Our mission for the weekend was to fence the southern and western boundaries. The crew had assembled on Friday evening and I arrived early Saturday morning to catch up with Craig, Mitch, Mick, Hendrik and Guy's wife Rachael. With the farm stay worker David on hand, we had a good crew. What we didn't really have though, was a bunch of fencing experience, but we would learn fast...
Given that the farm is rated for organic milk production, no tanalised or treated timber posts can be used. That left us with recycled concrete fence posts. The lads had hired a post hole borer. Craig had hand cut some heavy gum 2.4 m strainer posts, and had got a start on the southern boundary, so we were able to get into digging and ramming in the posts immediately.
Lesson 1: Fence posts must be put into the ground perpendicular to the lay of the land. Given we were working on steep ground the posts therefore ought not to have been 90 degrees upright. The look on Craig's face when he came back to our site to review where we were up to told us that townie keyboard drivers are not the best fencing contractors! We conveniently blamed management.
Lesson 2: When fencing raised ground and hollows, the posts in the hollows must be "footed", i.e. have an extra foot attached. The reason is that when the wires (7 wire fences) are strained, the exertion on the posts in dips will begin to lift the posts. In 5 years you will have floating posts. "Didn't you hear me say not to put those posts in...?" Again, we blamed management.
By midday we'd fenced off the southern boundary and moved around to the western edge. This part would prove the hardest, as the rise and fall of the ground was dramatic; and the midday heat was taxing. We left to have lunch and it turned into lunch + siesta, so by the time we returned to work I reckon we were running at 80%. By the day's end though, we had the posts all in and guide wires up on all the fences.
We finished at at about 7pm, the work speed having picked up again as the day cooled. By now though, something was going on in my gut... cramps began to hit. Too bad, a ginger beer and it felt a bit better. One of the lads had brought along an AR10 in .308 so we decided to do a bit of target shooting; plus I was keen to try Mitch's recently refurbished Miroku 20g.
We set up plastic bottles and some targets and then each had a go. I enjoyed Mitch's shotgun, 3 shots, 3 targets smashed. But what happened next was astonishing. Craig's an excellent marksman but I wouldn't have credited this unless I'd seen it with my own eyes.
Back to base for a large dinner of venison, pork ribs, salad and spuds. By this time I was feeling a bit under the weather. Having sat around for a few hours talking we hit the hay.... but unfortunately my malaise really hit and I spent a few hours puking.
So I wasn't feeling too bright on Sunday morning. Rain had arrived at last - maybe not enough to break the severe drought gripping the country but enough to have us reaching for coats. Craig, Hendrik and I strung the wires on the main fence and strained them, while Mitch, Mick and Rachael built post and rail barriers between rocky outcrops to keep out cattle.
We found an interestingly shaped rock and Rachel perched it atop a strainer post.
At mid morning I said farewell to the troops and headed off. Still a few bits and pieces to finish up; not to mention 500 trees and shrubs to plant in our allotment.
When I arrived home I called Tony to see how the boys had got on on the canadas (they'd hunted Saturday morning) and they'd had a great hunt with 60 birds down.
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| Photos courtesy Tony Dobbs |
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