Of Bears and Bees

Today Sharon and Fitz from Fitzgerald's Family Farm are getting in a new bee hive and placing it on our property.  We have been busily preparing for this day to make the bees as safe as possible.  When you live beyond the edge of a small town, in the woods, bears are a huge consideration.  Especially considering one got a bag of our trash a couple of weeks ago and a few days later he walked across our front garden again.  The evidence is in the footprints.
   We have given a lot of consideration on where to place the hive.  Since we already have a 5' wire-mesh fence around the back garden that includes a small alcove at the back, bottom corner with two young apple trees, we decided to place it there.  In addition to the wire fence, we have a 7' wildlife netting on the outside of it that is "decorated" with fluorescent pink marking tape to make it visible.  The wildlife netting won't do much to stop a bear, except to create a nuisance for him.  Over the weekend we began construction of a third, outer-layer of protection: an electric fence.
   On Saturday I bought a 30 mile solar powered electric fencer and all of the supplies I calculated that I would need.  Why a 30 mile fencer for a small garden?  Power.  Bears have long hair and a tough hide.  I want to make sure that the fence gets their attention and deters them from crossing it.
   While Melissa was picking up some supplies in another store, I read the manual for the fencer and ended up going back to the hardware to get some more fencing supplies.  The second-most important component of an electric fence is proper grounding.  I had bought one 6' galvanized ground rod but the minimum specifications are for three of them, spaced 10' apart with the first one within 20' of the fencer.
   First thing Sunday morning I set the solar fencer out in the yard facing due south to start it's 3 day charge cycle that is required for start-up.  The sunniest location in our back garden is the back, upper corner, so I put the post for the solar fencer there, positioned so one side is facing due south to hang the fencer on.  I spaced the ground rods along the back fence, leading from the post I set for the fencer, down toward the bottom of the garden.  We spent the rest of the day clearing the fence line and driving in corner posts.
   Last night we did our best to finish the fence.  Unfortunately, when I was calculating our material needs I missed counting one corner (my garden isn't a rectangle) and I didn't allow for using twice as many insulators on the hinge side of the gate.  One set is to terminate the run and the second set is to connect the gate strands to it; one set on each side of the post.  Electricity at the gate is fed into the gate strands from the handle connection.  This has the advantage of removing the electricity from the gate strands when its laying on the ground while we're working in the garden.
   Melissa has picked up the additional insulators we need to add rows 3 (mandatory) and 4 (will be nice for deer). Hopefully the rain will hold off this evening until we can get those 2 rows hooked up and the fence tested.