The art of laying fence

I was stolen away from the garden today to help Jim install gates and string up fencing. The plan; to drill in and set two new gates to connect pastures and mend the electrical fencing back to the main line. Meaning...all sorts of learning since I know almost nothing about fencing. Mostly listening to Jim, who's an excellent teacher and funny storyteller. Tall and lean like a slinky with a long beard and grin from ear to ear. Cowboy hat and suspenders, he looks like the Gandalf wizard of farming or something. He could be a character straight out of a cartoon!

Much twisting, twining, turning, cranking, wrenching, and hammering later we installed the first gate and rigged up all the wiring amongst all sorts of yarns and stories. Between the blisters on my palm manhandling the wire and how filthy my nails look digging all day my hands are looking pretty darn gnarly. Learning some serious craft, the art of fencing...