In the Rocky Mountain region, rocks proliferate at an incredible rate. They don’t even require water or fertilizer. Every spring, the Earth gives birth to more. What can we do with this bumper crop of well-rounded, glacially altered lumps of ground-up ancient mountain range? Fences. Or, more accurately, fence posts.
Building fences from field stones is an old agricultural practice. As we started fencing our small acreage in the Bitterroot Valley, Montana, I thought about those old-timers and the durability of their stone fences. However, since we don’t have 300 years, 100 employees, or the patience of our forebears, we decided to forgo the complete stone fence and confine the stonework to posts in strategic locations: the weakest spots in fence construction, corners, gates, and terrain transitions.
