Fort Coelho

The welding had its challenges in weather and logistics.  Only once did we have to "call it" due to the proximity of lightening.  It just did not seem to be in Myron's best interest to be welding on tall pipes with lightening present.  He agreed.  Usually, though, it was the typical beautiful blue New Mexico sky.

 To help with welding on the upper bars, Myron built what Bama called a hunting stand.

The plan was to double stack the wire fence, therefore Myron also welded on short stubs of rebar to hold the weight while we stretched fence.

As mentioned before, the fencing is rated for bison and elk.  Even though the fence was high tensile, it was almost 200 pounds per roll, a bit heavy for the two of us to muscle around.  Myron made an apparatus for the tractor that, once we wired the fence at one end, he could drive the tractor and unwind the wire fence next to the T-posts.  I apologize for a lack of a picture.  It all went brilliantly, and we sorely missed that mechanical advantage on the south side where we could not drive the tractor.  There we put the fence on the hill and, with great effort to keep it from going down into the creek, rolled it out the length required, involving rock, cactus, algerita bush (which I call "ow!" -gerita) and other things seemingly out to hurt us.

The good news is, the wire fence is up and stretched, both bottom and top, the gate is on as well as its vertical extensions, and the upper part of the gate is fenced.  The fence ended up being over eight feet tall.  There are solar lights stationed in the typical elk and deer traffic areas and we also tied up streamers that blow in the wind.  These are to remind some big dumb animals that there is now a fence where they used to freely run.  The night before we stretched out last bit of fence on the west side, a deer came in the gate, walked the inside perimeter and went up on its hind legs checking out the fence.  Hopefully he was convinced it was not worth the effort to jump.  In this picture you can see the fixed knot on the fence and how the height is over eight feet.  Further you can see, to the left by the house, the temporary low (white) tunnel housing a small percentage of the plants ready to go into the ground.

Other than the poles and T-posts, the fence is almost invisible.  But drive or step up to it and it appears formidable.  I told Myron that it seems more like 'Fort Coelho' than a farm and I saluted as we drove Big Red through the gate.  He laughed and said that if we had Marines guarding the gate like at Lemoore NAS, no one around here would have to worry about elk, deer, squirrels, rabbits and raccoons!

We are a bit behind and the plants are longing to be put into the ground.  With all these plants positioned throughout the house, including the kitchen, I feel bad eating a salad in front of them.  While I do love these babies, it is time for them to leave the nest.

Unusual Challenge

Market gardening has its challenges.  I suspect that we have an unusual challenge not encountered by most market gardeners:  ELK.

In the future we will address insects, but as to mammals, we have the usual challenges:  deer, cotton tail, jack rabbit, squirrel, raccoons, skunks, foxes, rats, and mice.  I saw a nice sized snake that should help out with the mice and rats.  Also, the hawks are on our side, although they sometimes catch bug eating birds.  We a have trap for the squirrels, which is working splendidly.  I would like to see the foxes and coyotes do a better job in keeping down the population of cotton tail, although their presence could be detrimental to the family pets.  So far, Sandy, one of the family cats, has scored two bunnies.

But...the elk...Here are a dozen cow elk on the far side of the field, taunting me just before daybreak.

It is difficult to get them to move on.  I clapped my hands as I ran across the field at them in my pj's and slippers.  They just stared at me, either dumb or dumbfounded.  Finally they moved on slowly and stopped in the highway.

That was not at all what I wanted.  Someone could get hurt.  The only solution at this point is a fence.  But not just any fence will do. Fencing for deer is a piece of cake.  It is polypropylene netting and only about 7 feet tall.  But it would never keep elk out of the plants and watering systems.  For example, the elk tore up our compost cover within 48 hours of putting it down.  They did nothing with the compost, just tore up the cover.

We typically have about a dozen cow elk that walk through the field, as pictured above.  Before the field was tilled, they slept in the field.  Once in a while, we have a bull elk come through.  I bent down to check the size of his hoof print and it extended from the heel of my hand beyond the tips of my fingers.  What he scattered on the field (poop) was impressive as well.  We figure he is about 1,600 pounds, maybe more.  The girls are a probably 900 to 1,200 pounds.  They can easily jump a six or seven foot fence.  An eight foot barrier has the best chance of exclusion.  Extensive internet research led us to Bekaert's website that claims their fences will exclude bison and elk.  I contacted the company representative and he put us in touch with Bubba at West Texas Steel & Supply, Inc. in San Angelo, Texas.  We almost got the shipping free as Bubba's father-in-law frequently comes to Ruidoso and was willing to drive it out, however no trip was in the plans for the near future.  Motor freight was the only choice for the pallet of high tensile wire fencing which weighed nearly 1,000 pounds.

We obtained the 2 3/8 inch well casing pipes and ten foot T-posts from Huey's Metal Service Center in Corona.  Having all the components, we rented the Rhino AD55 post driver and its attendant drive-behind 4 cylinder diesel air compressor from Uptown Rentals in Alamagordo.

Assembling equipment to drive pipe and posts:

Big Red (Honda) was utilized to tow the massive air compressor around the field:

We found we could tilt the post and driver in place, but once the post was driven in, even standing in the back of Big Red we could not lift the 55 pound driver off the post, which was eight feet or more above ground.  Myron and dad devised a lifting extension for the backhoe by temporarily welding a pipe on the bucket.  The air driver is on the ground near Myron along with its inch plus size air hose:

Driving the pipe was the most difficult part of the job and took the majority of the first day.  We finally finished the pipes, changed out the head on the driver and started in on the ten foot T-posts.  The breaks came more often as the need for hydration increased.  In this picture you can see the post driver hanging from the bucket and the T-posts installed on the south side of the field near Emerson Creek.  The twine was to help us line up the posts, however with 30MPH winds, it was rarely helpful.  That simple line of twine did, however, keep the deer out of the field that night.  Like I said, deer are easy.

This picture shows the pipes driven in the southwest corner of the field.  Nogal Creek and the highway run along the west end of the field:

The second day was all about T-posts on the remaining 3/4 of the field perimeter, just shy of 30 posts.  We finished in just over 1.5 hours - much easier than the pipes.

Next step:  Welding.