Here’s a little hack that we devised out of necessity! When we saw the dogs squeeze through the gates to the sheep and donkey area we knew that there had to be a fix. What better items than fencing and zip ties?!
Once the dogs are trained we may remove the extra barrier BUT with the coyotes and wild boars that roam our area… leaving these barriers may just help us in the future.

When we first looked to purchase our gates, we saw some that had a type of cattle panel welded to them (at least that’s what it looked like). We liked that idea but many of the welds on those brand new gates were already broken and the price was much higher for those – breaks and all! It didn’t take us long to decide against purchasing an item that was already breaking so we came home with our simple tubular gates.
Fast forward to Dixie having puppies and our decision to have some of those pups guard the sheep. Well, the second we moved them to the sheep/donkey area and let them run, they showed us why a farm gate with a wire panel on it makes sense! It took about 5 seconds for Lottie to sneak under the gate to the donkeys and I had to go in and keep everyone calm. Fortunately, Bonnie and Parker were fabulous about the intrusion and didn’t harm Lottie (we had no clue what their response would be) but that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen again without the good turnout. So, Mr. Bluejeans and I decided we needed a barrier.

Having plenty of rolled fencing on the farm, we decided to just cut the fencing to our desired size and zip tie! Much less expensive that welded panel gates and more versatile. We can remove the fencing if we ever want to but it’s working so well I don’t see the need to do that. Creating this fence guard was so simple! Watch the video to find out how quick and easy it was to upgrade our gates for better protection!
What’s your favorite Homestead Hack?

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