Farm Expansion Step 2 - Fence Building

People find deer attractive, the scientists say, partly because of the facial traits they share with human babies, their doe eyes mostly.  Also, they’re admirably sleek and super nimble.  And there’s that nonchalant, bounding, bouncing run they have.  They stand in the morning meadow with perfect equanimity, and then break character briefly to do a whacky-looking ear waggle designed to move the bugs out of their face.  So I understand the attraction.  Wake up one morning and discover that they’ve eaten all the leaves off your young plum and apple trees, however, and you’ll find your affection strained.  A few more deer incursions into carefully tended plants and you’ll start considering them a menace.  The cuteness and grace wear real thin.  The enchantment that comes with a deer sighting for some folks is replaced by a strong resentment.  That’s my location on the deer feelings spectrum.  Building a deer-proof fence, therefore, provides a kind of spiteful satisfaction.  There are other deterrents – dogs, armed guards, spray-on repellant (one of these has my all-time favorite product name: “Not Tonight, Deer”) – but only a tall, strong fence will guarantee protection from the marauders.  A five foot fence won’t do: I’ve seen deer cross them with a standing jump.

As with the sod removal, my fence building approach is low-tech and inefficient.  I dig the 2.5’ (or so) hole with a shovel and a manual post-hole digger.  I make the 10’ foot cedar pole as vertical as I can while I tamp in the rocks and dirt.  The soil in some parts of the new garden had a lot of clay, so I added some of that to the dirt.  I wrestle the fencing up against the poles and attach it with u-shaped nail/staples.  The gardener praises my work and, bless her, doesn’t remark on the way the poles deviate from linearity/vertica