July 21st, 2015

It started off like any normal day, woke up at 7 am, walked to the barn and drank a cup of a coffee and had breakfast. We discussed our dreams the night before and our plans for the day ahead. With our stomachs full and our caffeine levels high, we headed off to the plots to finish nailing in the last five sections of fishing line to complete our fence. With perseverance, we finished the five-day fence project.

Fish line upon nail and nail upon wood, we completed our task. And looking from a distance it has a remanence of a wood henge. Though, as you walk closer with a keen eye, you can see the clear 30-50 lb monofilament fishing line that acts as the deterrent from the deer. After we have tied and nailed all of the rows of fish line, we constructed a gate for an entrance way.

We used three solid red and blue pallets, measuring 3.4 feet high, across. And then placed several long branches of wood placed inside the pallets to extend the length and further keep our larger animal friends out.

The fence project became necessary when we found evidence of deer wanting to make the area around our plots their new home. We started to think what could be the cheapest possible solution to a fence that had to cover about 32,000 sq. ft. It occurred to us when came across a fallen 70 ft. oak that we can harvest the branches for fence posts. So then what is a cheap solution to put in between the posts?

Fishing line.

Fishing line was an idea that we (Here We Grow) found on youtube from someone who had experimented with this idea on their smaller backyard garden. They were experiencing significant deer pressure and it has worked so far for them. We decided to give it a try. The open platform that is youtube is a testament to the progress of our society. Open sourced information is how small farmers around the world can make it “work”, or be successful. Farms can be created, and things can be build from youtube.

The best case scenario, the deer do not see or expect the fishing line and get spooked when they run into it. The deep hopefully will not try to jump over anything that they cannot see.

Here We Grow.