Baymule’s Fence

A little background for any who might not know. My husband and bought 8 acres with a double wide in Lindale, September of 2014. We fenced it and cross fenced it. We learned a lot, did some things right and some things wrong.


My husband passed away September 20, 2021. I sold the farm in February 2022, moved to a house my son had, on 2 acres, in Trinity County. Stayed there 6 months, bought, 25 acres with a double wide, also in Trinity County. Moved with sheep and dogs on August 28, 2022.

Fence rows sport 30-40 years of brush and trees. Much of the fence is old, barbed wire is barely up, wood fence posts are rotted off at the ground.

I have one field for the sheep, it is fenced on 3 sides with field fence. With the help of the previous owners, we took down the barbed wire on the 4th side, and put up sheep and goat wire. The previous owners kept 16 acres on the south side of me and put a new single wide mobile home on it. They have 40 acres on the north side of me and are great neighbors.

A few weeks after moving in, I had knee replacement surgery, followed by months of therapy. I finished therapy the end of January. It rained non stop in February for weeks. That brings us to March and ready to work on fencing.

Front field, side fence, south side. This is close to the house.







This is the corner.





Had 2 guys that wanted a downed giant oak for the firewood. They came and cut it up.





I told them if they would cut down the big pines in that fence line, they could have them, take the logs to the mill and keep the money. They loaded up 4 logs and never came back. They left a lot of firewood on the ground too.

Love the trees -- they look pretty. A lot different than here - live oaks and avocados.
Oh man - they never came back for the oak they wanted?!! Geeze. Oh well - work got done, just not quite as done as you would have liked.

A neighbor, Chase, came over last week and we looked at the pine logs laying on the ground. Little sawdust piles gave away the insects that were already burrowed into the logs, no mill would take them now. We lamented the waste. A few days later, he came up with an idea, make raised garden beds! Yes! Then the logs won’t be a total waste.

Chase used his two days off, Wednesday and Thursday to come help me out this week. He dragged out the logs, having to limb and top several. Using 2 logs for runners, he stacked the other logs on them.



The reason the logs are stacked up instead of making raised beds, is because I need to focus all my energy on fence. If we made the raised beds, I’d feel like I needed to develop them into a garden, and I can’t divide my time and energy. Maybe this fall or winter.

With the logs out of the way, Chase cut a few more trees that were in the fence line.



This one fell into the other trees and hung up.



He pushed on it with his tractor.



It was still hung up. He chained it to the tractor and backed up.



It fell down.

@Baymule .... you need to call a few sawmills.... some of those "wormy" logs might be very saleable... if it is more surface/under the bark stuff, they still can get some good lumber out of it... Here they would sell good for pulp wood if nothing else... but those trees are tall and straight... good saw logs.

Grass!!! You have grass.

While Chase was doing that, I was cutting yaupon. Yaupon is a small shrub, that can grow into a small tree. It also sends up suckers from the roots and can become a thicket. Carson found a shady spot where he could supervise.







Wood fence posts were rotted off at the ground level. Only thing holding them up was the rusty barbed wire intertwined in the yaupon.



We both worked at cutting yaupon. I pulled the few staples left in the posts, dropping them in a bucket. We cut the barbed wire in lengths of 8’ to 10’ so we could get it out of the tangled mess, rolled it up and made a pile of it. Later I loaded it in the back of the truck and took it to the dumpster.

farmerjan said:

@Baymule .... you need to call a few sawmills.... some of those "wormy" logs might be very saleable... if it is more surface/under the bark stuff, they still can get some good lumber out of it... Here they would sell good for pulp wood if nothing else... but those trees are tall and straight... good saw logs.

Click to expand...

The guys hauled off 4 big logs and got $89 for them. The big sawmills don’t waste their time on small fry. The small sawmills will take them. For those logs, I’d probably get a few hundred bucks for them. Son has a gooseneck trailer, but I don’t have a gooseneck hook up in my truck. I’m ok with using them to line garden beds.

Mini Horses said:

Grass!!! You have grass.

Click to expand...

LOTS of grass! But no fence that will hold sheep or dogs.

We made it to the corner! It’s actually not a corner, the concrete marker is a couple of feet from the posts. They don’t actually make a corner.



I pulled staples off one post.



Concrete marker. It’s in a mass of tree roost. For me to put a corner post next to it, I’d have to take out a large tree and I’d rather have the tree. So I’ll be putting new posts back where the old posts were.



A chain that comes from under the tree? Goes?




The other post was so wrapped in old wire, I just cut it loose.



Those posts were so rotten, no telling how old they are.

Chase and I cut a lot of yaupon, brush, briars, and a few trees out of the fence line.











I made a couple of loads to a burn pile yesterday.



The fence line is looking better but still needs more work before I can roll out wire.



There are still a half dozen dead pines that need to come down and one big twisted tree.

Around the corner, the fence line goes towards Bennett and Peggy’s place. There is no fence, as this was surveyed out from a bigger parcel. So we are starting the fence.

Where the H brace needs to go was an overgrown mess.





Bennett pushed it down with his tractor. He and Chase cut down the big dead tree.



Today, Bennett, Peggy and I set 3 H braces.



You can’t see it, but there is a H brace in the middle and another on the front fence line.
That is a span of about 470 feet.



This span of fence will be easy!