Goat fence and Log Pile

We started working on the goat fence the other day. Haven't gotten very far but we think it'll keep the little buggers in and also look reasonable. We found that we aren't very good at digging the post holes where they should be based on the length of our rails. We are going to change our routine and measure out a bit shorter than what the rails are and then cut the rails to fit. Hopefully that will work better. We figure we have about 600 feet of fencing to do so we'll be at it for awhile. Of course it always takes longer when you have to mill the posts and boards to make the fence. Having the tractor with post hole digger is making the job much easier though we do shear off bolts from time to time when we hit a big rock. Our post holes vary a bit in length so as you can imagine we need to cut off the tops of the posts to make them all match. I suspect this fence won't slow down the deer much. We also figure a moose will amble through and take out the whole thing just about when we get it done.

We've also started milling a few of the timbers for the "shed" we are hoping to put up in Waterville this summer. To the left you can see some of the logs we'll be working at milling. Some of the larger ones are going to have to wait until we get the backhoe on the tractor to act as a counterweight. We got them down to the pile by skidding them down the driveway while there was still some snow. Yesterday I brought down one that was about the same size and the tractor was not happy. It picked it up but was very tippy. the shed plan we have requires six 8 x 8 beams that are 16 feet long in addition to a bunch of 12 footers. I think we have the logs for the 16 footers but will need lots of 12 and 10 footers. I suspect more trees will need to volunteer to be a building. We have a couple of more reasonable sized pines which lost their tops this winter. We'll hopefully get them down soon.