This is our big project year.
White four board fencing is beautiful, but not when all the posts are rotten and it's falling over into the grass - and this picture was taken after the kind neighbor staked up the parts that were literally at 45 degree angles to the ground and held up by ropes and support beams! When the former owner of the property installed this, he didn't anchor the posts in cement; they are buried in the dirt in a city that gets something like 250 days of rain a year! It's not going to last very long!
The whole fence on one side of our property and along the back is coming down and getting replaced with a six-foot tall privacy fence. We are so fortunate that our neighbor on that side is a contractor and is willing to build it and split the cost with us.
A privacy fence doesn't seem very homestead-y, but it solves a large number of problems for an urban or suburban homestead:
1. A privacy fence will be secure. Dogs won't be able to get on our property, livestock won't be able to get off. Racoons can climb and hawks can fly, but from what I've read, almost all livestock losses are due to free roaming dogs.
2. The neighbor's Jack Russell terrier (hopefully) won't bark at our livestock (and us, and our dog, and our hose) all day if he can't see us. He also (probably) won't be able or motivated to dig under a sturdy, well installed privacy fence.
3. On the flip side, our animals hopefully will not bark/cluck/quack/baa/bleat (or whatever) at the neighbors whenever they get home or come outside.
4. The sights, sounds, and smells of our homestead will be more obstructed from our neighbors. Of course we plan to keep a very well-managed, clean, and tidy mini farm, but it can only help to have a little extra privacy to ensure the neighbor's good will. If they want to come over and visit they can, but if they don't, they don't have to feel like they live next to a funny farm all the time.
5. I feel pretty weird about the neighbors watching me pick lettuce or feed quail in my pajamas in the morning while they're drinking their coffee and getting their kids off to school... so a little privacy will be nice for me and probably help limit the level of insanity they perceive over here.
6. When it comes time for unpleasant tasks (raking out deep litter in the poultry pens or slaughtering meat animals) or just ridiculous tasks (like chasing a loose quail around the yard in my bath robe), I won't have an audience and the neighbors won't have to see anything they don't want to see.
So should every suburban homestead build a privacy fence right from the get-go? No - I wouldn't say that, unless that is fully within your budget and would make you feel more comfortable with your farming venture. But if the opportunity to build a new fence arises, give a tall, solid fence careful thought, it may be worth the money and effort.
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| (you might be an urban farmer if you look at this picture and don't see "weeds" - you see "forage," i.e goat food!) |
A privacy fence doesn't seem very homestead-y, but it solves a large number of problems for an urban or suburban homestead:
1. A privacy fence will be secure. Dogs won't be able to get on our property, livestock won't be able to get off. Racoons can climb and hawks can fly, but from what I've read, almost all livestock losses are due to free roaming dogs.
2. The neighbor's Jack Russell terrier (hopefully) won't bark at our livestock (and us, and our dog, and our hose) all day if he can't see us. He also (probably) won't be able or motivated to dig under a sturdy, well installed privacy fence.
3. On the flip side, our animals hopefully will not bark/cluck/quack/baa/bleat (or whatever) at the neighbors whenever they get home or come outside.
4. The sights, sounds, and smells of our homestead will be more obstructed from our neighbors. Of course we plan to keep a very well-managed, clean, and tidy mini farm, but it can only help to have a little extra privacy to ensure the neighbor's good will. If they want to come over and visit they can, but if they don't, they don't have to feel like they live next to a funny farm all the time.
5. I feel pretty weird about the neighbors watching me pick lettuce or feed quail in my pajamas in the morning while they're drinking their coffee and getting their kids off to school... so a little privacy will be nice for me and probably help limit the level of insanity they perceive over here.
6. When it comes time for unpleasant tasks (raking out deep litter in the poultry pens or slaughtering meat animals) or just ridiculous tasks (like chasing a loose quail around the yard in my bath robe), I won't have an audience and the neighbors won't have to see anything they don't want to see.
So should every suburban homestead build a privacy fence right from the get-go? No - I wouldn't say that, unless that is fully within your budget and would make you feel more comfortable with your farming venture. But if the opportunity to build a new fence arises, give a tall, solid fence careful thought, it may be worth the money and effort.
