Hi I’m Mike, and I am pleased to announce the return of the project list.
Today we bring it back for our spring round of to-dos with a special two parter as we
tackle a problem that started last year, we put a band-aide on it then but today we are
going to hang a new 12 foot gate, and recycle some used pipe from right here on the ranch
to build about 30 feet of fence and fix it for good.
It’s todays project list on our Wyoming life.
Welcome back to the project lists, if this your first time here let me catch you up.
The project list started long before Youtube.
It began as a way to keep the multitude of projects that seem to pile up around here
in some sort of order.
Each and everytime you notice something that needs done, you write it on the list and as
we have time we get things done and cross them off.
Problem is, for each thing you cross off, it seem that at least two things get added.
It works out great when we have a hand around here, anytime anybody needs something to do,
its always right there all you have to do is look.
Over the years hundreds of projects have been added and crossed off but now that we are
coming out of winter and into spring on the ranch, its time to get after it and take advantage
of some nice weather before other things pull us away, like calving and haying which will
be here before you know it.
Today we are taking a project off the list that has been there for over a year, it originated
when a fence was tore down by cows in the corral.
Because the corral is not an area that is constantly occupied by cattle we fixed it
by putting up a few panels as a safe guard against any cattle getting out again.
Since that time, as often does, things came up.
We used that corral to hold all the calves after we decided not to sell at our normal
time last year and wouldn’t you know it, that corral saw more use in the last few months
of last year than it has in the past ten years as its usually just a holding pen for a few
cows.
The calves left in January but with weather, frozen soil and frigid temperatures, it wasn’t
the time to try to replace the fence.
Now though, the temperature is rising, Longer days are bringing better weather and the frost
is in the process of coming out of the ground.
Some projects, the window to get them done is slim and this is just one of the those
projects.
If we had to bring in a cow while the fence was down we would be in trouble, so we need
to get this one done rather quickly.
With our temporary panels down and out of the way, we have to come up with a plan.
This fence never did have a gate on this side of the corral, but more gates are really not
a bad thing, and being able to clean the corrals and take manure directly to compost piles,
rather than driving all the way around would be nice, so a gate it is.
First we have to remove some extra fence that didn’t get taken out when the great escape
took place.
There we go, the fence is no longer an issue and with the tweels on the bobcat, neither
are the nails from it as we can get everything piled up and out of the way.
The big tractor lends a hand in moving back some of that manure we were talking about,
most of which is already mixing with bedding, straw and hay.
The beginning stages of compost.
Once our work area is a bit cleaner, then we can start looking at where and how to hang
our gate.
The gate we are choosing to use in this application is a 12 foot gate from Verns manufacturing,
in Wessington South Dakota.
They have been designing and manufacturing everything from panels, to calving equipment
, to feeders and even entire corral systems since 1964 and this is their heavy duty 12
foot gate.
Cost is about 180 dollars from our local feed store and one thing I like about their gates
is that you can install them by yourself.
If you farm or ranch, you find yourself working alone a lot.
I’m not sure if that’s because we are hard to work with, but to be honest, being
used to working by yourself does make it harder when you have help.
And sometimes when you do, you wish you didn’t.
The folks at Verns know how that goes and their gate is equipped with hinges already
attached.
All you have to do is drill through your post, but first you want to measure and make sure
everything is going to fit.
You have a 12 inch threaded piece to fit through your post, and like here, anything in the
way will cause you problems, especially with larger posts.
Once we clear the way, we are good to go.
I like to drill a hole that is a little too big, this is a 7/8 inch auger style drill
bit.
You can use a spade bit, but that will require that you keep cleaning out your hole.
An auger bit is continueally pushing material out and makes a long drill like this one much
much easier.
After measuring where you want the bottom of your gate to be, I want mine at least a
foot off the ground due to snow.
We can drill the hole through the post.
We try to stay level, but its ok if its not perfect.
Verns knows you are out here alone, they make it pretty easy on you.
The top hole we measure out and with the verns gate you have quite a bit of lee way.
We want it to fall on one of these boards so we go for about a 36 inch spacing.
We also use a level to make sure that the gate is as vertical as possible.
Another hole through the post and we are ready to go.
I like to use the bobcat for holding the gate while we install it.
This gate weighs about 100lbs and can be a bit cumbersome to move around but the bobcat
can hold it for us where we need it, or at least close too.
Because we drill our holes a bit bigger than needed our threads slip right through.
The bottom thread first, which we then tighten all the way down until it is tight.
The top thread is an adjustment thread.
Once this one is in place, and it may take a bit of engineering to hold it in place when
it is.
You put on the nut and tighten it until you get a level gate.
And there we go, we have a gate.
Next up is fence, but that is for next time.
When we go and recycle a bunch of pipe that we have from old wells that were dismanteled
on the ranch.
Thant pipe will find a second life as probably the stoutest fence on the ranch as we weld
it together and eventually install it in place.
But that’s not until next week, right here on the project list.
If you would like to find any of the tools and items used in todays project list video
you can check the description and head on over to our affiliate store on Amazon or go
to amazon.com/shop/ourwyominglife I hope you can subscribe, and come along with
us, explore the ranch life and escape your ordinary.
Until I see you again, have a great week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life.