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Fencing
Portable,
Mobile, Moveable, Rolling,
Temporary Fencing
July 2024 |
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In October of 2023, we adopted
two greyhound mix puppies from a local animal
shelter.
These puppies were from a litter that
was found running loose on the streets. It is
unknown how long they lived on the streets.
Estimates are at least a couple of months.
The
end result of this, are dogs that forage for food on
the ground and eat everything in sight. Grass,
dirt, leaves, bugs, twigs, and their own poop, etc.
Oh...and these dogs are now very well fed.
We allowed them to run free in our large backyard
during playtime.
Winter came and went in 2023
- 2024.
Besides eating everything on the
ground and us running to pick-up any poop as soon as
it happened, so that it too was not eaten, they dug
many holes.
We spent all winter filling up all
of these holes.... over and over again. |
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Temporary Fencing
Installed
When spring came, we needed to get the puppies away
from a large part of the yard so that the lawn could
recover from all of the now bare spots. So
with our old handy dandy standby temporary fencing,
we blocked off half of the open yard. |
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Temporary fencing placed in the yard Spring 2024.
This temporary fencing will be replaced with a
portable rolling fence |
This is not the first time we have used this
fencing.
Before our permanent 4 foot high
fencing was installed, we used this temporary
fencing to block off a section of our yard because
of uncontrollable mushroom growth and a dog who ate
enough of these mushrooms to become gravely ill and
eventually die from liver failure a year later. |
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Temporary fencing on other side of the yard July
2022 before permanent fencing was installed.
Privacy cloth on fence to hide neighbors goats and
chickens. Our beloved dog Rex who passed away
Feb 2023. |
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Before this, the temporary fencing was used to block
off our heat pump condenser to keep the male dogs
from pissing on it and around the shed, for the same
reason. |
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Temporary fencing used to be around heat pump
condenser and septic tank pump housing ( cement
block )
before permanent black vinyl fencing was installed.
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Permanent 4 foot high black vinyl fencing fencing
installed in 2022 |
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Another
view of the permanent 4 foot high black vinyl
fencing fencing installed in 2022 |
After 2 years of having this permanent 4 foot fence,
we wished we had done it sooner. It keeps the
dogs away from:
- The shed
- The heat pump condenser
- The septic equipment
- The other gate on our wooden fence that leads
outside.
- The section of fence that we share with the
neighbors.
The neighbors at one point had chickens and goats
in their backyard, driving our dogs crazy.
Being 20 feet away from that wood fence, behind an
additional chain link fence, helped with the chaos. |
Back to the Present
After several months of
having the temporary fence back up, further dividing
the yard, it is so much easier to control the
puppies. We are able to get to any fresh poop
faster to pick it up and the digging has stopped.
It is also easier to get them back in the house with
a smaller play area. We are hoping that when the
puppies further mature in a year we do not have to
pick-up the poop immediately and they will play less
and stop being destructive.
Regarding this temporary fence. My husband hates
it. He cannot mow the lawn easily. The bottom
portion of the fencing need to be cut with an edge
trimmer (weed wacker). It sways in strong
winds and we have to keep moving around the cinder
blocks to keep it from falling over. Oh and
yes, it does look tacky.
But ohhhhh how it cuts down on the work of me trying
to keep-up with the puppies. I want the fence
to stay, but I do not want a permanent fence with
the fence posts cemented into the ground in this
exact location.
What I wanted was a temporary fence that was easy to
move at a moment's notice and not involve moving 30 - 3 foot
wide individual fencing pieces staked into the
ground.
Like with some of the furniture I have made......I
wanted the fencing on wheels. Easy to move
without much effort.
So I went to the internet to see what I could find.
Guess what? What I specifically needed was not
readily available unless I built it myself. |
There are temporary barriers that are used to
control crowds. Say at a sporting or concert
event.
These are usually not on wheels and are
linked together with kennel clips.
You also see this
type of fencing on construction sites to keep people
out. |
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There are retractable barriers that fold-up like an
accordion.
These are used in warehouse
settings to block off an area.
These are
on wheels, but when you extend the barrier, a dog
could get through the openings on the bottom.
When you search using terms like "rolling fence",
on the internet, you only find rolling fence GATES.
Or
fencing material that is sold in ROLLS.
Jeeeeeez.....Not
a fence that rolls. |
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What I wanted was chain link fencing panels that
were mounted on 4 wheels. I originally thought
of 20 foot long panels, 4 feet high. No more
than 4 inches off the ground.
I want to roll the panels into place to create a
fence. When it needs to be moved for mowing,
you just roll a section out of the way, mow, then
roll it back. If we need to make the yard
smaller or larger, we just roll the panels where we
want them.
To open up the entire yard, remove the rolling fence
panels by rolling them away.
It is so simple a concept, you would think there would be
people doing this all over the world for one reason
or another. Nope. Other than this web
page, good luck finding an example of rolling fences
used for residential use elsewhere on the internet.
There really would not be any rolling fences for
business use because when a business puts up
temporary fencing they are trying to keep you out.
Therefore, no wheels..
After finding a fencing contractor to help me with
this project, the chain link panel size I decided on
was 12 feet long x 4 feet high on 4 or 6 inch
wheels. |
Finding a Fencing Contractor
As you might have discovered on some of my other
website pages;
Gate
From Hell and
Concrete Slabs, I do not usually have the
best of luck finding a contractor. It takes
numerous phone calls or e-mails over several days to
even get anyone to come to my house to give me an
estimate.
This also happened when I got hold of the fencing
contractor to install the permanent black vinyl
chain link fence in 2022. The job was done to
my satisfaction, however it took a couple of months
before the job was done and I never got an invoice
from the guy after the job was completed ( I asked
for it) and I paid.
According to my next door neighbor, who wanted to
hire him several months later, he says he no longer
does fencing. Hmmm...his website is still up
and running today. OK fine. I don't need
the snippy attitude he had or the difficulty in getting
in touch. So I passed on contacting this guy.
Looking again online, there are a few contractor
options I could have called. Instead, I went
to a local lumber store in Fletcher, OK,
TH Rogers
Lumber Company. I have bought lumber and other
hardware items from them in the past. Only 4
miles from my home, it is easier to go here than to
drive into Lawton for a Lowes or Home Depot.
TH Rogers sells fencing material. I wanted to find
out if they could custom make the chain link panels
I wanted and deliver them. They could not.
However, they had a few business cards for fencing
contractors on a business card display in the store.
I left the store with two business cards.
After running the names of both businesses through
the internet looking for their websites and reviews
I decided to call
Chizum's Fencing, LCC. This
business was located in my immediate area.
So I called the phone number. Chizum answered
on the first ring!!!! And my phone has an
out-of-state number. It has been a long time
since that happened. I usually have to leave messages.
When I explained that I needed to have some custom
fencing made, he asked if this was for a business or
residence. I said a residence. He then
informed me that he no longer does residential work.
He then asked where I got the name of his company.
When I explained where I got his business card, he
realized I actually lived in Elgin.
I explained further what I needed and he invited me
to visit a work site he was working at, down the
street from where my house is. WHAT?!?
He just happens to be about a 1/2 mile from my
house? So I hopped in my SUV and drove down the
street.
Chizum showed me the temporary fencing he was using
on the work site he was at. It was similar to
the chain link panel pictured above, along with
footings. I explained yes, but I only needed 4
feet high and I needed 4 wheels to roll it around.
This is where I decided on 12 feet long instead of
20 feet. Looking at Chizum's temporary
fencing, the 12 foot length he had, looked much more
manageable than the 20 foot long fence I had
imagined.
So I let Chizum know that I would like 10 panels.
Each panel measuring 4 feet high and 12 feet long.
The wheels would be at least 4-6 inches wide lifting
the panel no more than 4 inches off the ground.
He let me know that he would be going out of town
the following day for a week but he would e-mail an
estimate by the end of the day. AND HE DID!!! Yay!!!!!!
The stars in the
universe were telling me they were sorry for
the drawer front snafu a few days earlier.
( See sidebar ----> )
It ends up my fencing job is more along the lines of
a business request than residential. There is
nothing for this company to install. Chizum's
company will be fabricating the fence panels at their
place of business and then dropping them off at my
house when done.
On July 8, 2024 Chizum brought by one completed
panel to make sure it was exactly what I wanted.
And it was!!!
There was a little hold-up on the completion
of the fence panels because of the wheels.
Chizum's supplier kept forgetting to ship
them. On July 30, 2024, Chizum
delivered the ten panels to my home.
The panels work just like I imagined they
would and they only take a few minutes to
roll into place.
Chizum's Fencing did a great
job!! |
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When the Stars are Not Aligned in Your Favor
Has this ever happened to you?
At the end of the day I walked into my
bedroom to change my shoes to a pair of
flip-flops. After walking 10 miles a
day on a treadmill, my feet are killing me.
On my dresser, I noticed a shirt I left on
top. I opened a drawer to put it away.
To my astonishment the front of the drawer
fell off of the drawer when I pulled.
Hmmm no problem, I thought, the cam locks
must have rotated loose. I'll just go
get both a Phillips and straight edge
screwdriver to reattach the drawer front.
After trying to get the cam locks to
reengage, I got a flashlight and my reading
glasses to look inside the cam lock.
What I had now suspected was true. The
cam locks were shot. They make these
cam locks out of aluminum now instead of
steel, so they disintegrate over time.
I thought I might have some steel cam locks
I saved from an old piece of furniture
somewhere, but I was not going to spend
hours looking for them. So I decided
to glue the drawer front back onto the
drawer with wood glue.
So back to the garage. I went into the
garage closet and turned on the light.
The light then falls off the ceiling of the
closet. I wedged the light in a corner out
of the way. After grabbing my wood
glue and a couple of clamps, I realized I
will need a drop cloth out of another
closet. I needed to glue the drawer
front inside the house because the garage
was too hot. I did not want glue dripping on
my carpeting. To get to this other closet I
have to roll a cart out of the way. I
noticed some insect litter and cobwebs when
I did this. I was going to clean it up
real quick but decided against it. I
would probably get bit by a black widow
spider, the way this day was going. So
I just grabbed the drop cloth and went
inside. It has been a while since I
used my wood glue. I could not pull
the spout open.
So back to the garage I went, to get a pair
of pliers. After gluing and clamping
the drawer front back on, it was now 30
minutes later from when I originally walked
in my bedroom. My feet were still
killing me and I finally put my flip-flops
on.
I reattached the fallen garage closet light,
the next morning along with returning the
repaired drawer to the dresser.
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12 foot
long x 4 feet high rolling fence panels with 6"
wheels |
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For now,
we have placed the panels where the temporary
fencing had been |
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View
facing west |
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