This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dear Jim and Barb Rohde.
This is from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Alex Wind)
You don't say what you finances dictate in the way of just how
much board fence you want. We built some very satisfactory fence
about ten years ago. out of salt treated landscape timbers ($3.50 each)
for the posts (some people consider this too light and specify 4x4's), and
culled 8ft. oak boards ($1.00 each). You will need 6x6 posts at corners
of field and to hang gates. We bought commercial painted and galvanized
gates. The painted ones are cheaper but have to be repainted every five
years or so. A 12 ft. gate is $60 aprox. To horses, a visual barrier is
sufficient. Unless you have rival stallions, they are not going to be
physically testing what you build.
The main problem is digging all those post holes and trying to keep
the
lines straight when you hit rock ledges in your path. I don't know what your
terrain is like, but ours has plenty of rocks. A couple of places we had to
cheat by using shorter posts and setting in concrete when we couldn't get
sufficient depth. It's best to lay out what you are going to do and hire a guy
with a post hole digger on his tractor, unless you are rich in Kiboto's. We
did
a lot of ours by hand.
The idea for a really sturdy fence, is in each section the top and
bottom
board end at that post and the middle board extends to the next section.
That's
assuming 16ft. boards, then the next section middle ends and top and bottom
extend to next panel. If you get the picture.
Once you have it built it takes very little maintenance, unless you
are hell
bent to have a perfect farmette and insist on painting it white (or brown)
We just let ours weather and it's very satisfactory silver gray.
Good luck and keep us posted (no pun intended)
Fjording forever,
Alex Wind (short for Alexandra; I'm female).
