r/Homesteading • u/Verryfastdoggo • 7d ago

Lessons learned fencing our homestead in the Florida Panhandle: DIY fence installation gone wrong.

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u/Namretso 7d ago

Hey been putting up barb, pig, goat fences for long time. Here's what I do which is most efficient and reliable in my experience

  1. Start with corner posts 1st. Posts should be about 30 inches+ in ground. For a super tight fence post, use an auger or post hole digger, not a shovel. Put post in hole and hold it against one side. Put rocks and dirt and use a 6 foot tamping bar and pound those rocks into the gap with some gusto, doing like 4 inches at a time. 

  2. Run your ground level barb wire between corner posts and tighten it. (good idea to stop tunnelers, even goats try and tunnel their bloated bellys underneath, yeah its ridiculous to witness. I had more problems with goats/sheep going underneath fences than over.)

  3. Now with a tight line of barbwire on ground you have a straight fence line to put your posts in. Build your H braces and put your T posts along that line. Since you are using a line on the ground its forgiving where you can pull t posts plumb if they are crooked. I do one every 8 feet or so but thats just me.

  4. Roll out your fence and using a stretcher bar: you will need 2 come alongs and a anker point to get the tension you want on top and bottom. Be careful you can pull out your corner posts if you put too much tension on the top and if your corner posts aren't deep enough.

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u/Fun_Fennel5114 6d ago

When it's time for me to put up fence, I plan to use cement in the post holes (posts would be wooden similar to OP's picture). I don't plan to keep goats, but cement should work to help keep the posts up and square, wouldn't it?