Wood Fence Posts

Around the perimeter of the oaktree field, we had the brushy edges with stumps cleared in early late March  by a mulching crew, we started working on setting up the fence to contain the sheep.  To we drove in 21 wood posts in about 5 hours with our post driver.

This is what our mulched area looks like now.  The bahiagrass I broadcast has germinated in places, but with the dry weather now it is not going to do much.

Much to our surprise,  after we put this post in we noticed,  in one of those sandy spots about 6 feet back and to the right of the post, a couple of eggs.  If you zoom in on this picture you can find them.   A closer photo is below.

I am thinking these are woodcock eggs.  It can hardly be called a nest.  Online it is said a normal clutch consists of 4 eggs that the hen starts incubating once they are all in place.  

There is plenty of work to be done on the fence, we can avoid this area for a while. 

South Fence Line

This past weekend Jeffrey and I used the post driver to put in all the wood posts (6 - 7 inch diameter) That are needed along the south side of the Coast Electric Field.   I lost count, but it was something like 25 posts.  This is remarkable, never would have happened the old way.  This particular fence line runs along the right of way for the electric lines (hence the field name), their maintenance tractors have rutted the soil and in spots it is boggy and impassable.  But we caught a dry spell and were able to get our equipment in, and with the post driver rapidly put in all the needed posts.  Now even if it gets wet, we can work around the soft spots and get the fence finished. 

Post Driver

Some assembly required. 

About a week ago, Monday, I started putting our newpost driver together.   We have a contract with the NRCS to install fence that will encircle what we are now calling the Coast Electric Field, about 18 acres.   A bunch of wood posts need to be installed, for end brace assemblies as well as every 100 ft along the fence line.   So we got this post driver to help.

It's heavy, the backhoe provided overheadlifting support.

It has hydraulic control for plumbing the driver up.

The first test post.

Installed.  Very easy.  Beats drilling a hole and back filling and tamping sand around a post.