There are 2 projects here & neither are to do with sword fighting in open spaces - or dealing with stolen fields !
The first & most urgent project is to recycle some heavy duty wire fencing which is rolled up in the field. It was pulled down last year when the "work men" came to prepare one of the original Loch Lomond paddocks where 3 of the families live together.
Unfortunately, although they built the fence OK, the rolls of wire they used to run round the inside of the fence were not as "industrial" strength as the wire that was there before. The old fence had to come down as it was falling over, but the wire it was made with was tough stuff.
A year on, & Bessie's gang & the other Loch Lomond Pigs have found that if they push their snouts between the squares of the new wire & push hard, the wire will eventually break & they can get through !
Fortunately only a few hard core escape artists do this regularly, but this evening a rather larger hole has been made & about 15 of them were running amok in the field ! - They all went back after a sack of loaves were put into their field and the new hole was patched with a sheep hurdle, fixed into place with trusty bailer string.
They cannot push through a sheep hurdle, but to line the whole paddock with sheep hurdles would cost many hundreds of pounds
Instead what we would like to do is to unravel the old wire, & prise it off the old fencing stakes, some of which can be recycled themselves, and then run the much stronger wire round the inside of the paddock to make a much stronger fence.
What do I have to do?
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to remove the "U" nails that are securing the old wire to the fence posts - some sort of small pointed crowbar & a claw hammer & pliers would be ideal for the job. There may be a tool designed for this sort of job, but we don't have one !
The 2nd fencing project will utilise the posts rescued in the above project and be used to repair the horse fencing in the main paddocks which were given a bit of a mullering last Summer ! - Some costs are inevitable here as further posts & rails will be required - approximately £3-400 worth is the estimate.
If you want to volunteer for these projects a reasonable level of DIY is required, plus access to the kind of tools mentioned !
Field Fencing Project
This page was last updated on: July 6, 2009
If you would like to help financially with this project, you can make a donation on line with this button, or to avoid Paypal charges, you can send a cheque to the Sanctuary, details HERE
If you are looking to help physically with this project, please get in touch via the e mail below.
