Fencing the Painted Pony Ranch

The period since the acquisition of an additional 216 acres expanding the Painted Pony has been filled with work.  Closing the roads on the property, cleaning trash and other materials off the landscape, securing the building, and locating property boundaries has filled the majority of time.  The most ambitious project though is installing fencing around the property.  Existing fence is located on the north side where the property abuts State land and a section of fence on the east side where the property adjoins another parcel of private land.  The remaining 1.5 miles though is unfenced.  New Mexico like many other western states is a "fence out" state, meaning it is the responsibility of the landowner to erect a legal fence to keep animals from trespassing.  Although it is illegal for an owner of animals to allow animals to trespass a fence must be in place  (77-14-3).  A 4 wire fence (3 barbed and one smooth) with post spacing of twenty feet and 2 fence stays was chosen to blend with other fences in the area.  Two gates are planned, one at the entrance to the easement at the north end of the property and a second gate at the driveway.  A survey of material suppliers revealed that shipping charges for T-posts and wire was expensive so materials were purchased locally from the Valley Mercantile.

The most challenging task in fence construction is driving T-posts.  Hand driving 6 ft T-posts a foot and a half into the ground is slow laborious work.  To make this aspect of the job easier the owner purchased a hydraulic hammer that attaches to the hydraulic system on the Kabota.  Using a hydraulic driver makes post installation much quicker and significantly reduces the time required to install T-posts.

Much of the property line is across fairly level ground but 0.5 miles crosses a number of arroyos with depths up to 20 feet.  These areas will be challenging since pulling the bottom wire to locate the line for T-posts leaves the line stretched in the air across the tops of the  arroyos.  The plan is to establish posts at the edges of each arroyo, fence the level ground in between then fence down one side and up the other of each arroyo.

It should be an interesting couple of weeks installing this fence but the project is off to a good start. 

Shooting fence lines at the Painted Pony

Find of the Day

The Painted Pony Resort is bounded on the north and east by New Mexico State land and with state land also comes grazing leases and cattle.  New Mexico is a "fence out" state and requires land owners to protect their property with fences, see Article 16. Fences.  The rational for "fence out" as opposed to the English common law approach of "fence in" may be found at this link.  To ensure cattle stay off the property requires fence, gate, and cattle guard maintenance on an regular basis.   An afternoon of walking fence line between the east side of the San Simon Riverbed across the Painted Pony Resort to Amigos del Cielo air park checking for downed and broken fence resulted in the following surface find.  A nice 2 inch stemmed projectile point of a fine grained black material.  Eroded out of the ground it was not found in association with other materials making dating difficult.

Stemmed projectile point

Only 2 areas of weak/partially downed fence line were discovered on the adjacent land to the east.  Cattle had pushed down the fence line and crossed from State land onto private property to the south.  All the fence line surrounding the Painted Pony Resort was in good condition but cattle have been congregating outside the gate on several occasions seeking access.  Adding cable wings to the gate and cattle guard along with several hundred feet of fence line on the other side of the road (to take advantage of cattle propensity to walk fence line) deflects them back south and away from the entrance to the property.  The combination seems to have worked and the gate can remain open for guests and deliveries.