Handy Devices

SAFETY FROM THE BARBS (Editor's Choice):

Sheila Franks, Savannah, Tennessee, was always tearing clothes on barbed wire. She came up with a way to save them. Franks purchased lengths of foam pipe insulation (1 inch x 6 feet each). She laid the foam open along its precut slit and placed it over the wire to create a "people access" point. The foam insulation is held in place with strips of duct tape. Franks also taped both ends of the foam pieces directly to the wire to keep it in place.

PROTECTING TREES:

To avoid stapling wire to trees along a pasture fenceline, Clint Bevins, Frankfort, Kentucky, came up with a way to run wire across the front of a tree while keeping it off the tree. He took lengths of treated fenceposts and drilled holes through them at the top and the bottom. The holes were a bit larger in diameter than the 12-inch spikes. Bevins drove the spikes through the posts and into the trees. But, he drove them in only a few inches. That gave the trees and posts a degree of independence from each other as the tree grew. Bevins stapled the wire strands to the posts.

ROLL OUT THE WIRE:

After years of stringing barbed wire in remote places, Leo Hoelscher, Pocahontas, Arkansas, found a way to make the work go faster. He designed a dual-spool trailer that can be pulled with a four-wheeler along hard-to-get-to fencelines. The inner disks of the two wheels holding the wire are welded to the spool shaft. The outer disks are held in place by steel pins.

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-- WINNING IDEAS: Win $400 if your idea is chosen as the month's "Editor's Choice" Handy Device. Win $200 for other ideas used on this page. To submit a Handy Device, please send clear photographs, detailed drawings and a complete explanation of your idea. With each entry, include your name, address and telephone number. Send Handy Device entries to Progressive Farmer Handy Devices, 2204 Lakeshore Dr., Suite 415, Birmingham, AL 35209. Sorry, but we cannot acknowledge submissions or return photographs, drawings or documentation.

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