Fixing The Electric Fence In Winter

One day I noticed the calf touch his nose to the electric fence but didn't jump. Even worse, he then licked it - and still didn't jump. I checked the charge and found none, even though the charger said it was putting out 7 to 7.1 kilovolts. I discovered that there was a charge where the wire left the barn, but by the time it traveled all the way around the field and back to the other side of the barn where the cattle were, it no longer held any charge:

 Luckily, most of our snow had just melted, so I put all the repair tools in the bucket of the tractor and began driving the inside perimeter of the fence, looking for shorts. I brought along a snow shovel, figuring that some wires might still be buried in snow despite our brief thaw:

 I made it to the giant rock pile, which I also believe was the site of an old cabin:

 I went through a gate and continued on to the farthest corner of the south field, where I saw a shut-off switch was open. This would stop all electricity from going beyond that point:

 I was happy and surprised to find such an easy fix, but then discovered that the switch was not only open, but broken. I managed a temporary repair by closing the switch and allowing friction to hold it in place, but I know I can't count on that to last. I have another switch, but will wait for warmer weather to replace it. Of course I wondered how it got broken. Was a deer trying to jump over the fence? A hunter, trespassing? I'll never know, of course, but that doesn't stop me from wondering:

 But just in case, I continued on around the rest of the fence line, looking for shorts. I found some places where the bark on the cedar fence posts had come off and was touching the wires. I fixed those:

 I returned through the electric rope gate and noticed that it was sagging, so I tied a knot in it to shorten it just a bit (it now has three knots in it):

 I drove on, looking for shorts, and found this sign askew. The signs are plastic so I almost didn't even stop. But when I looked more closely, the wire loop which hangs the sign was touching both the wire and the fence post. I slid the sign back to the middle of the wire where it belonged and where it wouldn't short out the fence:

 I came to a high spot in the back field which overlooked the gravel road down below. It was pretty and peaceful, so I stopped to admire the Birch trees. A double fox den is just below me on that bank, though they haven't used it in a couple of years:

 This old, dead elm on the fence line was a potential problem, but so high that there was nothing I could do about it. I did, however, remove some tree bark which had come loose and might touch the wires in the future:

 I found some places where the bottom wire was buried in the snow, but the bottom wire is not live, so I let them be:

 When I was all done, I tested the fence charge at the end of the run, where the cattle are spending the winter. It was variable, but went as high as 4.5 kilovolts. Even 3.7 was enough for the time being. I'll work on the fence again in the spring: