The Orchard – Fall 2015 – Pecan Tree Fencing

After getting some more permanent fencing around our main orchard area, it was time to starting putting up some around our pecan trees. The hand-pulled method has worked ok, but sometimes the goats still get in them, and recently one of our pecan trees was completely barked by a goat from top to bottom. Bummer.

For this new fencing, I decided for expediency to just use t-post corners, even though they didn’t work well on long fence lines, figuring these were going to have much less pull on them.

Here is one pecan tree before starting, with just the hand-pulled fencing around it:

After putting in t-posts, it was necessary to sometimes twist them to align better with a fence line or otherwise, so a pipe wrench works great for that:

Here is one corner done. After facing the corner t-posts outward on a couple of the other pecan areas, I realized the corner bracket pieces are designed to work more properly facing the t-posts inward:

Here is another corner done:

And all t-posts in place:

Then, it was time to pull the fencing. I decided to pull two directions: one out away from the goat field fence, around the corner, and then perpendicular to the field fencing; and then the other, to close off the last side away from the field fence. Going around the one corner worked ok if I tightened tension on the fencing a little at a time and moved the fencing around the corner after each time of tightening:

As before, the truck is used to help pull the fencing:

And here it is pulling:

And here is all the fencing complete!

Lastly, I put down about an 8 inch layer of mulch:

We are grateful to the Lord for granting the growth of the pecan trees, even some from the roots (this one pictured I believe was one of those), and for Him granting provision to be able to continue work on the homestead!

— David