Fencing the River

I spent most of the day today helping R fence across the river so we can move one bunch of cows.  The west fork of the Poplar River runs through the pasture, and now that the water is down we needed to stretch wire across the river in two spots.  On the north end there is a cement spillway so we could walk across most of that.  The challenge there was to untangle all the wires.  We take them down in the fall since they would get broken in the winter from ice and snow or in the spring when the water is high and flowing.  R had his dog, Trip, along.  He's a golden retriever and loves the water so he swam around and had a great time.  We also had Pete along who spent most of the time deep in the cattails barking at something we couldn't see, maybe a beaver.

We finished up the north end and then started around the fence boundary to check for breaks or trouble spots.  We did find a bad spot where an old wooden post was broken so we put in a steel post and fixed several broken wires.  It was in a coulee where snow probably laid and caused the wires to break.  When we finished that we went for lunch.  Pete doesn't play well with others so he got left at home after lunch.

When we went back we had to get to the south river crossing.  The wires weren't badly tangled so that part was easy.  The hard part was getting them across the river.  Usually our nephew is here and he's the one who gets wet.  Not today.  It was R's turn.  He sent Trip in to determine how deep it was.  Trip could walk across without the water over his back.  Still higher than the rubber boots, though.  R stripped down to his skivvies and put the rubber boots on without his socks and waded across twice to attach the wires to the fence on the other side.  I mentioned that it was too bad that I had left my camera in the pickup.  I got a "ha ha" on that.  Apparently R didn't want his picture taken at that time.  Farther upstream we could drive the 4-wheeler across so I took it back over since the wire stretcher and other tools were in it.  We stretched the wires up and put up a panel.  There is plenty of grass and water in the pasture so the cows shouldn't be looking to get out, but every now and then a calf will get into the water and under the fence.

It was a really nice day to be out, only in the 70s with just a slight breeze.  I was worried about mosquitoes by the river but didn't see any.  I always enjoy spending time with my boys even if we are working.

West Fort of the Poplar River

Trip, the water lover