stereo amplifier that I recently borrowed is still sounding really nice and although I have yet to fine tune all its settings the settings that I have adjusted seem to be working out just fine. It being a 'surround sound' amplifier makes it where I actually do not use most of its functionality because I just run it in 'two channel' mode which effectively shuts off the surround sound which to me always sounds like crap unless it is installed in an indoor space and is tuned for that space.
Anyway, I worked on getting some of the mesh fencing installed along the western fence line where I did the trenching at the day before. After doing all the prep work to install the fencing and building another of those 'tripods' to hook the come-along (hand winch) to I got the fencing material stood up and attached it at the corner post which is also the corner post for the northern fence line. Everything went rather smoothly until I started applying tension to the wire mesh with the come-along and although I did not think that I was putting too much tension on it all... apparently I did because I caused one of the couplers on the corner H-brace's strainer to let loose (fail) and then the tops of both the H-brace posts moved several inches and pretty much screwed up not just the fencing that I was working on but also along the northern fence line. Honestly it was quite the mess and I definitely had an 'oh fuck' moment when I heard the strainer wire pop free and could visibly see that the entire corner had gone out of plumb and that both the pieces of fencing were drastically sagging because of it.
To remedy the situation at the corner I let off most of the tension on the come-along, used a ratchet strap (connected to a conveniently located tree) to pull the corner post back to its original position, drive in more stakes at (and re-compact the soil) around the western H-brace's posts and then re-connected the strainer wire by adding a new coupler to it. I really think that in the future that when I do those kinds of strainers that I am just going to go ahead and use two crimped couplers at each connection point because that is the second time that one of those couplers have failed now during the mesh fencing installation. I will also probably opt for using a mechanical auger to dig the post holes deeper because apparently the half a meter deep holes that I hand dug just are not quite good enough once I begin applying tension to the fencing to pull it taut. With the current fence I am thinking that it will probably be a good idea to drive in some rebar beside the corner and gate posts just to anchor them better and so that they will hold up over time and not let the fence sag. I have also been considering just digging out around the existing corner and gate posts and adding some concrete but at this point I am undecided on whether doing so is a good idea because it might just introduce more problems if I dig around the base of the posts. To be clear here the fence itself is plenty strong and it is not like it will not hold the dogs securely or anything like that but I think that if livestock were ever housed inside of it that some kind of general reinforcement would be wise to do given how much abuse that a fence needs to be capable of enduring.
All the snafus with the fencing really added up but by the end of the day I was able to not only get everything fixed but also get the fencing installed, secured in place and the trench partially filled in. As far as the trench goes I will need to really take my time with filling it in not just on that section but everywhere, then tamp everything down before installing those plugs of loamy soil that I cut out of the ground to form the trench to begin with. It all sounds relatively easy but the the individual plugs of loamy soil will need to be cut down because there is after all a piece of fencing dividing the trench now and the plugs will not fit in whole as they are now. It will all assuredly require a good bit of tedious labor but I think that in the end it will be well worth it to take the time to fill in the trench the best that I can and especially so if I want to discourage the dogs from digging near it or critters from outside trying to dig in. Considering that the layer of loamy topsoil is so thick I am super glad that I decided on trenching in the bottom of the fencing material even though it has made a good bit more work for me along the way.
Well, I am just going to keep this one short and sweet because it is now nearly dawn and I want to make the most of the next few days before the foul weather gets here and I wind up getting cooped up indoors for a few days again. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
More about me: I have been doing property caretaking (land stewardship) for many years (decades) and live a rather simple life with my dogs doing what most folks would consider to be an 'alternative minimalist lifestyle' but what I often just think of as a low-impact lifestyle where I get to homestead and spend the majority of my time alone with my dogs in the woods doing projects in the warmer months and taking some downtime during the colder months.
Nearly four years ago I began sharing the adventures (misadventures) of my life via writing, videos, pictures and the occasional podcasts and although my intention was to simply share my life with some friends it undoubtedly grew into much more than that over the years and now I find myself doing what equates to a full-time job just 'sharing my life' which is not even all that glamorous or anything but hey folks seem to enjoy it so I just keep doing it!
The way that I look at it is that I give it all my best each day and while some stuff I write is better than others I think that for the most part I do a pretty good job at doing what I am doing which is simply 'sharing my life' as candidly as I possibly can and whatever folks get (or do not get) from it there is always the satisfaction of me doing what I set out to do... which is to simply share my life.
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