Grading a path for my fence to expand the pasture.
If you own livestock you are probably looking for a way to increase your pasture. My neighbor wants my sheep and goats to clear his land. We are opening up my fence to allow my animals onto a new paddock that will be just under 2 acres. I will be using my John Deere 35G Excavator to level out a path to put the fence. We will be using sheep goat fence with 4 inch square openings.
@FlanaganHomestead
Hello Rob here from the Flanigan Homestead I'm standing on my back deck This morning you could look down in and See the Green Pastures uh my property my Neighbor's property which my sheep run On my sheep and goats uh if you zoom in Down there at the bottom behind the row Of trees and the grass that's green is a Bunch of blackberries Scotch broom and a Bunch of weeds with some grass in there And uh my neighbor asked me if I'd help Fence that in he we both pay for Materials and then he wants me to run my Goats and sheep on there because he Loves how clear the rest of his land is And so when you have livestock you're Always happy to have access to more land Especially right next to your property So uh today's video is going to be a Little bit different I I uh because of The roughness of the terrain and the Brush it's hard to put a fence in there So I'm going to go grab the excavator on The lower property and I'm going to Drive it up the hill and I'm going to uh Drive uh create a path one that I could Drive a vehicle up and two it'll be easy Two to uh run a fence line down instead Of going up and down Hills so it's going To be a little bit different today I'm Going to let the video run a little bit Longer when I'm actually uh uh grading The road and whatnot and just so you can See what that looks
Like I'm walking my excavator up the Hill got to get it to the pasture I got To clear out an area to put a fence line In So climbing about 300 FT elevation from The lower property to the upper Property it's kind of a pretty little Countryside on the way Up probably pay attention to where I'm Driving all right what we have here you Might be able to see them way off in the Distance my sheep are up on the pasture Up there that's all cleared off and That's actually on my neighbor's Property but we run the Sheep there and Down here on the same neighbor's Property it's been logged and it's just All this Scotch broom and blackberries Everywhere and we're going to fence this Off uh but uh and put the sheep in here Sheep and goats the goats are going to Just love this Blackberry the Sheep will Enjoy it too but the goats will love it But my job today is I'm using the Excavator I had run my excavator up the Old skid Road uh not a few months ago But it's overgrown and I didn't really Dig out everything I just kind of plowed Through to see if I could find the road And now we're going To uh I'm going to Blade this out and Get all the roots and the old stems out And get everything out of the way so we Could stretch a fence line straight down
This and then we're going to curve it Back around and up and we're going to Pick up a couple acres of pasture land Obviously it's not going to be pasture Right away it's going to be Scotch broom And blackberries but the goats are going To be loving this and then as they clear It out we'll get some more pasture grass In here so I've crawled all the way up To the old fence uh it's not very strong Right there cuz I did leave it as a gate That I can pull that open and drive Through probably going to Blade out or Bucket this out but I've come to the High side and I'm Hoping that I can just blade down and Make a smooth run down there we also Want to take the pumps and Rises out of The hill so that Uh we can string a fence through there And not going up and [Music] Down as you can imagine get having Access to a machine like this has been a Lifesaver when it comes to building Fences on this Hillside which is quite Steep and covered with blackberries uh Years ago when I didn't have access to This and we first buil these fenes I was Just coming down and cutting Trails Through the blackberries with uh with a Chainsaw and just rolling wire through There and my boys and I would fight to Roll a big roll of sheep and goat fence
Which is really heavy and it's getting Caught in the blackberries and rough and It it was terrible and but uh with this Machine I'm going to not only clear all The blackberries out you'll see the end Here how clean I can get the road but I'm not even going to bother to go up And down rise as of humps I'll take the Humps out and fill in low spots and Three to straight spots so we can pull a Much tighter [Music] Fence coming up the hill next to the Existing fence we're just BL uh using The bucket to uh scrape out all this Stuff and take out level off the dirt a Little bit and then I'm going to back up The machine up there and uh put the Blade down and drive back down the hill With the blade Down All right so once we got the excavator In position we're going to make our First pass just putting the blade down And driving down the hill scraping off Some humps and scraping off more Importantly Scot BR and blackberries to Get the road exposed where we want to [Music] Build this is a high spot in the road I Need to dig it out anyway and might as Well use this spot To get rid of all the crap that I pushed Down so I can get a nice good blade in
There [Music] Sh So the fencing I'm going to be putting In is a sheep and goat fence it's got 4 In by 4 in openings and it's about 4 ft Tall not only does it do a good job Keeping the sheep in and the goats in But it can keep some predators out uh Coyotes could jump over it but they Don't seem to want to they look for Holes underneath so if I keep the bottom Plugged up that seems to do a good job I Do have cats uh Predator cats cougars That have taken a goat before there's Nothing I can really do to stop them if That's going to happen unless I get a Livestock Guardian dog for a couple of Them uh an interesting story uh my next Door neighbor the land who the neighbor Whose property I'm clearing right now is A sniper on the local police force and Uh actually he just retired and he's Working s uh security for another Company and he comes home in the middle Of the night and quite often to help Check my animals he'll take his night Vision goggles out and uh bar binoculars Out and look to see what he can see and The other night he was watching the Sheep uh laying in in the barn that's in Front of his place and a bobcat jumped The fence and came walking and walked Right in between uh the Sheep uh that
Were in the barn and one of the Rams That was just sitting outside uh but uh The Bobcat is a pretty small cat and he Didn't want to try to mess with any of The sheep especially the ramp but uh There's definitely Predators Around I've been clearing a straight Line the width of the excavator uh on The right side of where I wored my path Me I have now moving over to the left Hand side I do want to be able to put The fence up in this cleared path and Have enough room to drive my pickup up And definitely a gator or a quad to be Able to get up here so I'm going to make A wider section [Music] Now You might well ask why I'm not going Around here cuz I'm tired of building Curvy fences I'm making a straight line There is a stump right here that I'm Going to have to get out uh it's rotted Enough it's going to come out Easy [Music] I think it's going to come out [Music] [Applause] [Music] Easy [Music] [Music] [Music]
[Music] [Music] Over here is where the original Road was With a curve and I brought it straight Down here so I can go straight line I Need to take a little bit more out right Here but I wanted to do my video now but Obviously I I could drive a pickup up This right now and this is a straight Run and this Is uh going to not have rise and Falls I Got to take out a few more humps and It'll be a lot easier to string a fence Line in Here than uh what I normally do on this Hill Side all right I made a couple more Finish passes this is really looking Good there'll be a corner post about Where I'm standing And then we got to create the line up There I'll have to ask Larry where he Wants the fence line up Here all right there you have it we've Uh graded out the road and ready to put The fence in next video will be uh Probably putting up the fence thanks for Joining me on the Flanigan Homestead Where Christmas trees are my business Teaching and cleaning Horticulture is my Job and outdoor projects are my passion Hope to see you again soon be blessed Everyone
