I have to admit to slacking off on my blog updates. Ever since purchasing a 40 acre parcel of land for an additional wood lot and grazing space, I’ve been consumed with the task of clearing, fencing and providing water and electricity to a 3 acre pasture area. Since it is located in the middle of nowhere, solar power and high tensile electric fence are the most affordable choices. To minimize regrowth after clearing, my plan is to get cattle out there as quickly as possible. I’ll lower the stump cuts but leave the root balls to compost.
Last Summer I placed all the corner H braces and gate openings using railroad ties, support posts at 70 foot intervals using 8’ Pressure Treated timbers and enough insulators to suspend four strands of wire. Come Spring I look forward to actually stringing the wire to enclose the pasture. In the mean time, and the reason for my delinquency, I’ve been designing and assembling all the materials to put a well house along side the fence.
Electrical control & communications panel
It’s not simply an 8 foot tall 4’ by 4’ wooden structure but rather an attractively cedar-sided shelter for the 16 foot deep dug well head, automated pump controls, fence charger, solar battery charger and communications equipment to relay performance data over our farms wi-fi network. As I mentioned, the pasture is in the middle of nowhere, so resting assured that the water trough is full and the fence is fully operational requires either frequent daily visits or a bit of “high tech”…
I chose “high tech”.
Web server ‘Monitor & control page’
All the programming and control circuitry is finished and tested so construction of the actual well house structure will begin within two weeks (when the garage is freed up).
Today was spent calibrating the sensors and setting up the server page to monitor status online.
I promise there will be blog updates and plenty of pictures as everything comes together.
