I took advantage of the extremely dry October weather to
complete one of the larger items that has been cluttering up my list of
necessary projects, construction of fence along about 1500 feet of open
property line. I don’t mind building
fence, but it is a time consuming process that crowds out all other activities
on my agenda. The task of fencing is
made easier if you have several people helping.
Fortunately, besides myself, I had the help of the property owner, the
land manager, the maintenance supervisor, the strategic planner and the ground
crew. The downside to that is the fact
that I hold all of those positions, so the total people working on the fence
remained at a constant one.
The fence consisted of multiple strands of single high tensile
wire. This is a fairly easy type of
fence to construct and is ideal for rough terrain or wooded areas. The wire will withstand the impact of a
falling tree and can be retensioned once the tree is removed. If a wire does break, it is easily repaired
with the use of a slip-on splice. Fence
building would be simple if the entire line were as level and open as this
short stretch.
But, obstacles abound at Blue Jay Barrens. High tensile wire can be stretched for a
considerable distances without the need for posts or spacers, so you can easily
span a section of creek. Unless we set a
new record rainfall, the bottom wire of the fence should stay clear of the
highest flood water.
At the opposite end of the scale from level is Not
Level. The back portion of Blue Jay
Barrens jumps the ridge and catches a small portion of a neighboring
watershed. The fence line plunges down a
steep grade, crosses a short span of floodplain, and then climbs an even
steeper grade on the other side of the creek.
The grade was steep enough on this side that it was difficult to
establish footing that kept me from sliding slowly downhill. Rather than try to negotiate that slope with
a fence post slung over my shoulder, I launched the posts Caber Toss style over
the edge and let gravity do the work.
On the far side of the creek, I used a rope to pull the wire
up the steepest part of the slope. After
attaching the wire to a loop made in the center of the length of rope, I took a
more circuitous route to the summit where I proceeded to haul up the wire. The rope was long enough that the downhill
end always stayed close to the creek bank, so I could grab the end and pull the
loop back down to the creek in preparation for the next stretch of wire.
A large oak that once sat astride the property line, was
taken down by the 2012 derecho winds. The
pile of rubble to the left of the fence is what I had to remove from the tree’s
root mass in order to clear the line for the fence. The rock is full of fractures resulting from
the prehistoric meteor strike, so trimming it back was not impossible for
someone using only a metal spud bar. The
rock was much more difficult to deal with while digging post holes.
I managed a few brief breaks in the work to observe some of
the interesting things going on around me.
Newly installed wire became a highway for insect life. Caterpillars, ants and beetles seemed almost
magnetically drawn to the wire.
Stick insects found the newly placed wire to be an ideal
mating structure.
The female seemed intent on chewing through the strange
material.
Newly installed wood posts became instant hunting grounds
for Red Velvet Mites. These two are
feeding on a caterpillar that is still quite alive.
The mites were still at it the next day. At the tail end of the caterpillar are the
remains of its shed exoskeleton. The
mites may have come across the caterpillar in the vulnerable condition of
completing its molt.
This caterpillar was hurrying up the trunk of a tree,
unaware of the fact that it was unlikely to survive to adulthood.
Parasitic wasps are most likely introducing their eggs into
the body of the caterpillar. The wasp
larvae will feed inside the caterpillar until time to pupate. The caterpillar is unlikely to survive the
encounter.
Caterpillars were everywhere. This one fell into my lunch bag and I moved
it onto the trunk of a small Pawpaw. I
believe it is an Eclipsed Oak Dagger.
Mornings were cool, but things warmed nicely in the
afternoon. Buck Moths in flight were a
regular sight during the past week. My
photos of Buck Moths in flight are almost identical to my photos of woodland
scenes. I know a moth was there, but I
can’t find it.
This Imperial Moth caterpillar was feeding on a Redbud
growing near the creek bank at the base of a steep hill. At 15 feet away, the caterpillar was at my
eye level. If I stood at the base of the
tree, the caterpillar was about 12 feet above my head. Many of the Redbuds are already
leafless. This caterpillar is fortunate
to have something left to eat. I hope he
gets his fill and pupates before he runs out of food.
At a glance, I thought this was a large snake.
But, it’s just the remnants of a vine climbing up the tree.
I was pushing hard to complete the fence before wet weather
returned. In a three week period I was
able to complete the 1500 feet of new fence and make minor repairs to about
1800 feet of old fence. The weather was perfect
and the scenery beautiful, but I’m really glad to be moving on to something
else.
