Fence Me In!

This summer I'll stain it, but we still have a functioning fence on the top half of the property! WOO!

We have waited what seems like a long, long time and now we're finally fenced in!  Most importantly; the Beastie Grrrlz are fenced in and neighbor dogs and certain types of wildlife are fenced out or at least slightly detered if they're not super motivated.  We were able to get a few names of fence and other contractors in the area and did our due diligence of collecting a few bids. We selected AAA Fencing & Welding based on referral quality, competitive pricing and that mysterious "chemistry" thing. I wanted to link to their website, but I forgot that this is the Bitterroot where everyone has a smart phone and a GPS and no one has a website, at least not one you can find easily.

Luckily, we started making calls in March, so their schedule was not booked out for months AND they even got started a couple weeks earlier than estimated!  One day he's dropping off some materials and equipment, and started demo on the old fence, the next he's here pound posts in all around the top 2.5-3 acres of the property!

Do I sound old when I say, "It's nice to see young people out working hard and with their hands"?  Our contractor brought is young teen son and his future son-in-law out to work on our fence.

After about 4 hours of racket all the rotten wood posts and t-posts were out and the new lodge pole posts were pounded in.

We were a little concerned that adding a fence to the front, where our view is,  would make the "yard" seem smaller, but we both think that it actually makes it seem bigger to have a visual cue to the edge.

We understand that the deer have an easier time clearing a fence when there is a rail at the top rather than just wire.  We don't want to keep the deer out, except of the garden space which will have its own fence  when we get that going, and we plan on replacing much of the landscaping with native plants that are xeroscapic and deer-resistant.

The "walk gate" leading to the National Forest; the last owners had used it for a jury-rigged dog enclosure under the deck that we disassembled last summer.  Yey for free gates!

Of course, keeping the BGs in means we have to have a gate on the driveway.  This whole project was not pocket change so we went with a basic-plus farm gate.  The electric operator has been ordered and will be installed when our contractor gets back from vacation. Sometimes it feels extravagant to have an electric opener, but then I remember the slope of the driveway and what our winters are like and realize that if we didn't have an operator, we'd have to drive up to the driveway, get out to open it, then drive around the loop again in order to have enough speed to make it all the way up the hill when it's icy and snowy.

Finally the driveway gate!  Everything but the electric operator ready to come and go.

We decided to put the gate near the top of the hill so when we next have a winter like this last one we can still park at the bottom of the driveway if we need or want to.  And if for some reason the operator fails, this spot is relatively flat AND close to the house for convenient manual operation.  This required that we either fence a smaller area which would be like giving up an acre or so OR create an "alley" up the driveway.

We hope that the "alley" will also cue random summertime drivers on the road that our driveway is indeed a driveway and not the road. It's not an entirely unreasonable mistake since the road past our house is obviously less traveled than our driveway; you know plants growing between the wheel tracks and the like.

You know you're hopelessly grown up when you're giddy and elated about a fence.  A plain, farm/ranch fence at that.  Knowing that Betty and Delia are each safe to roam and explore a couple-few of our acres and that they can be off-leash to run and chase and fetch really means a lot to us.  We're embracing the Return of the Chuck-it!  Even though Delia will usually only fetch a few times before focusing on some chipmunk lair.

Run, Betty! Run like the wind!*

"Fences are awesome. I love my new fence!"*

What's planned:
The gate operator will be installed which requires running power from the house.
I'll stain the posts and rails to try to keep the grey away (much like my hairs).
You know holiday and other decorations are going up on that gate, too.

Two weeks later, we are still in love with having a fence.  We don't feel like it spoils our view at all.

* Sooooooo many Ponderosa Pine needles to rake.  So many.