Fences

Posted on by Rebecca Wallick

In the rural West, fences are ubiquitous.

Love them or hate them, they’re everywhere, marking property boundaries, keeping livestock in or out (or not).

Some fences are all wood planks or posts, others wood or metal posts with barbed wire. Wooden gates are quickly being replaced with metal tube gates (and fencing) which aren’t nearly as aesthetically pleasing.

My eye is attracted to the geometry they impose on the landscape.

When my dogs and walk along roads in our valley, I often focus on the interesting lines and scenes made by fences, gates, and cattle chutes. Mother nature adds accents: fog, frost, sunlight, wildflowers. I take photos.

Which is what I did this afternoon while walking with the boys along a country lane. While I took photos, the boys ran along the ditches and dug through the snow for voles. In other words, a good time was had by all.

I have oh-so-many more photos like these taken over the years, enough to create a series of posts about rural fences through the seasons.

You’re been warned.

pasture gates and fences
Nice shadows.
metal and wood gates and fences
Odd fence lines leading away from these gates.
metal tube fences and gates
Tube gates and fences changing the old-West feel the the landscape.
cattle chute
Cattle chute.
dogs in snow, fence
The boys digging for voles (real or imaginary, could be either) near a typical pasture fence of wood posts and barbed wire.

Published by Rebecca Wallick

I delight in exploring the national forest near my Idaho home on foot, whether trail running, hiking, or xc skiing, with my two dogs by my side, taking photos of nature and wildlife. An author and freelance writer, I love observing and writing about the natural world, and dogs, and am a long-time contributing editor at Bark magazine. I used to practice law for a living. I much prefer the writing life.

14 thoughts on “Fences”

  3. Personally, I think fences are pretty ugly and disrupt an otherwise nice scene (much like telephone poles and wires) . I think I wish for a time before modern humans when the world was unblemished by us trying to gain control over nature.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Barbed-wire fencing changed the West forever: https://historydaily.org/how-barbed-wire-changed-the-american-west . I agree, though; most fencing is ugly – especially that found in cities and suburban areas – and is necessitated by the property-owning concepts Europeans brought here with them. But, fencing does keep my dogs safely close to my home, keeps the cattle of neighboring ranchers off my property (most of the time), and most wildlife have adjusted, either jumping over or crawling under the barbed-wire fences as they go about their business. Life seems to be endless trade-offs, and in this case, I’ll trade some aesthetic ugliness for the peace I gain.

      Liked by 1 person

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