Pink Fox: its Raining...IN MY HOUSE! :/

[Wannabefree]

Good morning Pinky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I miss them already Hopefully they'll be back before September

I'm glad you have your bed back though Good sleep and less back pain is always GOOD!

 

[pinkfox]

well the sellers counter offered a little higher than dad wanted to go so now there trying to decide if they counter atthe midway point between thier origional and the counter or if they come back at the sellers offer but ask for closing, however looks like the seller is more than ok to work with the "find a job" contingency...so its now up to them to decide what the next step is. i think dad will go up to the sellers current counter offer if there willing to help on the closing costs...so we'll see what happens there.
they also safely got to the far side of knoxville before taking a rest stop, got another 5 1/2 hours to go before they hit their overnight stop.
they took BOTH kittens home with them (mum decided she couldnt split them up) and one rewarded her by throwing up in the carrier LOL so the rest stop was a little longer than origionally plans so she could clean out the carrier. stress (and they JUST had their vaccines)...i told mum not to feed them at bedtime last night live and learn i guess lol.

as for me...im being super lazy...not feeling too hot, think the lack of a real good nihgs sleep and the stress (loved having them here but like anything else its nice to have my house back) has run me down a little so lazy day it is...lol. the nap didnt help much either.
I did run the numbers and dspite the higher sales tax its still cheaper for me to buymy fencing needs in TN...savannah works out the cheapest option too because its a few miles closer than the tsc in jackson and gas is about 1o cents cheaper in that area right now than it is in jackson...
SO...im thinking it might be worth a trip that way tomorrow, i can also stop at the crump flea market and take a wander round there on my way home too. not that i can actually afford anything if i take on this fencing project...but expanding the goat pasture is definatly the most important thing on my list right now so i think thats the plan for tomorrow/this weekend (buy and put up that fence, with what ive got right now they will go from a 14x14 area to a 40x40 area, and then hopefully next month i can add another 100ft and so on and so forth.
dad kept telling me to add a sheep too, but im not much of a lamb eater and not set up for shearing yet (i want shetlands or southdown babydolls eventually)...i think between the 2 girls if i add onto the pen 100ft at a time they should be able to get it graxed down quite comfortably since its mostly weed right now rather than grass and im sure theyll nibble on the weeds)
i think adding more "large" livestock right now would be silly.

 

[pinkfox]

well lazyness continued...
and it lead to research and pricing...
and what ive discorvered is i can make a MUCH larger pen out of electric fencing for about the same cost as a 100ft roll of welded wire fencing.

so right now im looking further into it.

the plan would be, to take the 50ft of welded that i currently have as the goat pen and place that a few feet inside of my sde of the property perimeter line between me and the neighbor, itshould be enough to take me from my current rabbit area fence all the way down to where the brush line starts getting heavier.

then ive got a few options in terms of the electric fence. the current thought goes along the lines of
option 1: run 1 strand of electric fencing about 18" off the ground on the OUTSIDE of the current welded wire fence between me and the neighbor. that height should be high enough that i can keep it clear without too much issue, but low enough to give the neighbors dog a good zap if he ever tried the fence. (and should keep out the majority of predators too)

option 2 would be to NOT electrify the outer fence and hope that 4ft welded would be enough to make him think twice. (in this situation id eventually plant something like multiflora rose along the outside of the fence line and let it go semi wild. (i kinda of like this option better as id then have rose hips to pick too and it would be a pretty visual screen form the neighbors yard as well.

from there i would then fence pretty much the eniter back pasture with 4 or 5 strand electric. i should be able to voer most of that back pasture for about the same price 1 roll of wire and some t-posts would cost to cover a 40x40 area (about 1/4 of an acre vs .08 of an acre)

Once i start planting the orchard then i can simply rewire the fence so the goats cant get to the orchard...something that would be easily done with poly wire or high tensile.

so now ive got to do some shopping around, see what i an do with this (because of course theres the grounding rods to buy ect. TSC has 4 meters (1300aprox ft) of poly rope for $30 and a 5 mile low impedance for $50, grounding rods though ate $20 a peice and then id need some posts for securing the fence obviously and a couple of gate handles/kits.
and of course theres the inuslated wire i need to get from the energizer to the grounding rods and the actual fence since the fence is a distance from the power source...

from what im reading the energier shouldnt cost me all that much to run and a 5mile energizer will be big enough now but also big enough later as i add electric to perimeter and make cross fencing out of it...

butim thinking this might be a much better long term option, cheaper overall and if i do it right i should be able to set it up so eventually the birds (chickens guinnea ect) can get under the fences to free range various areas, but the goats and such cant get out.
ahh the joys of planing LOL.

 

[pinkfox]

well it looks like electric it is.
a frined of a friend has a charger that i aparently can have untill i can afford my own...which saves me about $50 this month! (otherwise the project would have been just too expensive this month)

so im putting my shopping list together and will hopefully have an electric fence up before next weekend
Im sure the goaty girls will beboth extreemly happy and extreemly upset when they get their first zap LOL.

Going to wander around where i think i want the fence tomorrow. will have to measure out as best possible (dont have enoug strong to mark theperimiter of the space i want lol and my tape measure is only 12ft long.
then ill go around what will be the perimeter with my little electric weed wacker and my pruning sheres and clear a 3ft path all the way around so its ready to go.
will hopefully have confirmation on the charger before sunday so i can go get posts and wire on sunday.

i also should have a bunny heading home tomorrow its only $10 (repeat buyer) but thats $10 i didnt have before that can go into the fence project.

*excited!*

 

[Wannabefree]

Cool Pinky! Yeah electric is cheaper than most anything else to put up, but won't the power bill go up and cancel that out over the long term? Unless you do a solar charger.. just thinking out loud

 

[pinkfox]

the one ive been looking at CLAIMS it costs about a penny a day to run for a 5 mile charger (assuming your keeping the bottom line clear so its not continually grounded which makes the usage increase a little)
i can handle a couple bucks a month extra even over the long run...(as long as it works lol)
i was doing the math, itll cost about $150 to expand the current goat area so it would cover and aproximatly 40ftx40ft area
for that same $150 i can cover about 1/2 acre plot in 4 strand electric (including the charger)


it would take about 20 years for the price of running the electric fence 24/7 to catch up with the cost of fencing and fully cross fencing 4 1/2 acres with welded LOL.

Eventually my perimieter will be feild fence with a strand or 2 of electric so that will put the eventual price up some, but if i can do all the cross fencing in electric, especially right now while im still not entirely sure where perminent paddocks are going to live for which animals...

todays plan is fairly simple. should have someone comming to pick up a bunny this afternoon...had another email interested in taing a bunny or 2 (that might end up being all the girls from rowans litter then) and that should just leave me with the little male pointed baby from this litter.
going to also try and get the perimeter of where i want the fence marked up (plant a couple of sticks in the corners lol) and see where i need to do some brush/grass control to get the fence safely through with no grounding.

hopefully then tomorrow i can go get "the parts" which involves a trip to savannah, which means a stop in crump on the way home to take a little wander around the flea market. (one way or another im comming home with fresh watermellon tomorrow...been some major cravings going on lol.)

 

[Denim Deb]

I love my solar charger. It doesn't add anything to the electric bill, and was about the same price as an electric charger. As long as we don't get a long period of cloudy days, I don't have to worry about power outages. And it definitely is powerful enough! I have gotten zapped by it a few times. :/

 

[SSDreamin]

I'm with Deb. I like our solar charger too. Since you have to save up for one eventually, I would save up for the solar. For now, at a few pennies a day, ya can't beat a loaned electric one though

 

[pinkfox]

i was thinking of putting a solar trickle charger on a back up battery if going AC so i woudlnt have to worry about outages, but if a solar is strong enough (and lord knows we definatly get sun LOL) for goats then id happily put in solar...
I was just worried about solar going down, i know goats (and eventually pigs) will frequently test electric fence...i also do worry about the weeds shorting out the fence, they seem to grow rather fast lol.

What brand solar do you guys have?

 

[pinkfox]

well...fence prep starts and im considering having someone come in to brush hog the perimeter of where i want the goat feild LOL, it took me almost 2 hours to whack a 3ft wide path of a total length of about 150ft, and ive got another 510ft left to go LOL...by the time i finnish ill have to start all over cause itll have all grown back again LOL.
i dont have a lawnmower and the neighbors mower is dead...so cindi if you have or know of someone with a heavy duty mower or small brush hog that would like to make a little cash...i dont need the feild hogged, just a 3 ft wide path around the perimeter of about 1/2 an acre, and its mostly grass/weed/wildflower.
WHEW its hot out.

Sent a bunny home today *woot* lady bought one last week and decided she wanted another one...so that leaves me with 3 of rowans babbits left.

so i put my little electric weed wacker on charge and am ust sitting with a cold drink for a little while
think im going to send out a few enquiries to see about getting this perimeter mowed down, and scour craigslist for free patio furniture lol.