Deer Fence 2 . 0

So...
Version 2 of the deer fence is underway.
(see post "Deer Fence" in 2011 for the 1st version)

Easy Gardener Xtreme Deer Barrier

pretty robust

I have purchased a more expensive (and robust) fencing.
I only bought 100 feet because of the cost. It will fence the blueberry hill and the front section. This would get the most deer impact. It will be a trial. If it holds up I will get another roll for the rest of the garden.

the Xtreme compared to the net bought last year  - big difference

It is noticeably stronger than the net but not the strongest available.
This product is fencing, not the net advertized as fencing that I got last year.

I purchased it from Amazon. The price was good. It came in 2 days after placing the order! Wow - I was very happy. It comes folded in half on a roll and wrapped in thin plastic.

I have done a few things different this time.

1 - installed a top-wire
     I bought a roll of wire at the hardware store and installed it along the top of the posts by wrapping it around the eye -screws and pulling it straight but not too tight. Then fastened the fence to it with 4" zip ties.

2 - used #10 eye-screws instead of staples. Used 4 for each post. fastened the fence with the zip-ties.

3- I used a dry gravel method of setting the posts. Dug down, set gravel in bottom, filled around the post with gravel and large stones, leveling the posts and packing the gravel as i filled the hole. Might regret nor setting in cement later. though thought it best to use this method cause i might have to move the posts later?


Onto the installation...

planning out the posts

It was fairly easy. The fence had stiffness to it and didn't get caught on everything like the net did.
It is 8 feet tall and I kinda centered it so that I had between 6-10 inches on the bottom and on the top.
I want the extra on bottom to flare out on ground outward to deter nosing under by the deer. I wanted a bit at the top for extra height. You can fold it down or better flare it outward at the top. I may end up doing the later down the road but am not too concerned right now. It is stiff enough to stay up fairly well at this point and the deer are not too interested in jumping.

finally up

I installed eyescrews on the posts. Installed wire on the top. Fastened the fence to the eyescrews and topwire with 4" black zip ties. Right now the bottom flare is being held down with logs and big rocks.

I used the old net along the rock wall and herb garden side 1 - because i did not buy enough to do the whole area due to price and 2 - that is the side that gets less deer impact. they typically travel from the front side and along the forest side.

Now to plant the blueberries and the rest and see how it holds up.

Snowed In

Well...

After I posted the last blog post, here is what happened the next few days.

I hardly got sleep that night. It sounded like small bombs dropping all around us.
The crunching-crackling-creaking sound that would last for about 3 seconds or so... followed by a loud POP... a loud crackle-scratch... and BOOM-thud, as the branches and trees fell near and far. I dreaded what I would find as the light came in the morning and feared where the next succession of noise would find it's destination.

some of the results of the night before

The power went out that morning at about 5:30 and I had been awakened by another pre-recorded call from the schools, reporting another closed day.









I was kind of expecting it, with the way the weather was forecasted and what I gathered from watching the news. I was, of course hoping it would stay on. But, with all the trees around here and the ice and snow expected, there was bound to be a break somewhere. So, the day before, I had filled up a jug of water and did laundry, brought in some wood, which would later prove to be not enough.

the coop

We had doughnuts and milk for breakfast. I started a fire to keep the house warm and cook.

powerlines in ice

I went out to check on the chickens and the world was covered in ice.

 Check out the post before this to see what the coop tree looked like before loaded down with hundreds of pounds of ice and snow.

I remembered that the forecast said it was not supposed to warm up till Friday. So, I carefully ventured out to the wood shed to get at least a few more bundles of the maple I split a few weeks ago.

orchard in ice

Listening very carefully for the sound of the fall and ready to drop everything and run out of the shed along my path of escape to avoid the falling snag that loomed above the shed (hopefully). I managed to get 3 bundles and called it good-enough for today.

cooking soup for lunch

We didn't have a space-heater and there was only a half-tank of gas in our little generator. So, I opted to use the generator only once a day to charge up anything that needed it and to re-cool the garage fridge and do anything else that needed electricity. I was not about to got out to the rock-shed and get the measly little gallon in there (that would require to traverse along a path of tree-bombs with no escape route).
The crashing of branches and trees continued through the day and into the night.


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Day 2 - Friday

Another sleepless night of branches and trees falling.
This morning I make delish mesquite-smoked turkey, egg and cheese toasted sandwiches in the fire. It takes WAY LONGER to cook in a fireplace with no cook-top (a wood stove would be SO NICE! And would heat way better!)

The snow and ice are still all over but it is supposed to heat up today (mid 40's).  the van is coated with about 1/4 inch of ice sheet.

fallen orchard

This morning the orchard fell.
 I wanted to take most of the trees out anyway except the big apple.


 A glimmer of hope shone briefly with the sun over the mountain this morning and for about 10 minutes it was beautiful to see the sun glint through the ice.

 Did I mention my husband was out-of town in D.C. for a business meeting since Tuesday morning? Yeah. Just me and the kid and 5 pullets. He was supposed to come back yesterday but, got stranded in Detroit till tomorrow. Luckily (if that's' what you want to call it - in a way) he works for a great company that takes care of their people and they took care of his extra hotel at the airport, food and transportation. And, the International car show was still going on, something he has always dreamed of going to! So today, he is getting to spend as long as he wants (no having to drag our  "not-so-enthusiastic-about-cars-ness" tired bodies around) without distraction at the biggest and best car show in the world! And, gets to sleep in a nice warm room, food cooked for him, hot shower, running water, hotel (although he said he would rather be home in the storm with us). Awe..... how sweet.

Here is a short video with sound of the crashes.

The crashing of the trees continues - although not so enthusiastically today.

our slushy gravel road

It snowed, then warmed up enough to put a nice layer of ice on top, then sleeted, then snowed light soft snow, then freezing rain that soaked into the snow and sleet and formed a nice thick layer of ice on top, then snowed wet big flakes on top of that before it started to melt. yeah.

After noon, there is slush all over the roads but the main ones are clear and neighbors said it is ok to get up and down our hill as long as you dodge the tree limbs and go single file. We have some great neighbors with cool equipment. I saw a snowplow with treads and a guy on an ATV with a tiny plow runs up and down pushing branches to the side. Folks with chainsaws and cones helped clear the big stuff and mark dangers. And someone banked the paved hill so it was less-likely to slide off the cliff.

We had lunch and let the fire go out and got out of there! It took over a half hour for the van to warm up and for me to de-ice it.

The 2 towns we went to had no power. Just the major stores like Wal-mart and Safeway with big generators.

It did take us a while to get there because of all the detours and u-turns at road closed signs, back-tracking and dodging downed trees and powerlines.

We got some water and a few other things, touched "civiliation" again and headed back before it got dark to get things done.

detailing the duck and hen

generator gourmet consolidation

I had to plug up the generator again to charge things and cool down the garage fridge (where I had transfered all the perishables) and cook dinner on the waffle iron. Sabrina made improvements to her snow duck.



I fired up the fire again to get the chill out.
That night the clouds in the sky lit up from underneath like fireworks from the powerlines.

a huge branch almost took out the line to the pump

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Saturday 21st

Yeah! Decent night sleep - no crash and booms. And my Hubby gets to come home today!

Things are melting from the rain and wind last nite.
Power still out but hope for turn-on in a few days because the clear roads.

Apples and his family even came over to look for food - they survived the storm. He even got closer - about 2 feet this time.

Hubby got home for lunch.
He kept the fire going most the night.


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Sunday 22nd

Power came back on about 2am. this morning. YEAH!!!!!!














  I took a shower 1st thing! Never felt so good to take a shower!

tops snapped off

We put out the fire - Yeah! I am so sick of tending the fire and house and everything else smelling of smoke.






We cleaned the house! Feels so good to get back to the modern conveniences!


This house is just not equipped properly for power outages.

orchard down

We walked the property line along the street to see what needed to be done. There was a neighbor "crew" cleaning up the branches along the roadside already and we pitched in along our line. And we made notes of some areas that we needed to keep an eye on.



Then we carefully walked the west side of the property (where we could). The forest paths were blocked with debris and will take months to get cleaned up again. (and we just took the past summer cleaning up the place). Oh, well... more firewood for next year.

Here we go again!

First Snow of 2011 Winter

Sabrina came home excited saying that "Ms Georgia" the busdriver wore her white fluffy hat today. And, that a nieghbor kid said that when she wears her white fluffy hat, it means that it is gonna snow.
Well sure enough, I looked out the window before going to sleep and the world around was white.

deck @ night from kitchen

garden in the morning

Here are some photos from last nite and this morning.

orchard in the AM

the baby bucks' mom and sister

baby buck in the morning

 A deer family came to visit. The baby buck seems to be very receptive and came about 8 feet from me this morning. Maybe he will get to eat out of my hand some day.





And... a few of the girls this morning.

Nutmeg and Ginger

Nugget

Deer Fence

Here we go...

... a deer fence to protect the precious fruits and veggies (for just under $100!).

My hubby, of course, sighed and said we would have to rent a post hole auger, buy a digger etc...
I, of course, grabbed my shovel and a piece of pointed re-bar and got to digging.

The area near the well was rocks from the drilling. Once I got past it, it was mostly sand.
Now I truly believe that the summers are drought periods here. I dug down 2.5 feet of bone dry sand and stones (it still does not compare to the droughts elsewhere.)
I ended up digging an average of a 30 minute per hole rate. Had 6 posts dug and set in 2 days. The rest will be done the next week.
I used 4x4x8's we found around the property that were still useable for posts and 2 10 footers for the main corners.
I ended up buying 3 landscape timbers at $3 each for the in-between. Since I am using a poly net, they don't have to be but 12-15 feet on center.

The net is not much more than bird net but, it was cheap at just under $50 for 200 feet.
I chose to do this cheapo stuff because
1 - the deer, though there are quite a few, have so many other easier options than calculating how to get through a fence.
2 -they are black-tail deer and are not as skittish or big as the white tails in Texas.
3 - the regular path they use is along the outside border of the fence anyway as to not make then have to think about a new path to take.
4 - its cheap

Here is the fence up. I did it by myself with a step stool , scissors and a staple gun in 3 hours (in the rain).
You can hardly see the mesh. Were it not for the ribbon, I would walk into it. The ribbon is there so that the deer (and I) have a caution of sorts to let us get used to it being there. I will keep the flags there for a bout a month to make sure all the resident deer get to know it. The mesh goes all the way to the top of the posts with some left over to secure the bottom to the ground to prevent "nosing" under.

There is no gate yet in the photo. I am using the livestock fence in a double circle in the opening because deer also don't like to jump double fences.

The gate is made from salvaged PVC we literally dug up on the property. I had to buy 3 eyescrews and 3 elbows to finish it off at about $5 total. I used old trimmer string (it wont fit our string trimmer) as an anti-sag "kit" for stabilizing the gate.

Now I can plant! WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!

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UPDATE : February 2012

Well....
If you keep up with all the posts, you have already seen that the fence didnt quite make it.
I think in the 1st week a dog barreled through it at night (maybee coyote). There were 2 rips opposite eachother about dog hieght and with dog prints nearby. Then, a drre tryed to go through a part - tore through it (on the street side), got spooked and tryed to jump over the opposite side and tore it down. Then, the ice storm came and just about all of it came down.

from ice storm post - click on it to see it bigger

I can still use it for temp fencing ot to drape over trees adn shrubs. But, as a fence for deer it is almost useless. I do think that they have gotten the idea that it is not a pleasant thing to go past the fence. The other day, after it was down, I drove up and say 2 deer standing outside the fence (where it was down) and looking in. they did this for some time until I opened my window and told them that they better not even think about it. they eyeballed the contents one last time and turned and walked away. Hmmm... deep thought.

I am now working on getting the branches cleared, prepping the blueberry & strawberry beds and then will invest in a more robust material.

I guess my next photos will be of the new fence.