I've also seen a lovely fence of cattle panels. They put 4x4 posts in the ground that had been routed down the inside edges, put routed 1x2's across the top and bottom edges so the cattle panels was trimmed on all sides. I'm looking forward to doing my road frontage - I have to wait for funds since that is nearly 1/2 mile long. I'd like to have it high enough off the ground to let the gopher tortoises back in.
I remember when we lived in Newberry, FL, had 2.5 acres and were putting in raised food beds. We ran across what looked like an abandoned tortoise hole and filled it in so the horses wouldn't step in it. A couple of months later, a tortoise showed up on the other side of our neighbor's fence. We raised the bottom of the horse fencing and the tortoise came right on in, trucking for his hole that was no longer there. He got to where it used to be - no hole - he turned 360 degrees looking at everything, stopped and stared at where the hole should be. We felt so bad, Steve went into the greenhouse and got a shovel and dug down a couple feet to the tunnel. Happy turtle went right on down, cleaned out the entrance and settled back in. Apparently when our neighbor was repairing the old fence the tortoise was out shopping for greens in his yard and got trapped over there. The gopher tortoises are a keystone species and their abandoned holes are often taken over by things like burrowing owls, and other wildlife. As such they are a protected species.
