The next large scale project on the list is the fencing around here. While we've already been putting up panels along the perimeter fence line along the driveway, there is a matter of the length of fence that is dividing the chicken yard from the rest of the yard where cars are frequently parked and/or worked on. Regardless of what's done with the "car park" area, the chicken yard needs to be fenced off within the fenced in yard so the birds can be allowed to roam free within the large area that makes up the chicken yard without having them all over the rest of the area that will also be fenced in.
Now there was a fence that was up in the past, made of 5ft high wood posts with chicken wire fencing stapled to them. The gate that we made a long time ago has long since been dismantled due to degradation and the chicken wire fencing has been removed. My plan was to nail up 2x4's, two at a time per section and tack on fence pickets. Since the posts are only sticking up 5ft from the ground versus the normal 6ft, using regular fence panels would've been hard without some super tacky fabrication since the top board in each fence panel would not have been able to be tacked up to the fence posts. Besides, since this is technically an interior fence, it doesn't need to be super strong compared to a perimeter fence. So with that I already had started nailing up some 2x4's I already had on hand. We managed to find some cheap pickets at Lowe's (they've been in very short supply along with complete panels) so we grabbed 60 of them for the fence. The ole lady was able to put 20 pickets in her car while I had to go to Lowe's the following afternoon to retrieve the remaining boards. At the same time I also planned to grab some 2x4's for the following sections of fence and some more landscape timbers and concrete for when I had to replace one of the old fence posts due to it being rotted out. It didn't take long to tack up the first section of fence. The smaller brad/stapler/nailer made fast work of the fence pickets, getting them nailed up in no time. Since there is a grade to the land at this spot, the top of the fence clearly shows its angling downwards away from the house. With the 20 pickets I was able to get the first span of fence done and get a couple of boards on the 2nd span after nailing up a couple more 2x4s I was able to fish out from our stock. Because the old fence was using chicken wire for the fencing, it was not critical to get the spacing perfect. Most of the posts were not spaced at 8ft intervals like they would've needed to be for pre-made fence panels. Because of this, the 2x4s on the 2nd section overshot the post by almost a foot. This will mean having to use some short pieces of 2x4s to act as tie boards for nailing the next pair of 8ft 2x4's to the following posts as the fence comes together more. This is no biggie, we're looking for functionality on this fence and the aesthetic side will be what's visible from the outside anyway. All one will see is pickets, not the 2x4s or posts. Another thing that I added were some reinforcement boards to the end of the first section of fence, mainly because when we do make a pair of gates for the open section, I wanted to make sure that the section and its post have good support and a surface with which to mount the hinges to the gate. This was done by taking a couple of 2x4s from our stock and nailing them up along the post that comprised the first section of fencing. This way the hinges will have a nice solid mounting point where the gate won't sag or come loose due to inferior mounting. Once the rest of the building materials are picked up I will be able to finish the 2nd section of fence as well as replace the bad post and start on the following sections of fence. The fencing around the homestead is coming together nicely, so far.
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May 2023
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