I was the original "poster" who asked this question, but was one of the great "erased". /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I ended up doing it the hard way, but it wasn't so bad because I didn't have miles of it. The fence line is about 800' long, split in the middle with additional bracing, with 4 strands of barb wire. We did half of it (400') at a time. We walked along and pulled all the staples at once. It was not strung very tightly, so we had no problems with whip action.
Then, I went back with heavy leather gloves, made a loop and starting coiling and walking. After about 200', the coil would be getting pretty big and heavy, so I cut it, wound the end around to keep it from uncoiling, and started over.
There were some places where the brush and grape vines had grown so thick we couldn't pull the wire, so I cut it again and started over on the other side. I didn't leave any lengths longer than a few inches, and I'm clearing the brush with my root rake, so it will all be gone. I ended up with about 24 coils of wire of various lengths, sore shoulders from holding the coils in front of me and winding, and surprisingly few cuts and scratches on my arms.
There are 75 spaces between the posts, and I got about 43 of them cleared yesterday. Sorry, no pictures - maybe I'll remember today when I work on the clearing - should take a couple of more days, as the 32 spaces I have left are among the toughest. I have a problem with pictures - when I get working, I'm almost like an automaton - I don't stop until I almost fall off the tractor, and then I'm too tired to take pictures, and usually so sweaty I couldn't hold the camera anyway.
I ended up doing it the hard way, but it wasn't so bad because I didn't have miles of it. The fence line is about 800' long, split in the middle with additional bracing, with 4 strands of barb wire. We did half of it (400') at a time. We walked along and pulled all the staples at once. It was not strung very tightly, so we had no problems with whip action.
Then, I went back with heavy leather gloves, made a loop and starting coiling and walking. After about 200', the coil would be getting pretty big and heavy, so I cut it, wound the end around to keep it from uncoiling, and started over.
There were some places where the brush and grape vines had grown so thick we couldn't pull the wire, so I cut it again and started over on the other side. I didn't leave any lengths longer than a few inches, and I'm clearing the brush with my root rake, so it will all be gone. I ended up with about 24 coils of wire of various lengths, sore shoulders from holding the coils in front of me and winding, and surprisingly few cuts and scratches on my arms.
There are 75 spaces between the posts, and I got about 43 of them cleared yesterday. Sorry, no pictures - maybe I'll remember today when I work on the clearing - should take a couple of more days, as the 32 spaces I have left are among the toughest. I have a problem with pictures - when I get working, I'm almost like an automaton - I don't stop until I almost fall off the tractor, and then I'm too tired to take pictures, and usually so sweaty I couldn't hold the camera anyway.
