Our family owned some land for about thirty years and when an old farmer decided to sell his farm thatbutteduptoour farm he came to us first. He was about eighty years old and was ready to retire he said. He gave it to us for a great price.....to good to refuse. When we asked why he came to us first he said "your fence" I was thinking "our fence" what did he like about our fence. Then he went on saying that when he was sixteen years old his father and brother had put up wooden posts with barbwire all around his property and it took them all summer long to do. They would milk cows and do farm work and when all the farm work was done, they worked on the fence.

He said that throughthe years he watched us cut trees that fell onto the fence after a big storm and that wereplaced posts when they were broken. We did every thing that a normal person would do on their property. He then told us thathim and his wife are getting too old to maintain the fence andhe knew we would keep the fence looking good. His father passed away at a young age and his brother died in a farming accident. The fence means a lot to him because it was one of the things left standing that they did together.

For years I always wondered why hewas always fixing thefencebecause he stopped milking cows twenty years ago and he rented the land out to other farmers.Well That Farmer passed away last year from cancer and his wife passed away two weeks laterfrom unknown reason's. We took over that property ten years ago and let that old man walk the fence whenever he wanted too and he did, and sure enough, he would stop over and tell us how nice the fence looked. Well this year shed hunting I seen a lot of trees that had fallen onto the fence from previous storms and because of the deep snow I haven't been able to get to them, so this spring I'm going to be busy fixing his fence.

That is a great story and I for one appreciate you sharing it with us. Thank you for that.

Keep up the fence, I'm sure that old man still looks down on it and smiles. Nice.

My landowner does the same thing......keeps his fence mended religiously. It surrounds his old homeplace. He does so whether there is cattle in there or not.

That's a great story.

Awesome story WI!

Awsome story man. You can tell that the fence means a lot to you as well now.....theres a lot of history there. It tells alot about your character. I tip my hat.

Very cool, this should get the HNI warm and fuzzy award.

great story, keep that fence up!

Thats a great story...keep that thing up...its the little things in life that count....

I still look at the old oak that old man Floyd gave us in the Late 80's....I remember watching heards of deer run to me in the 80's when I was 11 years old...

Thanks for a great post...a post that brings us back in line to what counts..

you are renewing my faith in humans. thanks.

Great story! Thanks for sharing!