Fence posts, How to Afford Them

 

We have had a little bit of a dilemma in trying to decide how to provide the fence post for a goat area.  When we priced them at the local feed and seed and Tractor Supply and Home Depot, we found that for the number of posts that we need, we just cannot afford them. 

 

So, we looked back on how the pioneers did their fence posts.  We want to be more self-reliant and not have to depend on the store for everything we need.  We looked around our land and saw that we have so many pine trees that are just the right diameter for fence posts.  Mr. Blacksmith and I both came to the same conclusion.  Why not use the wood we have?  We had already decided to clear an area behind the shed to plant our small orchard of fruit trees.  The pines had to go anyway, so why not? 

 

Well, we had the drawknife, we just need a log dog to hold the logs to strip the bark off.   We love to watch a Youtube video blogger called "Wranglerstar."   By learning from his tutorial, Mr Blacksmith learned to build our own log dog from scrap pallet wood.  So other than the screws to put it together it did not cost anything.

 

 

This was our first log to work on so we still needed to make some modifications.  The tall uprights had to be trimmed down a little.  But here are a few pictures of Mr. Blacksmith in action stripping the posts.

 

 

 

 

This is the area that we are going to clear for our fruit trees. 

Goodbye pine trees, hello fence posts, hello soon-to-plant fruit trees.

 

 

 

After they are stripped, we are going to coat them in a wood preservative of which  we are still researching.   One down, many more to go.

 

 

Shared with: Down Home Blog Hop~ Number 78 + Homemade Body Butter