Winter and Fences

Last week Sharon and I walked around the pasture in the evening just enjoying the absence of snow and seeing what wildlife we might encounter.  It was cool but not cold, and we got to enjoy watching two pairs of geese land on one of our wetlands.  One pair literally landed by going right over our heads close enough to hear their breath as they flapped their wings.  It was awesome.  But let me digress.  Earlier in the week I was walking the paddock up by the house and noticed that a couple of the steel T-posts had been pulled down by the snow and ice.  They were under a tree which I guess meant that the snow and ice falling from the tree little by little shoved the barbed wire down with such force that it pulled the T-posts down about twelve inches into the ground.  Back to the pasture walk.  As we walked around the pasture I checked the fence for deer strikes.  The pasture fence is all high-tensile with SunGUARD fiberglass line posts.  We've had deer strike the fence before and it pulls the high-tensile wire out of position.  No breaks because the posts and wire flex but they can spread the wires wide enough that a cow might try to walk through.  So as we walked the pasture I kept checking to make sure the wire was in place.  When we got to the back of the pasture I noticed that the top wire was kind of loose but still in the correct position and the lower wires were tight.  Then I noticed a wire out of place so I walked over to check it out.  Sure enough the stainless steel clip that one of the wires attaches to was bent.  We thought deer strike, but then we noticed something strange.  About half a dozen or more posts were only about waist high!  Like the T-posts the fiberglass posts were pulled down about a foot into the ground.  These posts aren't under any trees and run pretty much even with the rest of the posts on that part of the pasture.  That's the first time since we've been out here that I've ever seen this.  I assume that the snow was so deep and hard that it put enough pressure on the fence wires and posts to push them down until the wire kept them from going any deeper.  If you've ever driven fence posts with a post pounder you know what an amazing force it must be to push these posts into the ground that far.  And into frozen ground at that!  Now I have to try pulling out the fiberglass posts without breaking them.  More learning to be done.