There being 8 livestock volunteers on a working ranch of 350 acres, and there being no baby animals for the next few weeks, we turn to long-term maintenance projects. The list of long-term maintenance projects is almost exclusively comprised of fence repair.
Step one: Make sure no animals will get out if you tear down the fence.
Step two: Tear down the fence.
The fences are mostly made of 6 strands of stretched barbed wire and a strand of smooth wire that's electrified. They're stretched along T-posts, driven 3' into the ground, standing about 4' high. At the ends, they're wrapped around wooden posts that have probably been in the ground longer than I've been alive. The wire is thick and unworkable, and requires heavy duty pliers and a lot of muscle to unbend from its fasteners.
Step 3: Dispose of the fence.
The barbed wire needs to be coiled in order to be transported and recycled. This requires multiple people and heavy gloves. It's also very straightforward.
Step 4: Clear the fence line.
This step can involve heavy labor, with hacking, sawing, digging and cutting. Or it can involve fire. We did it the quicker, more efficient and much cooler way. We burned the fence line with a propane flamethrower. Amazing. The fence we were working on was near a river which floods, so there was years of buildup along the fence line, with 5' high piles of grass and branches that got caught up as the waters receded. We lit it on fire and had a nice, if brief, bonfire. It's not everyday that you get to use fire as a tool. The whole experience was very enlightening. And very fun. We all felt pretty cool and intense.
Next step: re-string the fence line. Then lather, rinse, repeat on the miles of other fence line.
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