Welcome to the “My Place” page
 My name is Scott
I run the Rope and Wire website.
My original idea for this page was to give those living in the country the opportunity to tell others about the things that made their farm or ranch so special.
Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that either no one likes to brag or no one lives on a farm or a ranch. Whatever the case, no one submitted an article so I felt it was high time to try something different.
So for now this will be literally “My Place.” I’ll use this page to post a western blog or short articles. They will either be mine, or possibly one from a contributing R&W community member.
The theme will remain Western but the content will change weekly, or there about.
If you click on any of the links to past blog's, you can return to this page by clicking on the My Place button across from my picture.
I hope you enjoy it but if not, might I suggest you “stroll the grounds.” Read a story or watch a movie.
Thanks for visiting.
Scott
Good Fences
“Good Fences Make Good Neighbors”
Easy enough to say, but is it true? Maybe, but I think I’d need to have a few questions answered before I agreed to it. Such as, was this fence a mutually agreed upon venture and what’s your definition of “good”? Does this fence have a good side and a bad side and what the heck might this fence be for? All good questions to be sure.
I suppose if you’re the type who wants to keep people out of your space, putting up a tall, solid fence may be to your liking, but how does your neighbor feel about that?
On the other hand, If you get along well with others or just like the idea of defining the lines of your domain, maybe a smaller more traditional fence would be all you need.
I’m not quite sure when this “Good Fence Good Neighbor” saying evolved. Some think it’s a proverb out of the Bible. It’s not.
I’m inclined to believe it gained its greatest degree of popularity around the time of this countries rapid growth of the cattle industry. The open range was, well, open. But an increasing number of both ranchers and cattle were beginning to have an effect on the way people used the open range. New land owners felt the need to maintain some control over the movement of their stock within such a large area and wasted little time in putting up boundaries around their newly purchased property. As the open range became more privatized, more fences began to crop up.
Barbed wire hadn’t been around for too long, and to some, this new wire turned out to be a saving grace. It was a great way to keep cattle from straying too far from home. It also kept other ranchers cattle from mingling with their own.
As cattlemen began to take more control over the development of their herds through selective breeding, the new fencing helped preserve the integrity of their investment.
To others, barbed wire, or devils rope as it had become known, was a menace to the open range as it cut the land into pieces and created barriers against free movement. It was one of the main reasons for this countries range wars, as well as the beginning of the end of our western states great cattle drives.
As a young boy growing up in the big city, I recall the fence between our house and our neighbors. It was a white picket fence, about three feet high. It defined the property line and effectively corralled the neighbor’s small dog, but did little else. We were still able to physically interact (playing catch over the fence was always great fun) and my parents held many face-to-face conversations with our neighbors over that fence.
As I grew older, my family moved to a more suburban setting out west. We still had neighbors, but the fences were much taller. In fact, a solid wood fence, six feet high, surrounded our back yard. We had neighbors on three sides. I lived in that house for ten years and never really knew the people who lived next door to me. Sure, there was the occasional hello as we crossed paths out by the street, but it certainly wasn’t the same as the fence I knew as a young boy.
So the question I really feel the need to ask is…do good fences really make good neighbors? I think it depends on the type and the situation.
Lets face it, putting up a fence changes things. Take the fence our country is putting up along our Southern border. I’m told it’s to keep out people illegally looking for a better life. Now, I’m all for abiding by the law, but hey, didn’t the Chinese try this border fence thing once? I don’t think it worked out well for them either. You’d think we would have learned a thing or two from the past mistakes of others. This big fence seems like a big waste of taxpayer money to me. It’s just another barrier (and a seemingly worthless one at that, from what I’ve read on the subject) between people who really need to spend more time in neighborly conversations, like my parents did when I was a kid.
Fences may be good for corralling cattle, but humans are generally smarter than cows.
It may be too late for the open range, but if this country feels the need for a fence along our Southern border, I have a better idea. Why don’t we consider replacing that solid fence between the United States and Mexico with a real fence? A short and sturdy, white picket fence.
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