Fence

Having dug the trench for the hedge that will go inside it, today was spent putting up the boundary fence at the edge of the orchard. We've opted for C8/80/15 stock fencing: it's a heavy-weight 'C' wire, with 10 guage (3.0mm) top and bottom wires, with the rest 12 gauge (2.6mm). There are 8 horizontal wires (not evenly spaced: the lower ones are smaller, to deter squeezing through), and it's 80cm tall, with 15cm gaps between the verticals.

We decided to put the fence posts (2.5") every 2700mm (9'), with a chunkier, 3.5" post at each end (with angled straining bar) and in the middle. Getting the posts in took until early afternoon: most of them were straightforward, with only one hitting stones. The stock fence went on in a couple of hours: a joint effort in tensioning it, and it now looks pretty tight. It now looks pretty good: we've left the boundary posts that weren't in the right places to be fence posts, but once Peter and Sara have checked they're happy, these can come out.