My Dad taught me a lesson about fenceposts he learned from a real live Texas Ranger.
In the late 1930s, Dad and his twin brother were setting fenceposts on their dad’s farm in southern Oklahoma, right close to the Texas border when a mounted Texas Ranger rides up. “Whatcha doin’, boys?” “Settin’ fenceposts.” “Show me how you’re doin’ it.”
They dug a hole with post-hole diggers, set a post in the hole, filled it in with dirt and tamped the dirt at the top in real tight.
The Ranger put his horse up next to the post and had it take a step sideways. The post leaned over. He then went and leaned over the last ten posts they’d set.
“Boys, you gotta tamp down the dirt at the bottom of the post, too. If you don’t, the cows will push the fence right down and get out.”
They pulled one of the posts out, cleaned out the hole, and set the post back in, tamping the dirt at the bottom the way the Ranger said. When they were done, the Ranger leaned his horse against the post. It didn’t budge.
Gotta tamp the dirt at the bottom, boys. The guy in the video didn’t, but all his posts were structurally tied together, unlike a fence. Not likely to fold the whole thing down.
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