De-fencing

After lunch it's an afternoon of hard work. For the last couple of days we've been twisting recycled fence wire and ripping up our hands. Today we discover where that recycled wire came from. We drive out to the edge of the property and stop in the middle of nowhere. As far as the eye can see is a simple wire fence stretching out to the mountains. With plyers in hand and in teams of two or three our job is to untwist the stiff cable, unhook it and bundle it into large coils.

It seems to go on forever but we're impressed by the pace we make. Nevertheless it's knackering our hands even with gloves. We have to keep the wire in a single long piece (maybe 100 metres) but it's held in place with small strands that are twisted around the posts, very tightly. With wire cutters we must snip off these strands, maybe ten per post and release the cables. Coiling the wire is then just as tough as it never wants to coil the way you're holding it - you need to keep turning the coil and sometimes hooking it in place with the strands we've already collected. When the work is called to an end I rejoice. It's been satisfying work but there's only so much I can take.