Barbed Wire

At one time this simple thing... two strands of wire braided together with barbs...disrupted an entire regional way of life. Free-range ranching was the norm for several generations as ranchers would move their herds from high to low country and follow the rains, constantly looking for greener pasture on the range. Then farmers with fences came in. The remnants of this cultural upheaval are torn down and rebuilt, leaving the waste often to disappear back into the grass. When I moved back from California to our Family Ranch in 2010 we worked for 2 years building new fence and picking up/recycling old fence. Along the way we picked up many remnants from earlier fence construction suck as these pictured. Wire is only useful when it's stretched tight and straight. Rolls left on the ground are a hazard to young calves which can become tangled in them. However, there is something beautiful about a spring-loaded bundle of rolled-up ancient rusty barbed wire.