Brush Fence

Some of our property is fenced, some of it isn’t. The garden and pastures are, but our woods aren’t. But the woods is where I take the goats to browse, and while they mostly stick close to me, they don’t recognize property lines and don’t mind invading the neighbors to see what they’ve got growing. 

We’ve talked about fencing the woods, but it would be a big job. It just never makes it close to the top of the to-do list. One reason for that is because we’ve had a lot of pine trees fall since we bought the place.

We used to think it was because of disease or insect problems, but finally figured out that what we were observing was natural succession. The land was farmed 80 or so years ago, and the pines sprung up when the land went fallow. They grew fast, tall, and spindly, so that by the time we arrived, they were ready to give way to hardwood saplings. We’re happy to see the hardwoods growing, but the fallen pines have made a real mess of the woods.