Planning the New Goatstead

[Nanno]

I have a 6-volt Parmak for my horse fencing, which is only a single strand of hotwire. I've used these for 15 years now and they're great. It's not nearly as hot as the PRS 100 solar energizer I bought from Premier1 Fencing, though. That baby is HOT! Nearly as hot as my plug-in. I didn't know solar fencers could be that powerful. That's the one I use for the goat fence. Goats won't respect an electric fence if it's not really hot, so that's why I bought the one from Premier even though it cost almost twice as much as my Parmak. I have three 8-foot ground rods for the Parmak but only one four-foot ground rod for the Premier1. Since I move the goat fence on a semi-regular basis I have to be able to pull the ground rod. Since it's so short, I water that one every time I change or re-fill the goat water, which is nearly every day.

I don't heat the water in my horse trough, which means breaking ice every morning when it's cold. But I keep a hatchet or a small sledge hammer handy for those super-cold mornings, and for the average cold morning I use this: http://www.sstack.com/water-buckets-wate...-Strainer/
It's basically a heavy duty net you can use to break the ice and then pull it out of the water. It's really handy, but don't do what I did and try to break through 2-inch ice with it. It's not made for that, but you can still use it to pull the ice chunks out after you break it with something heavier.

My mom bought one of these solar heated water tanks and hasn't had one bit of ice even on the coldest mornings: http://www.ranchtanks.com/
They're small and pricey though, so I've opted to keep breaking ice.

I also found this: http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/freez...dzgoe.aspx
For people who are handy.