My daughter Victoria is a middle school teacher… mainly science and technology, and she used to teach some math classes. She told me once, a long time ago, if I remember correctly, that she had a student say, “I don’t need math, I’m going to be a rancher.” THAT didn’t go over well, because Victoria knew better. Ranchers use math ALL THE TIME. Today was an excellent example.
We hauled up a huge load of supplies for the guy to replace/build a fence… the existing one is horrid, so we rebuild it as we can.
If your fence is two miles long, how many posts, gate posts, metal t posts, and wooden stays will you need? How much barbed wire for three strands and a smooth wire on the bottom? Don’t forget they have to be a certain measurement from the ground and each other to be “wildlife friendly”.
How many fence staples?
How many fast twist metal clips?
There are five t posts in between each metal post with wooden stays in between… (I think)
Don’t forget corner stays and gate brace posts… and, yes, I’m sure I’m forgetting something or I got something wrong. All I know is Vernon filled out pages of calculations and called various companies to get the best prices… don’t forget there’s different gauges of wire and different lengths of posts…
Might as well throw on some salt and mineral for the cows since we were going to be there…
This is not all of the fencing supplies, but it will get the ball rolling!
Find me here!
I remember a student saying, “I don’t need to learn arithmetic because we have calculators. I didn’t think too much of that either.
Big job…enormous job!!! Makes me tired thinking about it!
Sounds like a terrific school project for a future rancher.
Looks like a BIG job!