Wire fence I posts props ?

[Jack S]

I've got to figure out a way to prop the metal I posts of a wire fence. Sagebrush has been piling up, and the wind is pushing the posts back.

Any ideas on how to do this?

Thanks

[dpb]

Cut back the brush???

We have lots of tumbleweeds and wind that "piles them up" but never sagebrush, it stays put. Don't understand the problem. Tumbleweeds just have to go clear the fences after a big blow--just part of being on the high plains and keeping fence.

How long of posts are you using and how far do you drive them? Even in this sand rarely does the wind actually take the posts down, more often it'll stretch or even break the wire before more than a couple of posts are taken down...

Of course, I'm talking single, smooth-wire electric fence. You mean something different?

[dpb]

dpb wrote: ...

Should have added...

For permanent fence (3- or 4-wire barbed or woven) we use wood posts w/ 2 or 3 steel posts between. The wood posts take the wind loads...

[Jack S]

Won't work.

We have had unusual wet seasons that created so much brush after a recent windstrom, whole streets were clogged.

If you clear them off, a new accumulation is there in no time.

[dpb]

Ain't sagebrush then...you talking tumbleweeds? I'm trying to understand the problem to propose a fix.

Sagebrush is the feathery light gray-green woody stuff that stays in one place. A real nuisance, yes, but if you cut it back it takes time to regrow...tumbleweeds (Russian thistle) are the round rolling thingies that break loose in the winter to early spring to go bounding across the road, etc., ... is that what you mean?

Also a description of the fence type would help...as I posted in a second follow-up, for permanent fences we use wooden posts every third or fourth w/ the steel posts in between. The wood posts take the brunt of the wind/snow/debris loads. That's best I can hypothesize w/ o more infor to work with...

Fortunately here the advent of the large amount of CRP grass cover and low- and no-till farming has cut the tumbleweed population down significantly from what it was in the '50s so we don't get the 30-ft high accumulations like we occasionally did then.

But, there will always be some and still have to dig them out of the cedar windbreaks every spring and burn them. As you say, can never win the battle but other than the previous suggestion or going w/ longer posts buried deeper or an occasional "deadman" on a post don't have any more suggestions from what I know at present...

[dpb]

On May 28, 3:00 pm, dpb wrote: ...

One more passing thought...

Again, I'm hypothesizing on an awful little amount of rea info -- it really does help to provide more information rather than less if serious about getting reasonable suggestions.

If it's a residential fence of some sort, guess it wouldn't be totally out of the question to set a few of them in concrete. I'd still be more likely to get some 6- or 7-footers and set one of them deep every so often given the soil type we have here (which means one can drive a post as far as one cares to w/o digging any place one chooses to set it down).