Fencing a Dry Creek Bed

The ‘dry’ is with us.

Just 25mm rain over the last 5 months.

As a result our creek has dried up with just a few pools remaining.

When the creek is running, the cattle have no interest in trying to get along it to ‘greener pastures ‘ next door.

However fences that were put in the creek bed during the last dry have been washed away or damaged by subsequent flood. 

So now they can just walk through if they want. 

And seeing feed is still short here they are always on the lookout. The neighbour’s pasture is ‘improved’ and always looks nice and green.
And he only has horse fences ie. plain not barbed wire along his boundary with the highway so letting them wander a risk we can’t take.
There were three spots that needed doing.
Two were still muddy, the third still had knee high water in a pool.
So over three days, starting early morning to avoid the heat (+30℃ days), got that work done.

The co driver was there supervising in case I got stuck (highly unlikely) or slipped down the bank and fell in (highly likely).
The northern one was relatively easy. No steep entry. Just muddy.

The middle one had the advantage of a lot of flood debris still tangled up in the old creek bed fence forming a nice thick sturdy barrier so all that was needed was some wire tightening and a few additional posts. Relatively steep entry/exit but not too muddy.

In the southern one, the old creek bed fence had completely disappeared. 

Very steep entry and VERY slippery. 

And the pool was over boot height plus the mud was of the boot sucking variety.

But I got that done with virtually no drama, just wet muddy clothing and water logged 

So that plus other standard fence maintenance is all done.

Our eastern boundary is as secure as possible.