In 2006, when the house was being moved and rebuilt, it was necessary to move the dogs from my old house in town out to the farm. I needed to get the old house ready to sell, and not have four Border Collies greet potential buyers at the door! With many things going on and lots of money being spent, I had to make a lot of quick choices on getting things done efficiently and cheaply, rather than well. 😐 The dogs’ potty yard was one of those things. 
The dogs have a dog door leading out of the laundry room into this small yard, for the purpose of going to the bathroom, and being able to enjoy a little of being outdoors, on their own schedules. A couple of my friends helped make the old “temporary” dog yard on hot weekend day in August, out of T-posts, welded wire and a recycled chain link gate. Driving the T-posts was nearly impossible, there are so many huge rocks in the soil around the house. What initially resulted was a crooked, poorly stretched, and tacky-looking, but reasonably functional wire fence.
Over the past two years, however, the fence had gone from tacky-looking to downright awful! It had gotten run into by the tractor. Maggie, our nuttiest Border Collie, tended to leap up and bite the top wire when something exciting was going on outside, bending the wire in many places (not good for either the fence or her teeth!!). Grass and weeds were rampant inside the run, and the dogs had dug holes, making it hard to do cleanup duties. And Gene, our other nutty Border Collie, does a lot of fence-running, creating a pile-up of soil in the corners where she makes several hundred turns per day.
So, when the excavators were here, and spreading lovely sand on the road beds, the time seemed right to say goodbye to the nearly-three-year-old “temporary” fence, and replace it with a more decorative and sturdy permanent one. I ripped out the old fence with glee!
The T-posts were as hard to get out as they were to put in, I ended up needing the help of the excavator and a chain to get them out. I’ve never had T-posts not come out easily, “like butter,” when using a post puller, so this was a first! The bulldozer neatly graded the dog yard and spread a nice layer of sand, instantly making scooping a breeze. Hooray!
Over the last two weeks, we’ve been working on the new fence, and it’s almost done. I’ll share a photo when we’ve put on the finishing touches.