When I moved to this new property, some hunters were using the back woods for deer, turkey and other wild game hunting. But I told them they needed to stop as ownership changed and we would be hunting it now. Well it would seem some other hunters did not get the memo and we have found signs of horses walking down my back roads.
In this remote area it would go unnoticed besides the prints their horses leave behind. And we have also found shell casings out there that are not ours. So our solution to this is to put up a gate we keep locked to keep unwanted poachers or people in general wandering off our land. When I bought this property our goal was to have our own place to hunt with so many acres. And having uninvited folk was not something we wanted.
Usually putting up a gate sends a message to keep out, but if they persist we may need more signage and or other deterrents.
It starts with loading up the truck, we need lots of water to make mix with the concrete to make it set. I use a 55 gallon barrel with a rain water spigot on the bottom.
selfie shot
Once all loaded up, we convoy over to the back road. We must use public roads to get to the back side of my property, but we hope to complete our forest road soon enough so that is no longer needed.
I drive the pickup truck with the 6x6 posts, level, water, concrete bags, wheel barrow and shovel. My foreman drives the skid steer with the auger bit on the front.
Once we arrive at the edge of my property, we setup so we can start drilling and making concrete to set posts. Bringing everything with us we are ready to start work.
We mix the concrete in the wheel barrow with a shovel and then pour it in the holes drilled by the skid steer.
Going as deep as we can, the posts are around 6 or 7 feet tall. And about half goes into the hole. I have hardware we will mount on the posts after the concrete sets.
Seeing it from up on the truck we can view all the concrete we poured into the hole.
Now we need to let it set for a week or so before hanging the gate, I bought a fourteen foot ranch gate. Its light duty, as its not stopping bulls from hitting it. But enough to denture people from driving back there or going on horses.
Leaving the back side of the property, I follow my foreman back. Slow goes it with the skid steer. It can only go a few MPH, so I drive behind with my blinkers on. Though the road I live off is very quiet and we did not even see any traffic during our trek to the back of the property.
Almost home, it did really well. Our first time taking the skid steer out on the road, laws for farmers allow us to drive farm equipment on public roads to reach our properties.
We get back to the farm and put everything away, and then just hang out and smoke/vape for a bit in the workshop and wind down. The gate can be seen in the above picture, it has the orange blaze tied around it.
I go back home and enjoy laying on my comfy couch, any day with concrete is usually a hard day of work. We will return to hang up the gate once the concrete sets for awhile. And then hopefully this will keep people out that do not belong there. Also offers security for when the forest road is complete, as we can gate off the back access to the farm.
