Pasture gates are important, we have working to figure ours out for months, and are still at it. First, there is the question of ease. You need a gate that closes behind you and latches. You need a gate the animals can’t lift up with their noses. You need a gate that would draw water or ice. You need a gate that won’t rise or fall in frosts and cold spells. You need a gate that can withstand big animals nosing against it, leaning on it, or kicking it.

We have spent hundreds of dollars and worked with three or four different carpenters. We put the wood posts in cement. We got a new gate. We got a new latch. We put many pounds of stone and pebble around the gate so the animals can’t dig holes and the water will pass through. We put half a truck-load of gravel around the gate and the water tank so that it won’t pool and freeze, and can run off along a downhill slope.

Today, Maria, as handy as any handyman (she is a wonderful artist, but also a helluva a farm wife), cut up a plastic jug and screwed it over the latch to keep the rain off so that it doesn’t freeze in the winter, a big problem with metal latches. We’ll see if it works.

Gates sound like small thing, but they are a big thing. We use them on and off, they prevent escapes, they are the pathway for hay and people. We are almost done with this gate, it is almost right. It will take awhile longer, I am sure.