Barbed Wire Safety, Stop Chicken Pecking, Preparing for Emergencies and More Country Lore

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PHOTO: FOTOLIA/JIM BARBER

Barbed Wire Safety

“Stringing a barbed wire fence is hard work,” writes Jackie Ivey, a MOTHER-reader from Bebe, Texas (a state that can boast more than a few miles of “bob wahr”). But the only part of the job that really bothered Jackie and David (the other half of the Ivey fencing team) was unrolling the spools of prickly wire. Consequently, they put on their thinking caps and came up with a way to unspool the material without having to handle it.

According to Jackie, “The fastest and easiest way we’ve found to unroll barbed wire is with the aid of a homebuilt ‘fence reel.’ Such a reel can be made from the handle of just about any type of discarded lawn mower. Simply cut a piece of metal pipe a little longer than the width between the forks of the handle, then slip the pipe through the forks, with the spool of wire riding on the pipe in between. To keep the pipe in place, you can either thread the ends for nuts, or drill small holes for cotter pins.

  • Published on Mar 1, 1985
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