Mike CHS
Herd Master
We are about to finish our first pen that will be our temporary paddock for sheep soon to come. It will transition to the goat pen after we finish the next 5 acre section of fence. The problem I'm having is I need a gate on the opposite side of the driveway but since the slope is so steep I'm limited to how I can position the gate without having a foot or more gap on the low side. I'm looking at installing at a slight angle and I have enough stone and gravel to level the low side if what I'm doing will work with opinions from the more experienced on here. The 1st pic is the pen that we are finishing today. That gate will be used to move live stock between the pens. I will use cattle panels temporarily in place to keep them going where I want and the dogs will be on either side if they want to push things. The gate we need is directly opposite from this but will be almost at a right angle to the other gate as shown in the second pic. The slope we are trying to work around is in the last pic. (If I upload correctly) We had planned on having them straight across from each other but our inexperience let us convince ourselves that the hill could be adjusted to. When I started laying out timbers I saw how big the gap would be and decided to look for a Plan B which moved the gate to a slight angle to give me room to maneuver after entering the pen without being at the edge of the 10 degree slope as soon as I enter. There will be other gates on the flats but they have to be done after this pen.
We originally thought the pen we are now finishing would be good till we finished the next section but of course that plan has changed. We didn't originally see the woody area in the pen to be a problem but recent experience with herding sheep in woods (or trying to) has shown that to be problematic to say the least.
This post is a lot of wind to ask if anyone can see any major fault with my layout. I'll use H-braces at both sides of the gate and the remainder of the run will be conventional except I'll be using more T-posts and less wood posts. There is no way to enter the paddock from the downhill with anything other than my tractor or golf cart due to the angle if I don't angle the gate to give me room to maneuver. The 2x4 laying at an angle represents the gate placement. I will have to fill in with gravel to make the area level but that's no big deal.
The slope in the last pic shows how steep the run will be down hill.
We originally thought the pen we are now finishing would be good till we finished the next section but of course that plan has changed. We didn't originally see the woody area in the pen to be a problem but recent experience with herding sheep in woods (or trying to) has shown that to be problematic to say the least.
This post is a lot of wind to ask if anyone can see any major fault with my layout. I'll use H-braces at both sides of the gate and the remainder of the run will be conventional except I'll be using more T-posts and less wood posts. There is no way to enter the paddock from the downhill with anything other than my tractor or golf cart due to the angle if I don't angle the gate to give me room to maneuver. The 2x4 laying at an angle represents the gate placement. I will have to fill in with gravel to make the area level but that's no big deal.
The slope in the last pic shows how steep the run will be down hill.