This was an inspiring photo, and I wanted to make a farm fence using vintage objects, farm tools, and painted spindles. The treasure hunt was on.
I wanted to do something like this to replace an old locust wood fence before adding the greenhouse behind it.
We visited antique stores and the Santa Cruz flea market over the summer, and I would find objects I thought would work in the fence. Not everything I bought went into the fence, but that was fine, they worked for other projects, such as the Dragonfly Gong, garden art, etc.
Hager’s Collection, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Flea Market
1964 Ford 150 truck doors
My carpenter friend Rich suggested I use his 1964 Ford 150 truck doors because he said, “‘every farm needs a farm truck.” I bought his doors for $100.
The Barn, Manteca
Craigslist.org
I spent the summer and fall of 2019 painting spindles and handles on shovels, pitchforks, saws, etc.
I wanted to maintain the house colors so my theme colors were orange, green, brown, and gold. I mixed up some discounted paint to make pink that was basically the primer.
The fence was built on Monday, November 25 & Tuesday, November 26, 2019. While the guys placed the posts, I laid out patterns on the ground.
By having the templates laid out, Rich was able to calculate the measurements for cementing in the posts. These were not the final fence panels. Rich streamlined them, reduced spindles, and artistically placed for a 3-D effect, such as overlaying the ship’s wheel and old plough.
The truck doors frame either end. To the left of this photo, and starting the fence, is a very tall, antique iron bed frame.
Cool spindles hang between horse plough harnesses balanced off an oxen yoke with an old square shovel in the middle.
Perfect above the garden, and glad it was installed before the greenhouse.
And, because nothing is ever done, we are adding an extension to the fence to keep in the wood chips and create a nice entrance. We can use extra spindles and other items that were planned for the fence. In the front will be a planter bed with an entrance arbor in front of the greenhouse. In this photo, you can see the old iron headboard in the bottom right of the fence.
Farm fence.
