Fencing the mountain.

[nuthatched]

Hi there.
I'm trying to strengthen and make my run less thugly.
I live in the Arizona mountains, where the dirt is:
75% rock
30% clay
20% caliche (a terra cotta like substance)
40% broken fingernails and tears of gardeners who moved here from loamier parts of the planet.
I have no level ground, my run is on a hill.
I'd have to rent a jackhammer to sink posts.
I can and I'm able to use trees for about 70% of support.
I'm using 8ft deer fencing, which is great for my terrain, but it's floppy and tacky looking and I have to bunch it up at the corners to keep tension.
Right now I'm using tposts with 1x2s for height.
I'm toying with screwing eye hooks into the trees and running cable to support the top of the fencing.
I'd love to build levels of raised beds and sink posts with cement, and build H style fencing.
But...that's a couple thousand dollars more than I can spend.

Any body have ideas on fence support for the non treed areas? The tposts are as deep as I can get them, but it's not very sturdy.
Thanks!

 

[B-Goock]

Sounds like the same issues I run into on my limestone rock I live on. Shovel depth and clack. Rock. A solid sheet or boulder.

I used a serious hammer drill and a 1/2" concrete bit. Drill holes as deep as you can with your bit. Hammer rebar sections in the rock. Drill corresponding holes in your post with a wood bellhangers bit and hammer it down. Its still gonna wiggle around. If you want no wiggle you'll have to dig all the dirt away from the post. Drill holes around the post for rebar. Hammer some in. Cut them off below where your concrete height will be and pour concrete.

 

[nuthatched]

Hmmm, can we get pictures of what you have going on currently?

I can tomorrow, brace yourself for my tacky run.

 

[nuthatched]

Hilarious. I'm sure your chickens don't care about keeping up with the Joneses, and probably even less about the broken fingernails/tears of yourself or others. Regardless, I hope you are able to figure something out short of blasting!

I know they don't care, but I'd like it to look better for the neighbors, (plus I'm slightly jealous of all the purty coops in the articles section) next year I'm going to attempt to redo the siding.

Well maybe not soften, but if you run ENOUGH water over them they will break down, it only takes a couple thousand years.

That would throw off my 3 year plan and do obscene things to the water bill.

 

[RoyalChick]

Just came across this thread and thought I would share something I am going to try for my garden to support a trellis. I haven't tried it yet but it might just work. Basically I am going to create concrete bases for posts by sinking them in concrete in a plastic cat litter bucket. That way I will end up with a post that had a nice heavy concrete 'foot' (same principle as a patio umbrella stand but much cheaper.
I have reason to believe it will work because the post-in cat-litter-bucket more-or-less works for me already if I fill it with rocks and this would be an improvement on that.
Use the lid of the cat litter bucket to hold the post in place while the concrete sets. No real need to remove the plastic bucket if you have enough of them (which I do).
Just an idea.
The approach above from @B-Goock sounds way more professional but would be beyond my skills.
Good luck!

 

[nuthatched]

I think you will have to dig into the dirt and put the posts and some concrete for fencing in each hole. Maybe use a pick and/or wet the ground first? How big is the run? When you say 1x2’s is that wood and is that along the top horizontally, because that won’t be strong enough for the vertical posts. Those should probably be 4x4’s in concrete, or metal tposts which you could set those in concrete also. If you loosen the soil to get them in but don’t put concrete in the holes, they will be wobbly.

Great idea except for that rocks don't soften when wet.

 

[3KillerBs]

Are you worried about keeping chickens in or predators out? Or both?

There are a number of ways to make portable fence panels that sit on the top of the ground and which would be strong enough to keep chickens in.

Keeping predators out would be more problematic, but adding hot wires would probably be the easiest.

 

[BGcoop]

How big of an area are you tying to have fenced in for them? It appears that you have mature trees within the run and currently have kind of a natural vibe going(which I kind of like actually). Since you are already using wood and it doesn’t sound like predators are too much of a problem, What about making like rectangular panels out of like 2x2s and chicken wire. The chicken wire you can pull tight to all 4 sides eliminating the saggy look of your deer fencing and the wood along all the sides and top of the panel will give a finished look. Leave extra chicken wire at the bottom that you can weigh down to the ground with rocks or something to eliminate gaps from between uneven ground and the wood. Then just attach the panels to the t posts you have already established and each other. Not sure if that would work, just an idea.

 

[jgarner1327]

Hi there.
I'm trying to strengthen and make my run less thugly.
I live in the Arizona mountains, where the dirt is:
75% rock
30% clay
20% caliche (a terra cotta like substance)
40% broken fingernails and tears of gardeners who moved here from loamier parts of the planet.
I have no level ground, my run is on a hill.
I'd have to rent a jackhammer to sink posts.
I can and I'm able to use trees for about 70% of support.
I'm using 8ft deer fencing, which is great for my terrain, but it's floppy and tacky looking and I have to bunch it up at the corners to keep tension.
Right now I'm using tposts with 1x2s for height.
I'm toying with screwing eye hooks into the trees and running cable to support the top of the fencing.
I'd love to build levels of raised beds and sink posts with cement, and build H style fencing.
But...that's a couple thousand dollars more than I can spend.

Any body have ideas on fence support for the non treed areas? The tposts are as deep as I can get them, but it's not very sturdy.
Thanks!

I think you will have to dig into the dirt and put the posts and some concrete for fencing in each hole. Maybe use a pick and/or wet the ground first? How big is the run? When you say 1x2’s is that wood and is that along the top horizontally, because that won’t be strong enough for the vertical posts. Those should probably be 4x4’s in concrete, or metal tposts which you could set those in concrete also. If you loosen the soil to get them in but don’t put concrete in the holes, they will be wobbly.

 

[BGcoop]

Great idea except for that rocks don't soften when wet.

Well maybe not soften, but if you run ENOUGH water over them they will break down, it only takes a couple thousand years.