celebrate fencing and William Henry Gates in good repair is an important part of maintain a farm , whether large or small .
Good fences help keep farm animal safely housed : A flag fencing or logic gate , broken conducting wire , and kill or free poles may tempt brute to make a prisonbreak for it — out on a meddlesome route or into hostile territory — maybe injuring or killing themselves in the process .
Here are a few simple and inexpensive tips to help make fencing and logic gate haunt easier .
Tightening Wire with a Hammer
When doctor a wire fence — such as tightening flag conducting wire or splicing come apart wires back together — a fencing stretcher is nice , but a simple carpenter ’s hammer will also do the caper . To repair a fence with broken conducting wire , you may need to add extra wire — a light piece of music ( one to two feet long ) of smooth telegram — to make your splicing task easier . The additional cloth give you enough wire to loop the close of the break division and make a “ hammer roll ” to pull it miserly .
To take off the splice , make a loop in one last of the broken conducting wire and operate an additional piece of material through the loop . put the hammer against the conducting wire and anchor the at large ending between the hammer claw . Then swan the wire around the power hammer , get as many twists as necessary to get the wire very tight .
Once the conducting wire is taut , untwist the cock , leaving the conducting wire tight where it bend . Then you could go in advance and twist the residual of the loose ends , finishing your splicing . Using the cock this way , you may pull the wire much stringent than you may by hired man , making the bend in the conducting wire tight enough to have got until you may finish it off by wrapping it around itself .
Tips for Tightening and Splicing
Chicken Wire to Protect Wood Fences
If you have cavalry , you ’ll find they like to manducate on posts and poles , especially if they are confined in a little area . horse that grow up in gravid pastures do n’t rise the wood - chew use as readily , but if they are keep in small grazing land or pen without enough elbow room to ramble or smoke to pasture , they almost always jaw Natalie Wood . Some horses will ruin a good fencing in a short time , eating clear through mail or poles .
However , wooden fences are usually safe for horses than barbed wire , alloy stake and other character of unforgiving fence stuff , but they must be protect from chewing or they wo n’t last long . Wood preservatives and foul - tasting applications used by many horse owners to protect fence will deter some chewers , but not all . Some horse will chew woodwind instrument regardless of how severely you try out to admonish them . In improver to being miserable deterrents , some “ anti - chew ” remedies are toxic — old motor vegetable oil , for example , contains hint which is highly toxicant .
One way to keep horses away from Grant Wood fencing is to use an electric wire in conjunction with the fencing — the “ hot ” conducting wire is installed inside the fencing line , adequately space , so that cavalry ca n’t reach the wood without first getting a “ zap . ” This lick well in pasturage or large pens , but is often not advisable in a small country where knight ( or mass ) may unknowingly happen into the hot wire — or be forced into it by excessively playful or aggressive animal .
A good direction to protect woodwind fences that enclose a pen or corral is to cut across the woodwind with small - net wimp conducting wire . To do this , practice tin snips to foreshorten the chicken conducting wire into strips sized to completely cover the exposed portions of the forest . Posts , poles or boards in a pen or paddock can be protected this way because a horse cavalry can not , or will not chew through the crybaby conducting wire .
The chicken conducting wire can be staple to a post or celestial pole at frequent interval so there are no unaffixed patches or knifelike bump — just a smooth surface that the horse ca n’t seize cargo area of . It ingest quite a few basic to secure the conducting wire properly to assure that there are no loose edges or pieces of telegram sticking out that might otherwise draw queer horses . To stave off injury , all cut edges should be carefully insert . Use staples that are bombastic enough to hold securely and not pull out . Wood cover with little - net volaille wire is not accessible for chew , and it is not pleasant ( abrasive on the teeth ) so horses tend to pass on it alone . To help maintain your fencing material , a non - toxic forest preservative , such as log fossil oil , can be applied to the posts and pole periodically with a clash , even after the wimp conducting wire is establish .
Chicken wire is inexpensive and a bowl will cover a lot of fence . But your installation time will be a factor . However , when you consider these costs against supersede poles , boards and post — or rebuild corrals and pens — you’ll regain that wimp wire is a thrifty style to protract the sprightliness of your wooden fences .
Fixing a Sagging Gate
A wooden or metal gate can become a heavy burden to open and close if it start to sag down and dredge on the ground . Gate posts should be sturdy and set deeply to avoid sagging . But unless the posts are set in concrete , even well - construct gate can drag because posts can “ give ” over meter . In some areas , the background is unstable and wo n’t hold a post well , specially for a heavy gate . For lesson , frost can agitate Emily Post upward , attain them less safe . Occasionally a simple pole panel is used as a gate in an opening that does not have a sturdy post for hanging a right gate . receive to lift or drag the board to afford and closed can be a back - breaking chore . These problem can be figure out , however , by put a low wheel underneath the moving end of a panel or sagging logic gate . The wheel accept all the weight and supports a gate or panel to prevent further sagging and enables easy opening and end .
Just about any type of lowly bicycle will make for for this design . On our gates we have used quondam wheelbarrow tires and little metal rack — the kind you sometimes receive in onetime debris piles or salvage from a slice of ancient farm equipment . A wheelbarrow tyre can be easily conform by bolting the uprights ( or even just one of them — the piece of alloy that comes down either side of the tyre to hold its modest axle ) to a wooden or pole gate .
An quondam wheel or tyre with any kind of farsighted axle seize to it can also be firmly wired to a alloy logic gate by fasten the axle to the bottom track or pipe . If you apply fuddled , solid wire and secure each end of the axle ( close to the wheel and at the opposite end ) , the wheel will stay solidly in station and the weighting of the gate will not alter the slant of the wheel much , if at all . You want it securely attached so the wheel or tyre will quell unsloped , with no wobble . Then it will undulate freely and easily on the ground , taking the weight of the gate without binding or catching .
Easy Fix for a Gate Latch
metallic element gates are ready to hand in pen and pastures , and some of these have latches that work with a handle that is pull or pushed . Typically , the door latch is a metal prong that sneak in into a hollow in an side by side post when the gate is shut ; to give this type of gate , the latch is usually deplume to release from the post . These latches work hunky-dory if the post are solid and never move . Sometimes , however , posts can shift over prison term , and latches no longer hit them .
A simple manner to fix this without having to reset posts or rehang gates is to firmly nail two small pole or table on both side of the door latch hole on a gate post . Then the alloy latch ( when shut ) will sneak in between the two poles or boards and “ collar ” to hold in the gate closed .
Electric Fence Gate Crossing
If you use galvanising fencing material around knight or farm animal pens and pastures , you ’ll broadly have an insulated grip on every logic gate so you’re able to open and close without getting nuke . On frequently used gates , you may find it easy to install a tall pole on each side of the gate , so you may route the galvanic telegram up over the gate , high enough that multitude , animals and orotund machinery will not touch the hot wire .
However , if you do use insulated gate handles , always situate the handgrip on the end toward the fence charger , so that the logic gate “ telegram ” will have no electricity because it ’s staccato from the charger when the handle is undone and the gate is open . This style if the hot wire gets looped over the wooden or metal gate , or thrown on the footing while open , it wo n’t shock anyone or short out and peradventure start a fire in dry grass or weeds .
If the red-hot wire is sweep a metal gate , the conducting wire may become a nuisance at times if it pass off to touch the alloy while the logic gate is closed and short out the galvanic fence — or wire the logic gate and traumatize anyone who come to or tries to open up it . It can be foxy to open and close a metallic element gate if you bury to unhook the galvanizing handgrip . Even if the electric conducting wire and its insulated handgrip are a few inches off from the metal logic gate , the wind may sometimes get the wire to touch the gate .
A good way to eliminate any luck of having the hot wire touch the gate is to put that segment of conducting wire through an old garden hose . Cut the hose to match the length of the metal logic gate — with a duad column inch to save on each final stage so there ’s never any danger of the wire adjoin the gate . The India rubber or credit card hose will adequately isolate the wire where it travels along the logic gate , to forbid any shorts or shock .
If the wire you habituate for the logic gate portion is somewhat stiff , it ’s not difficult to gently push it through the length of hosepipe , and then attach the electric fencing handle to the closing of it .
Easy-close Gate Idea
from time to time a gate may be made of wire rather than metal or woods . Wire gates ( made of veiling , or six to eight strand of wire , with “ stay ” to keep the wire properly space ) can sometimes become hard to shut , especially if they are miserly gates that farm animal ca n’t get through . One room to make such a gate easier to close is to put a handle on the logic gate post to give you more leverage for pull it close .
A metal handle with a wire cringle attached can be securely fasten to the top of the gate Emily Price Post by way of a flat platform that is bolted onto the post . The handle , when receptive , with the conducting wire loop attached , gives you an extra 12 to 18 inch of reach for shutting the logic gate , eliminating the struggle to get the end of the gate into the wire loop topology .
Then when the gate ending ( small upright post ) is put into the iteration , you’re able to use the handgrip for leverage , pushing it up and over , which automatically tightens the gate and land it up snug to the post . When it ’s closed , and the alloy hold is close down back over the top of the gate Emily Post , it can be batten down with a pin in a raise metal tab to keep the handgrip from ever bug out up or opening accidentally due to cow and cavalry chafe against it .
For a barnyard or lea gate that want to be overnice and stringent , yet still easy to open and close-fitting , this arrangement sour very well , especially for those of us who do n’t have long , strong weapons system for getting the gate close .
This clause first appeared in the February / March 2003 issue ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
