Welcome to my blog, where a 30-something couple from the UK renovate and extend an old cottage, build some outbuildings, raise some hens and grow firewood trees and vegetables on our Acre in Hampshire. It's a bit like a smallholding but without too many animals, so we call it a homestead - living within our means, relying on ourselves and having a wonderful life!


.

Wednesday 15 October 2014

More fencing - almost all done!

A hard day today.

I was determined to get the cleft fencing finished this morning - as you can see from the picture, quite a lot of the rails needed cutting down to size (nine of the twelve rails were shortened...). To get the taper on the end meant using the bandsaw to rough out the cuts - and the bandsaw is buried behind the bikes and the tractor mower, and I didn't want to leave everything out in the (forecasted) rain if I could avoid it.

Typically, just as I was finishing the cleft fence a delivery of MORE fencing supplies arrived - these were the square posts and rails to fence around the curve of the track which leads to our neighbour's farm. The rain was threatening - I thought 'Oh, I'll just knock a few posts in before the weather breaks'. Posts finished and no rain - 'Better stick a few rails up to give an idea of the finished fence' - and still no rain! Still, great to have the job mostly done - even if it means racing through at quite a pace. My back is certainly feeling it now - I'm self medicating with Sloe Gin...

This is the cleft fence which I started yesterday. The posts are a bit 'rustic' and not quite straight, but the mortise and tenon joints are incredibly strong and don't allow the posts to sit quite straight. As the sweet chestnut rails dry out they will shrink slightly, allowing the posts to be pulled upright.


A view of the curved post and rail around the corner of the track. It definitely gives a great feeling of ownership and enclosure - even though the track is within our boundary, it felt quite 'public' without the fence. The bottom rail will be added as soon as I've strung the stock fencing.














Tomorrow's jobs are stock fencing on the square post and rail, hanging the two gates and adding the second rail - and that'll be the job finished!

2 comments:

  1. Fencing is our next job, but because we have so much of it to do and hubby is only here at the week ends we are having a couple of local fellas come and do it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm glad you were able to get so much work done on your fence. I can imagine your concern of having more fencing supplies arrive when it looked like it might rain. Thankfully, it didn't. Don't you just love it when luck is on your side?

    Susan Hirst | http://www.surelinefencing.com.au/products

    ReplyDelete