When I was growing up in central New York, the house we lived in was located on a corner lot. My mother had a real case about the kids cutting the corner off and riding their bikes across the corner of the yard. So, she planted a hedge of Spirea on the frontage sides. It grew up to be about 5' high and 4' thick. It was beautiful in the late spring when it flowered with its little white flowers. It looked like a snowbank around the edge of the yard. It must have also interfered with the visibility of drivers coming to the corner because one night somebody wrapped a chain around the five bushes in the corner and tore them out. My mother found them dragged three blocks away. She promptly brought them back and replanted them. But the hedge was a lot of work. It needed to be trimmed and occasionally severely cut back. And it bothered the drivers. So finally she dug it all up and called Acme Fence or someone like that to come and install a chain link fence 4' high all around the property. That was the end of the matter and it worked really well and is still there to this day.
Well, out here they have fences as well, and they're not just to keep kids with bikes under control. As I've mentioned before, most of the folks in this rural community keep a horse or two. A lot of them also raise dogs, but that's another story. In the wider area, there are horse and cattle ranches of really immense proportions. Think thousands of acres. And they all need fences. Most places have a fence made up of T-posts driven into the ground and strung with barbed wire. But commonly there are some really strong fences made of steel poles, welded together in a solid piece. They look like this:
That is just a short section at the entrance to a driveway but we once saw one built like this only with four crossbars and vertical post every 8' running along Rt. 89 south of Prescott. It ran straight and true and all painted white for over four miles without a break. Here's one made from 2" square galvanized tubing:
These fences are not prefabricated, they're built on site from pile pipe with a portable welding and cutting rig.
Of course, all fences need gates. The standard entry around here is made from large diameter steel tubing and stands 12'-14' tall.
As you can see, they're often decorated with words or pictures cut from steel sheet. Because the humidity is so low most of the time, rusting is minimal.
If you look carefully, you'll see Curley exploring in the background. And there's more:
The place across the street has dogs that raise quite a ruckus, but he also has this horse who's nice and quiet.
Up on the corner this guy points the way to Blue Ridge Ranch.
This is quite the sculpture. The body is an old muffler. The arms are exhaust tubing. The rope and his gun are re-rod. The face is an old shovel with cut nails for the whiskers, his eyes are lock washers and his hat is an iron pail lid. Even scrub brushes for sideburns.
Pretty clever and one of the best constructions I've seen. The cut sheet horses and javelinas and other animals are available for sale. I've seen them at shops in West Sedona. But some of this stuff are certainly one-off inspirations.
I went to fill up with water this morning. I was fourth in line.
We have a 300 gallon tank loaded in the back of the pick-up and I have to fill it up about once a week. I have to drive about 8 miles into Dewey to a public water fill. If there's nobody there it takes about ten minutes from the time I pull in to when I pull away. There's no valve or counter, just a slot drop a quarter. Drop the coin and the water comes out the hose. Keep it up until you're done.
My cousin leaves NY to start back today so I'm starting to unload our stuff from the house back into the motor home. It'll be at least the weekend after Labor Day before we get going. I'm trying to map out possible routes back. We're coming back the Northern way through South Dakota so we can stop at Mount Rushmore and whatever else turns up.
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