Published: February 28, 2008 12:06 pm            

Know a know-it-all? ‘Fences & Gates’ may educate

Originally published in the February 22, 2008, print edition.

Rick Kubik’s interesting and logical book “How to Build & Repair Fences & Gates” is irritating.

Country people, such as myself, think that since they know pretty much everything they need to know about fences they can just skip paragraphs, or entire sections, of the little green book. But if they get a little careless and read just the first sentence or two of a paragraph they’ll probably find themselves reading through the entire chapter on, for example, starting a fence in the right place.

What’s irritating about it is that they’ll come out on the other side of that chapter entertained by Kubik’s writing style. Worse yet, they’ll know a little more about what they knew all about when they decided they didn’t really need to read the chapter in the first place.

The thing about us know-it-alls is that the more we learn the better we become as know-it-alls. For instance, did you know:

“In many areas, the original survey marker was either defined or referenced by an arrangement of pits and a mound of soil removed from those pits. The idea was, and still is, that even if the post is obliterated, the character of the soils in the pits and mound can provide useful evidence about the original position of the post.”

I didn’t think you did. It’s in Kubik’s book on fences. I thought you’d find it useful.

Seriously, Kubik’s logic is maddening. After he gets you thinking about the proper location of your fence he suggests you make a fence plan. Who needs a fence plan? Well, it could be that a little planning might prove useful.

“The purpose of the fence essentially comes down to listing what needs to be kept in and what needs to be kept out, and how it should look while doing so. But one other element can be profitably considered first: who and what is on the other side. You may be able to secure an agreement with a neighbor to share the cost of the fence.”

Kubik wrote that. He also wrote:

“One of the saddest and most sickening things about an insufficiently planned fence is when animals get partway through or over, but are then trapped in the fence or hung up on top of it, causing starvation or slow death from injury such as the wire tearing into their belly while they’re hung up on top of the wire.”

Although this is all interesting stuff about planning and fence placement, in the end perhaps not all that useful for a lot of people. But Kubik’s book, step by logical step, takes the fencemaker well beyond these good but perhaps academic ideas.

For instance, he’s got an interesting chart on the life expectancy, maintenance demands and costs of different styles of barbed, mesh and high-tensile fences. And, since this book is published by Voyageurs Press, the illustrations are excellent. The six illustrations on splicing a strand of barbed wire makes this often poorly done project appear doable and even safe. The illustrations on the use of battens on barbed wire fences were useful to even this know-it-all. That’s particularly true because the chart showed that barbed wire fences with battens are easier and less expensive to maintain over their lifetime than are fences without.

But Kubik doesn’t stop there. The 11-chapter, 126-page book takes the practical fence builder through tools and equipment, safety, posts and their installation, building strong corners, tips on snow fences, which wooden fence posts will last the longest, how to install wire, board and rail fences, fence removal and silicon fences.

If you want to find out what silicon fences are you’ll have to get the book. It is, logically, the last chapter.

You can obtain “How to Build & Repair Fences & Gates” by Rick Kubik from Voyageur Press at www.VoyageurPress.com or from most bookstores. The cost is $19.95.

        

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