Building fence is no easy task

The Animal Supply Points will continue to collect fencing materials for ranchers across the Texas Panhandle who are having to rebuild fences. (Sam Craft/Texas A&M AgriLife)
"Just A Scoopful" - Jerry Nine
“Just A Scoopful” – Jerry Nine

I am somewhat of a slob in some ways and a fanatic in other ways. When we are building new fence I want the posts evenly spaced apart using a measuring stick.

I don’t want one post 10 feet then the next one 8 feet apart. And I want the top of the posts the same height. I found out a long time ago that it doesn’t take any more effort to do it right. We were building 2 miles of new fence after those grass fires last spring. This is the first time I have used pipe for line posts instead of wood. The thinking is if we have another fire the pipe will not burn.

The two youngest boys were using the tractor and driving pipe in with the bucket. And if some of you have raised boys sometimes know there is a debate, or should I more accurately say argument, over who is on the tractor and who is holding the pipe. Needless to say one got mad and walked off and told the other one had to do it himself. After we strung the wire there were five pipe missing in the fence.

The other day I told the one to get the post hole digger and put the pipes in the fence where they should have been when it would have been easier with the tractor. After examining the five posts they were all sticking a foot too tall. So I took my son to the fence and said, “Do those five posts look the same height to you?” He responded, “It looks pretty close to me.” Guess what? Pretty close was not close enough.

And yes I asked my son if I had the word stupid written on my forehead. It’s probably good that he didn’t answer that question.

I remember 50 years ago Dad had several of us driving steel posts in this new fence. We were taking turns driving the posts. Dad said put them in four steps apart. And by the heat of the afternoon one of our group got to where his four steps were definitely as far as he could step. That long stepper was a soon to be brother-in-law. I wonder if Dad needed fence built or thought he would drive him away?

One cattleman friend who buys a lot of calves and starts them and also has a very unique sense of humor. He showed me a picture on his phone of his dead pile. And another very sick calf had found his way close to that dead pile. He said they have gotten a lot of these cattle bred up so well that you don’t even have to drag them to the dead pile. He said sure enough that one died the next day too.

Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the view of High Plains Journal. Jerry Nine, Woodward, Oklahoma, is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family’s ranch near Slapout, Oklahoma.