How does it help with gophers?Depends on the clay!
I'm on super dense red Georgia clay...the kind that suffocates plants. With enough amendments to loosen and open it up plus provide drainage has made for happy roses...but without some work about the only thing that thrives in it is saguaro cactus, um...I mean tall thistle. All 8 feet tall.
I hope nothing is going through TN. I'm finding that many things seem to just sit in the Knoxville distributing center for about 5 to 10 days.
Just. Sit. There.
Electric-
I finally broke down and bought some electric netting fence. The kind that is easy to step in and move by oneself. It's a bit of a hassle because of the length, but it really worked to keep the very determined groundhogs out of the garden this past year. Enough so I'm thinking of making a larger day pasture area for chickens. I too have fox problems, and raccoon, and stray dogs...
You don't have to plug it into the fancy chargers that are advertised to go with them, any intermittent pulse charger, even a small plug in one from TSC, will work.
For mine, I just ran a coated wire from one strand of some poly hot wire I have as a temp pasture for the equines.
With you having some kiddos to help, yours would be a breeze to set up. I did not string all of mine out, just as much as I needed for the job, and left the extra rolled together at the end. I got the long 164' one because I knew I would use it in different places, but they come in shorter lengths.