North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Bernie Nikolai <bnikolai@shaw.ca>]

A few years ago I got tired of deer eating my trees.  Wolf essence, soap,
human hair, none of it worked for more than about 4 weeks max.  I also
didn't want an electric fence, as the deer just seem to jump through many
times according to reports, and the owners of the property also didn't want
their grandkids getting any shocks.

The fence was a total of about 1200 ft.  I bought 10 ft. pressure treated
4x4 posts from Home Depot for $10, and spaced them 20 feet apart, 2 1/2 foot
into the ground.  The last 6 inches of the 8ft. fence just stuck above the
posts, and stayed up nice and straight, as I only had 7 1/2 ft. of post
above the ground.  I cemented in the corner posts plus braced them, and also
cemented in about every 6th post along the line.  I bought 4 rolls of 8 ft.
gamewire, the kind with the small squares on the bottom to stop rabbits, and
big squares on the top.  Each roll was 300 ft.
Cost in Canadian dollars (about .67 cents US dollars today)
60 posts x $10 = $600
4 rolls 300 ft gamewire ($300 each) $1200
miscellaneous concrete, renting a power auger, fastners $200
Total $2000 Canadian, or about $1400 US 

The fence is flawless with regards to keeping out deer, moose, even rabbits
and porcupines.  I had heard that 20 ft. was too far to put the posts apart.
That is true IF you are keeping something IN the fence, deer, elk, etc.  But
if you just want to keep something out, and there is no pressure on the
fence, 20 ft. seems fine.
Bernie Nikolai
Edmonton,Alberta
still 18 inches of wet snow on the ground