OH, THE SCOTTISH WEATHER!
Welcome to the second “Tales From The Far North” penned by Sutherland-based fencing contractor Mark Blair of M Fence.
I hope you all enjoyed my first column in the last issue of Fencing News. It’s aimed at giving you a brief insight into my busy life as a fencing contractor in the rugged and spectacular landscape of the north of Scotland, as well as the farming life of a crofter alongside my wife and two young kids.
I have been flat out on both the fence line and the croft since the last column! The lambing is now well and truly over, and I’ve caught up with most of the pressing sheep work. There are still about 40 milk ewes to be clipped, with the unreliable weather over the last few weeks delaying matters. We’ve gone from searing tropical temperatures to torrential rain, as well as an Arctic blast of wind that makes you do a double take at the wall calendar and question… is it really July?
Funnily enough, I heard a quote the other day that made me chuckle. Someone said to me, “I hope that summer falls on a weekend this year!” That sums up the weather up here, but once the dry, decent skies return, we will get the last of our Blackface ewes clipped, as well as catching up with some grass topping and weed spraying, etc.
On the fencing side of things, I have finished the 10-acre pony paddocks and then did another woodland creation scheme of about 910 meters of deer fencing with a split net spec. It featured a Tornado (about the only weather we’ve yet to experience this year!) 8/80/15 HT net on the bottom and a Tornado 6/90/30 HT for the top with 3 line support wires secured with lashing rods and barbed staples onto Gordon’s 15-year warranty timber.
I had originally specified this new fence line with creo spec timber, but due to the customer’s budget, opted for Gordon’s timber. It all ended well, and I got it done within time and budget. Result… unlike Scotland in the Euros!
I then headed over to Rogart, a crofting village nestled between Lairg and Golspie just off the A9. It’s a key attraction on the NC500 trail with its stunning waterfalls. The job in question involves 1,400m of stock fencing with a good spec of creo strainers, turners, and treated posts. Some of the fence line is so soft in places I’ve specified seven-foot posts which will be chapped to stock height with over three feet going into the ground. The other end of the hill is so rocky that steel posts are required. It demonstrates how fence line conditions can change so quickly whilst tackling this challenging terrain.
I’ll update you in the next column about how this project goes.
In recent weeks, I’ve managed to bog the truck at least once, bogged the bike and timber trailer at least twice, and completely destroyed one of the tracks on the Morooka dumper. You’ll probably have heard the swearing and cursing echo all the way from the northern Highlands!
A quick call to Simon at Cautrac saw the issue promptly rectified with two new tracks on order at a good price and swift turnaround. I can wholeheartedly recommend Cautrac to any fellow fencers running tracked dumpers.
This fencing lark continues to throw up major challenges, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Happy fencing!
Let me know if you need any further adjustments!
