It hasn’t been until just recently that I’ve started to fix fence. Last year we had a hired man, and before that, the boys did it as need be. But with the Cowboy working in town, leaving his brother and I to run the place, I’ve had to step up my game, especially if I’d like our mares and saddle horses to stay in their respective pastures. If you’ve followed this blog at all, you know that recently there have been horses all over the ranch and Armstrong county, in places they certainly needn’t be.

So, I thought, since I fixed some fence this week, I’d give you a little tutorial about what I did. Some of you will be bored, others may think, “I’d pay to fix fence, just to get away from my day job!” And to you, I would reply, “We’re happy to have you come visit. We’ll drink wine or whatever poison suits you, I’ll cook something amazing, and you can fix fence!”

I’ve digressed. Back to fencing…

Let’s start with a simple project- replacing the clip or the staple that you place on a T-Post.

In the photo below you will see a three-strand fence. The middle strand is being held to the post by nothing.

This next photo, will show you how the wire should be held to the T-Post:

We have smooth wire running on a lot of our fences as the bottom strand. It’s more animal friendly for birds or antelope that are apt to go through a fence, as opposed to over it, like a deer.

Here’s what the top wire looks like:

Here’s my attempt at taking a close-up of the T-Post Staple:

Siri was NOT cooperating this day and was having a terrible time paying attention (focusing) on the subject at hand. Bad iPhone! BAD! Sometimes I crack myself up!

You can see the staple on the fence post now! Even though it’s out of focus. See, even photographers have bad days. I think I’m still blaming Siri. She’s been pretty mouthy and unhelpful lately!

Basically my goal this day was to replace any missing T-Post staples, so that the fence got tighter and it was harder for the calves and cows to sneak through. There was a cow out this particular morning, in case you’re wondering what brought on my insatiable desire to fix fence. If you didn’t catch the sarcasm there, you might should go back and re-read that last sentence. I jest, I jest. My life is the best, even if all I do for the day is fix fence!

In taking a closer look at the staple, you can see that there’s a short side, and a long side. The short side, simply slips over the wire and goes around behind the post, and then the long side, gets twisted around the wire to hold it in place. It doesn’t take a lot of twisting. A little bit will getcha!

And yet again, Siri was being belligerent. But you can get the idea. I’m simply going to twist the staple end under, then over the wire, and have it hold.

I hope you enjoyed this little fence fixing tutorial. There’s plenty more where this came from!

Happy Trails and Happy Friday!