Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Tools for homesteading

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Tools for homesteading
  • Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 10:58:44 EST



> I found that despite using
> cedar and various oak, posts eventually rotted. So now, except for
> gate posts, I use only metal T-posts. They go in easy. They don't rot.
> And they can easily be reused.
>

I adore metal T-Posts. They are cheap (6' post here abut $2 in bulk, and I
mean the extruded ones, not the miserable ones made from bent sheet metal),
easy to install, easy to extract, can be used for barbed wire, field fencing,
or
electric fence.

We use a lot of them.

But wooden fence posts aren't that much bother. We have abundant locust
here. A locust post from the north side of a hill will last 15 years in the
ground. Many of the wooden posts are oak, hickory, cedar and walnut. They
don't
last quite as long, as little as two or three years. But it's very little
work
to clean out the old hole and replace a few posts all along.

"All along" being the operant phrase here. When we are cutting firewood,
good posts are set aside and kept under cover to dry. When a post shows
deterioration, we pop the staples loose, remove the post, clean out the hole,
and put
in a new one. Half an hour maybe, as little as 15 minutes. Again it's a
matter of anticipation. You wouldn't want to get up one morning and put in
300
feet of fence by cutting the trees and digging the holes. You can put in 300
feet of metal T-posts in a day easily, but the need to do so is only if you
are
in farm panic mode. 'Git 'er done'. </HTML>




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page