As you saw last week in my previous post Demolition Work is FUN! the main house is looking rather sad now that the one wall was torn down and the camper trailer was removed. Change is in the air and it is very exciting!
Now… What to do with an old camp trailer? Well, post it on FB marketplace of course! Within 3 hours I had well over 28 interested buyers (might have placed to low of a price on the darn thing, but I wanted it gone!). The following morning I was able to move the trailer off the property and pocket a few hundred dollars for my next project. The goal is to be in before the first snow fall (looking back this was over zealous of me! The new realistic deadline is April 2018). At the end of August I took a week off of work to setup the pasture and dry lot for my horse Johnny.
Living on a single income I wanted to be able to create a safe and sufficient living space for my horse for a reasonable price. A close friend gave me 20 T posts she no longer had use for and her boyfriend who owns some local orchards gave me about 30 deer posts which helped drastically in cutting down the cost of fencing. In the end I used the trailer money to buy a used man gate for the paddock, a large used gate for the pasture, 400 foot roll of horse safe fencing, two large wood posts for my pasture gate entrance, fencing hardware, T post caps, wire tensions for the corners of the paddock. This project could have easily cost over $1700 but I kept it under $600!
Before installing the posts in the ground they received a coat of roofing tar to reduce the potential of the posts bases rotting. After weed whacking the field, I dug the holes for the wood post with a hand held Seymour general purpose auger that I borrowed from a friend. I would definitely recommend this tool for those digging holes in soft soil (not ideal for rocky areas). With the assistance of a ladder I was able to support the corner H beams while I fastened them into place. I stretched the horse grade fencing on the inside of the paddock so that if Johnny leans against it he will not pop it off the wood posts.
I know my work is not perfect but I am pretty proud of how much I was able to do alone! Keep following my blog for next weeks post on Cabin Footings where we start to make the shell of a building a real home.
Homesteading With a View 
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