Fence Repair

Following a two day wind event, I took a walk along the new fence line to see if any branches had fallen on the fence.  No branches were found, but one large tree trunk had run afoul of the fence on its way to the ground.  To anyone unfamiliar with this view, the abundance of downed trees makes it hard to identify that one that is causing the problem.

There it is.  I have to admit it chose a nice place to fall.  Centered between two wood posts on a patch of level ground, it was probably the easiest place along the whole line to work on removing the log.  The most time consuming part of the job was the one mile round trip to the barn and back to get the tools I needed.

With a high tensile fence such as this, each wire strand stretches independently of the others.  The upper most strand takes the most punishment, while the lowest strand is hardly disturbed.  In this case, the fence wire is actually supporting this section of log off of the ground.  It was fortunate that the log, partially decomposed and heavily worked on by Pileated Woodpeckers, broke into sections on impact with the ground.  The log was held at an ideal position for cutting.

The fallen log caused increased tension on the fence wires that produced an upward pull on this steel post.  This was identified as an at risk post during installation of the fence and was equipped with a steel cable attached to a ground anchor.  The post was able to lift about half an inch before the cable came taught and stopped the rise.  This is how it was supposed to work.  I’m glad it followed the plan.

After cutting the tree trunk in two about a foot back from the fence wire, the remaining log could be pushed up and away from the fence.  Once the log was clear, the fence wires jumped back into place.

In order for the fence to take this kind of abuse without damage, it is necessary to install post clips and staples in a way that allows the wire free movement.  When the tree hit the fence, the added tension was spread over several hundred feet of wire.  Had the wire been firmly attached to these two posts, it surely would have broken as the tree made its way to the ground.

The fence is back to being good as new.  This is why high tensile makes such a good choice for use in wooded areas.

Fence

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.

Fence Repairs

Along one mile of my property line is a fence that has been in place for close to 50 years.  The effective lifespan for a fence expected to contain livestock is 20 years.  Since my neighbor and I neither have livestock, the fence needs only to serve as a visual indicator of where the two properties join.  This fence is primarily bordered by woodland.  The combination of falling trees and deteriorating posts results in a fence that sags and at times lays flat on the ground.

The fence wire is rusty, but is still strong and functional.  I periodically select a section of fence where I will splice broken wire and replace non-functional posts.  This year I chose an 1100 foot stretch and spent five days cutting and setting posts, cleaning obstructions from the fence line and attaching the fence to the new posts.

Posts are cut from cedars in the woodland that died long ago from lack of sunlight and have stood long enough since death to lose their outer coating of bark and sapwood.  A typical tree will give three eight foot posts with diameters ranging from eight inches at the base to four inches at the top.  The red inner wood of these posts is rot resistant enough to survive for many more decades.  Notched poles are used to hold broken posts in place until I’m ready to attach the fence to the new posts.

My primary fence building tools are the spade, spud bar, and posthole digger.  The star of the show, and the tool I would most like to leave in the barn, is the 18 pound spud bar.  The chiseled end is used to break up rock encountered while digging postholes and the flattened end is used to tamp in the earth used to fill the holes after post placement. 

This is a common sight in most of the postholes.  Shallow bedrock is responsible for the conditions that allow such a diversity of rare and unusual life to exist at Blue Jay Barrens.  I remind myself of that fact as I chisel away at the rock with my spud bar.

My work is helped along somewhat by the condition of that rock.  The meteor that hit this site 350 million years ago fractured, and in some cases pulverized, the bedrock.  Much of the time, I’m able to break out chunks of rock by applying pressure to already existing cracks.  There are times though that the spud bar rebounds from the rock with the sound of a clear chime and I know that I’ve found a bit of rock that is both massive and unbreakable.

Even when it does break apart, dealing with rock is tedious and time consuming.  Sometimes I accumulate a nice pile of rocks.

In some locations the limestone bedrock occurs in thin beds sandwiched between clay.  These beds, usually an inch or less thick, eventually yield to the spud bar.  Getting the first break in each layer is the hard part.  After breaking through, it’s fairly easy to chisel an opening large enough to accommodate a post.

The most uncommon experience is to encounter no rock at all.  This was my only rock free posthole.  It just served to remind me of how quickly I can set a post when I don’t have to deal with rock.  That made the rock filled holes that much more aggravating.

The fence isn’t pretty, but at least it’s recognizable as a fence.

I’m pretty good about staying on task while I’m out working, but occasionally I’ll take some time to look at nearby things of interest.  I was wondering why there always seemed to be a shaft of sunlight breaking through the tree canopy at just the place I was working, when I noticed the chewed condition of these Prickly Ash leaves.

It didn’t take long to find the cause of the chewed leaves, the caterpillar of the Giant Swallowtail butterfly.  This is one of those bird poop mimics and its camouflage is quite effective.

I had to pull the branch down in order to photograph this guy and in the process, I annoyed it enough that it displayed its red osmeterium.  The osmeterium is a defensive mechanism designed to discourage predators not put off the bird poop appearance.

I also found several clumps of Indian Pipe just beginning to emerge.  Indian Pipe is a saprophytic plant that lacks chlorophyll and harvests its energy from decomposing organic matter.

I had my own fan club of Hackberry Butterflies.  These butterflies love to lap up sweat and I sweat enough to support legions of these guys.  Most of the butterflies were going for my back and shoulders, but a few found that I had imparted enough sweat to my tools to make them a convenient place for a drink.  Though they seemed to have abundant energy, none of the butterflies helped with the fence building in any way. 

Fence Lizard on a Fence

I’ve had hundreds of encounters with Northern Fence Lizards at Blue Jay Barrens.  My most recent encounter has the distinction of being the only time I’ve actually seen a fence lizard on a fence.

The lizard zipped up to the top of a fence post and gave a couple of head bobs, typical behavior for a male lizard.  Instead of the bright blue sides and throat normally associated with the male Northern Fence Lizard, this individual displayed only a blue blush in the throat area.  I recently read of research done by biology professor Tracy Langkilde of Pennsylvania State University in which she states that a high proportion of female Fence Lizards display some degree of blue coloration.  This fact effectively invalidates my previous assumption that lizards sporting blue coloration had to be males.  Limited head bobbing is also practiced by females of many lizard species, so I’m calling this one a female with weak male characters.

Any wild animal lounging in the open has to keep an eye to the sky in watch for avian predators.  The only things passing over this day were Tree Swallows.  The lizard glanced up each time one of these birds came near.

In between bird passes, a search was conducted for any insects that might make a suitable meal.

The fence posts are of native cedar locally grown and milled.  In the 25 years since they were installed, the posts have become a foundation for a variety of lichens and mosses.  I think this makes them more attractive to native wildlife such as the Northern Fence Lizard.

Even though this is the first time I’ve seen her on the fence, the lizard has been in the garden for several weeks running along the planting beds or scurrying across the mulched paths between.  She normally pays little attention to my activities.

If she doesn’t worry about me, it means that I have to worry about her.  Her coloration closely matches that of the garden soil and mulch.  I don’t want to discover that she has been trodden upon, so I’m careful to watch where I put my feet.

So far, she’s stayed close to the native planting part of the garden.  I see her most frequently darting in and out of the Ashy Sunflower and Prairie Dock thickets.

At other times I find her just lounging around.  Here she is taking in the morning sun.  She’s totally relaxed and not at all disturbed by my moving around nearby.  I’m looking forward to having her as a gardening companion through the summer.