I’m probably premature in writing this…

 

I should probably wait until after this year’s hurricane season is complete before I take an inventory of unscathed gates…

But my memory is poop and I’ll probably forget if I don’t write about it now.

So here goes…

 

I was scanning through my photos and I saw a plethora of demolished gate pictures…….

…….so I figured the topic could be a good/fun/(expensive) blog post.

 

 

Metal gates are a mainstay of farming.

 

My Dad used to make them from scrap-wood.

 

 

 

 

They weren’t uniform…

They weren’t pretty…

…….but they were sturdy and did what they were supposed to do.

A plus with scrap-wood gates…….when one board rots or gets kicked & splintered…….it’s replaceable.

But if a limb falls on a metal gate, or a horse kicks it, or some other farm-related mishap happens………….it’s a goner…

There’s no replacing the part that got smashed……..

…….not unless you are really good with a cutting wheel on an angle grinder and even better with a mig welder…

I have a mig welder (yes I do)-(you’re not surprised, are you?)………….but I’m not good with it yet…

(I have a really cool welding helmet with blue flame decals on the side)……

……..(but a cool helmet doesn’t make a good welder………….and I’m not allowed to use the cutting wheel on the angle grinder anymore………….don’t ask…)

Over the years, I have used a sledge hammer to try pounding out the dents/divots/& folds in some of the metals bars…….but they never lasted long after those initial repairs.

Our horses are not petite.  If a draft horse wants to, it just folds a metal gate in two…….

None of our gates seem to have much chance at longevity here…

Too many trees with dead wood…….

And too many big horses…….