Fences
13/11/25 03:09
My uncle was a three-crop farmer. His main crop was hard red winter wheat. On the side, he would occasionally plant a field of barley or oats. His farm was on bench land above the Missouri River in Montana. The region was mainly strip-farmed in the days when he was an active farmer. The fields were divided into strips. Every other strip was planted each autumn, with the alternating strips left fallow. They used tillage equipment pulled behind a tractor to clear the weeds from the fallow fields. The purpose of the fallow fields was to store soil moisture, allowing the seeds to sprout when planted. In the spring, broadleaf herbicides were applied to growing wheat to control weeds. When I worked for my uncle, my main job was to drive the tractor around the fallow sections of the field, pulling a duckfoot cultivator, gently turning the top layer of the soil, and displacing weeds. Then, when harvest came, I generally drove a truck in the field.
Working for my cousin, the son of my farmer uncle, was different. He farmed wheat like his father, but he also raised cattle. Later in his career, he diversified his farm further, eventually having the entire farm certified organic. He grew a wide rotation of crops, including lentils, and experimented with bison and beefalo. He set aside a large section of his farm for the conservation reserve program. Those changes, however, came after I had grown and no longer worked on the farm as my summer job. When I worked for my cousin, I did a bit of summer fallow work, but I also did a lot of building and repairing fences. Adding cattle to a farm operation means you need good fences. The fences were all on my cousin’s land, and there were no shared fences with neighbors. It was clear whose responsibility it was to build and maintain the fences.
For many years, I didn’t think about fences at all. Then, when our children were 2 and 4 years old, we purchased a home in Boise, Idaho, with a major irrigation canal running right behind our property. The house had a 4 ft. chain-link fence along the ditch, with a six ft. wooden fence on one side between the neighbor and another four ft. chain-link fence on the other side, shared with that neighbor. Our front yards were not fenced. As soon as I could, I replaced all the chain-link fence with a new 6-foot cedar fence. I had one conversation with the neighbor, during which we discussed the chain-link fence, and I paid the full cost of installing the new fence. I maintained the new fence, except for leaving the staining of the neighbor’s side to that neighbor. We never had another conversation about that fence.
Afterward, we lived for 25 years in a home in a subdivision with no fences between neighbors. It was rocky country, and I didn’t miss digging holes for fence posts.
Now we have moved into a neighborhood where all of the back yards are fenced with shared fences. That means that I have three different neighbors with shared fences between us. With two of the neighbors, the finished side of the fence faces my yard, so I assume I am responsible for maintaining those fences. I have replaced several boards that rotted at the bottom and kept my side of the fence stained. The other neighbor, to the north of our house, has the finished side of the fence facing his house. However, this particular neighbor is not really big on maintenance. For example, a row of arborvitae planted on his side of the fence has been dead for the four years we have lived in the house. None of the dead and dried trees has been removed. They are just gray trunks and branches, standing 6 to 8 feet above the fence. I’ve never had a conversation with the neighbor about those dead trees. I suppose I might offer to cut them down, since I have chainsaws, and the job wouldn’t be that great. I’ve joked with my family about spray-painting them green to improve the view from our deck, but I just haven’t found the right moment to discuss it with the neighbor.
That neighbor isn’t much for fence maintenance, either. The fence used to have a gate, but it has been nailed shut from the neighbor’s side. There is an eight-foot section where all of the fence boards are so rotted that they are no longer attached to the bottom rail and are hanging by just a couple of nails from the top rail. The bottom rail is also rotten and falling apart. Since the posts seem stable, I installed a new bottom rail a bit higher than the original and attached fence boards on our side of the fence to maintain the fence’s integrity. It is an unusual look, new boards on my side of the fence, rotten ones on the neighbor’s side.
The saying is “Good fences make good neighbors”. I’m not sure that the contrary is true. Band fences don’t necessarily make bad neighbors, but they may contribute to disputes. I have no intention of starting an argument over a fence. I don’t mind the expense of maintaining the fence. I’d even replace a post if needed. The truth is that when a fence is located on the boundary between neighbors, it isn’t clear who owns the fence. It assumes a shared ownership status. Most of the time, it is easy to coordinate with neighbors for fence maintenance. Sometimes it can be a challenge.
Furthermore, our son and his family have a farm down the road where they keep a few cows, so I get enough fence maintenance to keep me busy. In addition to the wire fence around their pastures, they have the entire perimeter of the areas where the cows feed surrounded by an electric fence. The electric fence is simple to maintain, but I’ve forgotten to turn it off a couple of times and gotten a mild shock.
Fences work for cows. When they first got the place, they allowed a neighbor to pasture sheep for a few weeks, and it was a constant battle. The sheep were too short to reach the electric fence, and they found every hole in the wire fence. Barb wire didn’t work. They found ways to get between the strands. Sheep panels kept them in some areas, but they are expensive. After a while of constant sheepherding and fence repairs, the sheep returned home. There have been no sheep since.
And fences don’t restrain honey bees. My bees choose their own areas of operation and don’t acknowledge property boundaries. There are lots of other creatures, including geese, ducks, eagles, herons, fish, and sea mammals, who don’t observe human boundaries. More than a fence along the 49th parallel, which marks the boundary between the US and Canada, we need to learn to get along with our neighbors. And that is something that can’t be done with more fences and helicopter patrols.
Working for my cousin, the son of my farmer uncle, was different. He farmed wheat like his father, but he also raised cattle. Later in his career, he diversified his farm further, eventually having the entire farm certified organic. He grew a wide rotation of crops, including lentils, and experimented with bison and beefalo. He set aside a large section of his farm for the conservation reserve program. Those changes, however, came after I had grown and no longer worked on the farm as my summer job. When I worked for my cousin, I did a bit of summer fallow work, but I also did a lot of building and repairing fences. Adding cattle to a farm operation means you need good fences. The fences were all on my cousin’s land, and there were no shared fences with neighbors. It was clear whose responsibility it was to build and maintain the fences.
For many years, I didn’t think about fences at all. Then, when our children were 2 and 4 years old, we purchased a home in Boise, Idaho, with a major irrigation canal running right behind our property. The house had a 4 ft. chain-link fence along the ditch, with a six ft. wooden fence on one side between the neighbor and another four ft. chain-link fence on the other side, shared with that neighbor. Our front yards were not fenced. As soon as I could, I replaced all the chain-link fence with a new 6-foot cedar fence. I had one conversation with the neighbor, during which we discussed the chain-link fence, and I paid the full cost of installing the new fence. I maintained the new fence, except for leaving the staining of the neighbor’s side to that neighbor. We never had another conversation about that fence.
Afterward, we lived for 25 years in a home in a subdivision with no fences between neighbors. It was rocky country, and I didn’t miss digging holes for fence posts.
Now we have moved into a neighborhood where all of the back yards are fenced with shared fences. That means that I have three different neighbors with shared fences between us. With two of the neighbors, the finished side of the fence faces my yard, so I assume I am responsible for maintaining those fences. I have replaced several boards that rotted at the bottom and kept my side of the fence stained. The other neighbor, to the north of our house, has the finished side of the fence facing his house. However, this particular neighbor is not really big on maintenance. For example, a row of arborvitae planted on his side of the fence has been dead for the four years we have lived in the house. None of the dead and dried trees has been removed. They are just gray trunks and branches, standing 6 to 8 feet above the fence. I’ve never had a conversation with the neighbor about those dead trees. I suppose I might offer to cut them down, since I have chainsaws, and the job wouldn’t be that great. I’ve joked with my family about spray-painting them green to improve the view from our deck, but I just haven’t found the right moment to discuss it with the neighbor.
That neighbor isn’t much for fence maintenance, either. The fence used to have a gate, but it has been nailed shut from the neighbor’s side. There is an eight-foot section where all of the fence boards are so rotted that they are no longer attached to the bottom rail and are hanging by just a couple of nails from the top rail. The bottom rail is also rotten and falling apart. Since the posts seem stable, I installed a new bottom rail a bit higher than the original and attached fence boards on our side of the fence to maintain the fence’s integrity. It is an unusual look, new boards on my side of the fence, rotten ones on the neighbor’s side.
The saying is “Good fences make good neighbors”. I’m not sure that the contrary is true. Band fences don’t necessarily make bad neighbors, but they may contribute to disputes. I have no intention of starting an argument over a fence. I don’t mind the expense of maintaining the fence. I’d even replace a post if needed. The truth is that when a fence is located on the boundary between neighbors, it isn’t clear who owns the fence. It assumes a shared ownership status. Most of the time, it is easy to coordinate with neighbors for fence maintenance. Sometimes it can be a challenge.
Furthermore, our son and his family have a farm down the road where they keep a few cows, so I get enough fence maintenance to keep me busy. In addition to the wire fence around their pastures, they have the entire perimeter of the areas where the cows feed surrounded by an electric fence. The electric fence is simple to maintain, but I’ve forgotten to turn it off a couple of times and gotten a mild shock.
Fences work for cows. When they first got the place, they allowed a neighbor to pasture sheep for a few weeks, and it was a constant battle. The sheep were too short to reach the electric fence, and they found every hole in the wire fence. Barb wire didn’t work. They found ways to get between the strands. Sheep panels kept them in some areas, but they are expensive. After a while of constant sheepherding and fence repairs, the sheep returned home. There have been no sheep since.
And fences don’t restrain honey bees. My bees choose their own areas of operation and don’t acknowledge property boundaries. There are lots of other creatures, including geese, ducks, eagles, herons, fish, and sea mammals, who don’t observe human boundaries. More than a fence along the 49th parallel, which marks the boundary between the US and Canada, we need to learn to get along with our neighbors. And that is something that can’t be done with more fences and helicopter patrols.
