We want our chickens to range, but not too far. So far, we’ve been using metal stakes and chicken wire to keep them in sight. But that’s not very esthetically pleasing, and we want to give them more room. So we’re building picket fence annexes on both the north and south side of Ft. Knox for them. We’re also planning on planting some fruit trees in the north annex and, if we’re really daring, some hostas and other shade plants (deers’ favorites) in the south.

We dug the post holes with a two-person auger — really hard work for us now that we’re a little past our physical primes. You can see it below propped up between two benches. Our soil is extremely hard and rocky, and we had to continually lift the auger and chop away with my rock bar. Did I mention that it was also over 90 F? Ooftah. But most of the fence is in now, and the next step is to build a couple of arbors with gates before closing it all in. Here are pictures of the posts, before we installed the rails and pickets.