A stockade fence as a side fence is what I need so I don't have to watch my "neighbor" work on cars, trucks, and motorcycles every day. Grinding, blowing, banging and starting super loud engines 20 feet away. This whole urban neighborhood is a shit hole.
Hell, a stockade fence is not nearly enough for a world built by hand, I'd think a 6-7 foot mote filled with things you would not want to fall on would offer much higher defensive value.
And considering that border to the north and south, i have always thought a 1/2 mile of openly displayed used nuclear fuel rods would solve both the storage and invasion problems but my wife very strongly disagrees.
Anyway, perhaps it's time for another 3 volume series on a world built by hand.
LOL As was once popular, "I feel you." Well, nuclear fuel rods would/might damage wildlife and plants - something I consider FAR, FAR more valuable than any illegal alien crossing the line. Hell, I'd strap an IA to a rod and leave them to it, were it up to me, particularly those creating damage and pain. Come to think of it, let's strap down a few judges and DAs as well. Good thing we have SOME semblance of law and order, or the borders would be littered with shriveled bodies and dry bones! And this all started with fences.
It's a sad thing when certain parties don't get sarcasm and satire any more. But you're right: I don't usually make comments or hints about violence for that very reason. But (hopefully!!!) this isn't Germany or UK where breathing seems to be against the law, but rape is encouraged. I keep waiting for certain population to explode in kinetic resistance, but hell, they don't have any guns, and there are more "outlanders" (to be careful with my wording) than natives! Doesn't look like that arena is going to recover.
The only solution to these people-produced annoyances is to live at least 1/4 mile from your nearest neighbor with a green scape forest surrounding you! I would NEVER willingly live in a city again. The fact that all my nearest neighbors are acres away from me makes for a close knit genuinely loving neighborhood of people without any need for fences other than those that keep the cow in.
07/07/26: Splendidly written. Now, let's wish away all of these gargantuan white plastic shiny "fences." Should you be saddled with one erected by a numbskull neighbor, plant bushes in front of the fences as soon as possible, and look forward to the day when they've grown high enough to obliterate the eyesore. Find out what grows the fastest.
these stupid fences cause a lot of accidents. They obstruct not just your vision but the vision of cars, police and fire department. The police loath and despise stockade fences and for good reason.
correct. I actually looked at city code in this city and several others. It can only be a in a side yard if it doesn't create a sight triangle. That's where you cannot see around the corner. In general, that means only in the back yard. Sometimes it can go around a deck because if the police approach the house, they can see who is back there. The side yards, in general, here say 4 feet and open. We have had the problem with people putting in solid but the ARC allowed it, maybe they shouldn't. It's probably okay because it doesn't create a sight triangle. The police hate them even in back yard. I put a iron fence around the yard because you could see through it. eveyrone hated chain link but IMO chain link looked way way better than deteriorating wooden fences. They last about 20 years and some of these have been here for 50 years.
Well the stockade fence may not be the most welcoming edifice but it sure beats what I witnessed in the City of Hartford a few days ago, which was bars in the windows of the first few floors of numerous apartment houses, and on top, on the roof, coils of barbed wire spooked out to presumably keep out invaders. If that doesnt say "High trust society" I dont know what does! Street level businesses -- mostly smoke shops and bodegas -- featured bars on windows and doors, high security locks, cameras and rolltiop steel doors they pulled down when the business day is over (which invariably are covered with grafitti) There you have it, an inviting streetscape. City beautiful.
Living on a small lot, where as it is, neighbors can see me when I'm in my backyard, side yards and on back and side porches. I'll take a private 6-foot or higher fence any day. A large lot on a private street may not need a fence, but not everyone is so fortunate or in need of a large lot.
We planted 12, 5 foot giant arborvitae trees last year across the front of our property. They are now over 10 feet and very wide also..hope to have an entire live privacy fence within the next 2 yrs.
Under 4 inches is the code , for picket spacing @ deck railings ,a four inch ball being the assumed size of a baby's head .( 3&7/8th's inch max spacing will pass code .)
"High Trust" being the key words. As I look on from a distance (rural mountains of BC Canada).....I'm not seeing those words being applicable to much of "society" in your country or mine. (That's why I moved tothe country)
I live in a city where there is crime and I would not leave my dog OR my children in a fence where they were visible to passers-by or which could easily be scaled.
We have a 3 foot high wood picket fence on all 4 sides of our property. It keeps our pets safe and is aesthetically pleasing at the same time. A stockade fence will, of course, keep pets (and kids) safe, but at what cost? I think both pets and kids would feel imprisoned and frustrated by a fence one can neither see through nor over. Our dogs love watching the world go by because they can see it. The 19th century English designer William Morris said, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." A stockade fence is neither beautiful nor practical, but a picket fence has the added advantage of also being a support for clematis vines and roses, something a stockade fence cannot do because there is no air circulation for the plants. It functions as a wall that allows for poor growing conditions for vining plants or flower beds that are up against it.
In the second picture, you write "The property owner shows some generosity to the people on the street" which is incorrect. It's dictated by city code, what type, and height are allowed. The owners likely didn't like people camping out on the right side of the gate, since the sidewalk drops away, and it's shaded, a perfect spot to hang out, untill the fence went up that is. 😖
Eyesore though it may be, society in many places has become deserving of this level of "protection" and /or seclusion with so much debauchery and intrusion ramping up. It ain't pretty for sure, and a message it does indeed send, yet not without justification in many cases. I live very rurally so I'm inclined to leave wide open spaces with physical "boundaries" to remind folks of lines they may elect to not cross at their peril. This is what our society has become.
I think you jumped the gun on this one. Granted this is about as plain and bland and cheap as a fence this height can get, but, for one thing, it’s not finished / painted. You offer little in the way of context (I’d like to see a plan view of the adjacent properties and roads). Overall functionality is important; privacy appears to be an issue - look how close the (public?) asphalt pavement is to the rear windows (it’s within inches of the fence, itself). Does the high fence wrap the entire property? I look at the fence and see someone that doesn’t have a lot of money, spending a chunk of it to solve a problem; I wonder why?
Good fences make good neighbors. I put up mine the second year I was here. A rental house next door (the neighborhood was generally very nice/ppl too) housed a weird-ass retarded 'woman' and her ancient mother. She'd waltz confidently up on my porch and start banging on my door until I'd answer. She was built like a guy [Adam Sandler-like]. I tried to be kind, but that fed her weird fetish for coming over. I'd look out and 'big sis' was wandering about my backyard looking at/pondering everything. Finally, I had it and waited for her/it to come on my porch. 'Whipped open the door and went off on her in an absolutely furious rage; scared the shit out of her. She waddled home at top speed.
Thought that was the end of it. Ohhh Nooooo. One very hot summer day, apparently miserable, she shed her outer layers. I'm sitting on my couch and happened to look out my living room window...eeegad, there she is in all her* totally nude, flabby, Rubenesque splendor, sitting on her bed right next to the window, curtains wiiiide open (scratching things). I got the whole view...AHHHHHH!!!, I was traumatized to the core!!! THAT WAS IT! Called the fencing company and had that sucker up w/in 2 weeks. I was so stressed living there by myself, imagining that one day she'd wander over, crash in, wielding a knife or something. They finally moved away; her mother went into assisted living. Thank ya Jesus!!
...then, other dregs of society moved in. Good fences and a weapon make for good neighbors.
(*Well at least I learned that she was a woman - per anatomy. Like I needed to know.)
Had a set of neighbors who would sit out in the backyard getting hammered.
One hot summer night, they were smoking some stinky sticky icky and singing " Puff the Magic Dragon at 3:00 am loud and out of tune. The smell of skunk butt wafting into the house was overpowering.
I lost my shit on them and turned the hose on them.
In historic Savannah houses were built with alleys behind them, and there were garages or carriage houses for horses/cars and of course when you put your trash cans out for collection, it was in the back. There is a certain graciousness in understanding what is public and what is private., I live in a 50's lowcountry house and the division between public and private is still respected in my neighborhood.
Pet peeve: garages in front of houses are so wrong: it looks like somone wearing their underwear on the outside of their clothing.
One of the things I appreciate about the South, is that the formality of manners still exists here. It lends a pleasing and needed structure to social interaction.
The premises of living in an affluent and high trust society is what differentiates the two fences styles. That, and the difference of property that has a decent setback, versus one that is a dozen steps from a busy roadway.
While I agree the orderly and aesthetically pleasing white picket fence is nicer, far too many neighborhoods have become very un-trustworthy.
I also find it odd that you'd suggest that more government dictates are the answer.
You aren't wrong, but this ideal really only works where there is trust. And that is in short supply.
Maybe the answer isn't fixing the fence, but maybe fixing the design, and morals, of the community.
Aesthetically, the white picket fence is much preferable to the "get (your eyes) off my lawn" boarded, and currently unpainted, small-town Maginot Line. The picket fence blends perfectly with the restrained elegance of the Colonial-style house.
The term stockade fence is a perfect metaphor. It reminds you of the old west, a fort or prison camp, the top of each log sharpened to a nasty point. In contemporary terms, it's a barrier to keep the wild animals (especially the two-legged variety) out, and possibly to keep others inside.
I expect it still feels safe in small towns -- at least in the historic core, where they haven't spread into a highway strip -- to meet the passers-by partway. In the 'burbs, roughly through the 1950s, many housing developments gave at least a nod to the tradition.
The original occupants of Levittown-like slurbs remembered the leafy villages where they'd grown up, or dreamed of in the concrete urban canyons they later escaped from. Picket fences, or none at all, were still common. The occasional door-to-door salesman (remember those?) might have been an annoyance, but not a threat.
Nowadays, fences carry a sociological message. The tall ugly ones are a homeowner's defense, consciously or not, against a world perceived as dangerous. They're not just a financial or status marker: as common around Beverly Hills mansions as in sketchy suburbs.
Though I've never lived in one, I (and I suspect many Americans) still have a soft spot in our hearts for small towns. Occasionally new developments attempt to revive them, but the idea never seems to gain widespread traction. For them to really work, we would need a smaller population -- a possibility that a large majority views with horror.
A stockade fence as a side fence is what I need so I don't have to watch my "neighbor" work on cars, trucks, and motorcycles every day. Grinding, blowing, banging and starting super loud engines 20 feet away. This whole urban neighborhood is a shit hole.
That's different. It's between two private spaces.
Interesting article.
Hell, a stockade fence is not nearly enough for a world built by hand, I'd think a 6-7 foot mote filled with things you would not want to fall on would offer much higher defensive value.
And considering that border to the north and south, i have always thought a 1/2 mile of openly displayed used nuclear fuel rods would solve both the storage and invasion problems but my wife very strongly disagrees.
Anyway, perhaps it's time for another 3 volume series on a world built by hand.
LOL As was once popular, "I feel you." Well, nuclear fuel rods would/might damage wildlife and plants - something I consider FAR, FAR more valuable than any illegal alien crossing the line. Hell, I'd strap an IA to a rod and leave them to it, were it up to me, particularly those creating damage and pain. Come to think of it, let's strap down a few judges and DAs as well. Good thing we have SOME semblance of law and order, or the borders would be littered with shriveled bodies and dry bones! And this all started with fences.
I will agree to a few judges and DA's if we can compromise a bit.
We only leave the fuel rods in desert environments where nothing is alive to begin with.
Of course, and for the official record, my comments are all made in jest with no actual malice to anyone, be they desert mice or DA's.
Is nothing alive in the desert?
The desert is magical, and the critters and plants that live there would disagree with you 100%.
You are right.
Yet another brilliant plan is foiled.
Rats, double rats!
It's a sad thing when certain parties don't get sarcasm and satire any more. But you're right: I don't usually make comments or hints about violence for that very reason. But (hopefully!!!) this isn't Germany or UK where breathing seems to be against the law, but rape is encouraged. I keep waiting for certain population to explode in kinetic resistance, but hell, they don't have any guns, and there are more "outlanders" (to be careful with my wording) than natives! Doesn't look like that arena is going to recover.
Michael Savage once quipped that the only thing that might save England is the soccer thugs.
The only solution to these people-produced annoyances is to live at least 1/4 mile from your nearest neighbor with a green scape forest surrounding you! I would NEVER willingly live in a city again. The fact that all my nearest neighbors are acres away from me makes for a close knit genuinely loving neighborhood of people without any need for fences other than those that keep the cow in.
I have an identical situation in a rural setting. Love my stockade side fence.
07/07/26: Splendidly written. Now, let's wish away all of these gargantuan white plastic shiny "fences." Should you be saddled with one erected by a numbskull neighbor, plant bushes in front of the fences as soon as possible, and look forward to the day when they've grown high enough to obliterate the eyesore. Find out what grows the fastest.
Bamboo
07/08/26: Durable?
Yup
problem with bamboo is once it starts growing it doesn’t stop until it’s taken over the entire land mass.
That was the point. wasn't it?
these stupid fences cause a lot of accidents. They obstruct not just your vision but the vision of cars, police and fire department. The police loath and despise stockade fences and for good reason.
Fences in our subdivision can only be in the back or side yards.
correct. I actually looked at city code in this city and several others. It can only be a in a side yard if it doesn't create a sight triangle. That's where you cannot see around the corner. In general, that means only in the back yard. Sometimes it can go around a deck because if the police approach the house, they can see who is back there. The side yards, in general, here say 4 feet and open. We have had the problem with people putting in solid but the ARC allowed it, maybe they shouldn't. It's probably okay because it doesn't create a sight triangle. The police hate them even in back yard. I put a iron fence around the yard because you could see through it. eveyrone hated chain link but IMO chain link looked way way better than deteriorating wooden fences. They last about 20 years and some of these have been here for 50 years.
Well the stockade fence may not be the most welcoming edifice but it sure beats what I witnessed in the City of Hartford a few days ago, which was bars in the windows of the first few floors of numerous apartment houses, and on top, on the roof, coils of barbed wire spooked out to presumably keep out invaders. If that doesnt say "High trust society" I dont know what does! Street level businesses -- mostly smoke shops and bodegas -- featured bars on windows and doors, high security locks, cameras and rolltiop steel doors they pulled down when the business day is over (which invariably are covered with grafitti) There you have it, an inviting streetscape. City beautiful.
Sounds like East Hartford. An exciting neighborhood.
Exactly the same in Milan, Italy, Marlin.
Living on a small lot, where as it is, neighbors can see me when I'm in my backyard, side yards and on back and side porches. I'll take a private 6-foot or higher fence any day. A large lot on a private street may not need a fence, but not everyone is so fortunate or in need of a large lot.
We planted 12, 5 foot giant arborvitae trees last year across the front of our property. They are now over 10 feet and very wide also..hope to have an entire live privacy fence within the next 2 yrs.
Much bigger than a stockaded fence, but green. Some interesting tradeoffs there.
I feel like you are ignoring the safety issues of children and pets in favor of aesthetics.
You can have a fence that keeps children and pets in a yard without them being ugly. Wrought iron generally looks great as do picket fences.
Picket fences can keep children safe. Can a child squeeze through a three-inch space? I doubt it.
Under 4 inches is the code , for picket spacing @ deck railings ,a four inch ball being the assumed size of a baby's head .( 3&7/8th's inch max spacing will pass code .)
In a high trust society you don't need a fence and your children are safe by default (as long as you raise them right).
"High Trust" being the key words. As I look on from a distance (rural mountains of BC Canada).....I'm not seeing those words being applicable to much of "society" in your country or mine. (That's why I moved tothe country)
Just wanted to say, we LOVE YOU, CANADA! We’re very sorry about our government and the citizens who elected it. ❤️🇨🇦
Drop the 'we', because most of us are extremely pleased with our current government.
Canada, on the other hand, is spiraling down the drain at a shocking speed.
No, MOST of US are NOT. Hence the 39% approval rate.
Only a leftist fool would believe a poll.
Thank you for your thoughts!
You’re very welcome and I apologize for the Neanderthal’s comments above…
I live in a city where there is crime and I would not leave my dog OR my children in a fence where they were visible to passers-by or which could easily be scaled.
Let me guess a city run by Democrats.
Instead of a world made by hand in Democrat land a world turned to crap.
We have a 3 foot high wood picket fence on all 4 sides of our property. It keeps our pets safe and is aesthetically pleasing at the same time. A stockade fence will, of course, keep pets (and kids) safe, but at what cost? I think both pets and kids would feel imprisoned and frustrated by a fence one can neither see through nor over. Our dogs love watching the world go by because they can see it. The 19th century English designer William Morris said, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." A stockade fence is neither beautiful nor practical, but a picket fence has the added advantage of also being a support for clematis vines and roses, something a stockade fence cannot do because there is no air circulation for the plants. It functions as a wall that allows for poor growing conditions for vining plants or flower beds that are up against it.
In the second picture, you write "The property owner shows some generosity to the people on the street" which is incorrect. It's dictated by city code, what type, and height are allowed. The owners likely didn't like people camping out on the right side of the gate, since the sidewalk drops away, and it's shaded, a perfect spot to hang out, untill the fence went up that is. 😖
Eyesore though it may be, society in many places has become deserving of this level of "protection" and /or seclusion with so much debauchery and intrusion ramping up. It ain't pretty for sure, and a message it does indeed send, yet not without justification in many cases. I live very rurally so I'm inclined to leave wide open spaces with physical "boundaries" to remind folks of lines they may elect to not cross at their peril. This is what our society has become.
I think you jumped the gun on this one. Granted this is about as plain and bland and cheap as a fence this height can get, but, for one thing, it’s not finished / painted. You offer little in the way of context (I’d like to see a plan view of the adjacent properties and roads). Overall functionality is important; privacy appears to be an issue - look how close the (public?) asphalt pavement is to the rear windows (it’s within inches of the fence, itself). Does the high fence wrap the entire property? I look at the fence and see someone that doesn’t have a lot of money, spending a chunk of it to solve a problem; I wonder why?
Good fences make good neighbors. I put up mine the second year I was here. A rental house next door (the neighborhood was generally very nice/ppl too) housed a weird-ass retarded 'woman' and her ancient mother. She'd waltz confidently up on my porch and start banging on my door until I'd answer. She was built like a guy [Adam Sandler-like]. I tried to be kind, but that fed her weird fetish for coming over. I'd look out and 'big sis' was wandering about my backyard looking at/pondering everything. Finally, I had it and waited for her/it to come on my porch. 'Whipped open the door and went off on her in an absolutely furious rage; scared the shit out of her. She waddled home at top speed.
Thought that was the end of it. Ohhh Nooooo. One very hot summer day, apparently miserable, she shed her outer layers. I'm sitting on my couch and happened to look out my living room window...eeegad, there she is in all her* totally nude, flabby, Rubenesque splendor, sitting on her bed right next to the window, curtains wiiiide open (scratching things). I got the whole view...AHHHHHH!!!, I was traumatized to the core!!! THAT WAS IT! Called the fencing company and had that sucker up w/in 2 weeks. I was so stressed living there by myself, imagining that one day she'd wander over, crash in, wielding a knife or something. They finally moved away; her mother went into assisted living. Thank ya Jesus!!
...then, other dregs of society moved in. Good fences and a weapon make for good neighbors.
(*Well at least I learned that she was a woman - per anatomy. Like I needed to know.)
Had a set of neighbors who would sit out in the backyard getting hammered.
One hot summer night, they were smoking some stinky sticky icky and singing " Puff the Magic Dragon at 3:00 am loud and out of tune. The smell of skunk butt wafting into the house was overpowering.
I lost my shit on them and turned the hose on them.
I'm proud of you.
That was funny! I'm sorry you went through that though.
I fully agree with Jim.
You’ve never had neighbors from hell….. obviously
Nope. Never have.
Stockade fences are for my privacy not your viewing pleasure. Sorry, bub.
In historic Savannah houses were built with alleys behind them, and there were garages or carriage houses for horses/cars and of course when you put your trash cans out for collection, it was in the back. There is a certain graciousness in understanding what is public and what is private., I live in a 50's lowcountry house and the division between public and private is still respected in my neighborhood.
Pet peeve: garages in front of houses are so wrong: it looks like somone wearing their underwear on the outside of their clothing.
One of the things I appreciate about the South, is that the formality of manners still exists here. It lends a pleasing and needed structure to social interaction.
The premises of living in an affluent and high trust society is what differentiates the two fences styles. That, and the difference of property that has a decent setback, versus one that is a dozen steps from a busy roadway.
While I agree the orderly and aesthetically pleasing white picket fence is nicer, far too many neighborhoods have become very un-trustworthy.
I also find it odd that you'd suggest that more government dictates are the answer.
You aren't wrong, but this ideal really only works where there is trust. And that is in short supply.
Maybe the answer isn't fixing the fence, but maybe fixing the design, and morals, of the community.
Sometimes privacy is badly needed!
Bad fences make bad neighbors.
Aesthetically, the white picket fence is much preferable to the "get (your eyes) off my lawn" boarded, and currently unpainted, small-town Maginot Line. The picket fence blends perfectly with the restrained elegance of the Colonial-style house.
The term stockade fence is a perfect metaphor. It reminds you of the old west, a fort or prison camp, the top of each log sharpened to a nasty point. In contemporary terms, it's a barrier to keep the wild animals (especially the two-legged variety) out, and possibly to keep others inside.
I expect it still feels safe in small towns -- at least in the historic core, where they haven't spread into a highway strip -- to meet the passers-by partway. In the 'burbs, roughly through the 1950s, many housing developments gave at least a nod to the tradition.
The original occupants of Levittown-like slurbs remembered the leafy villages where they'd grown up, or dreamed of in the concrete urban canyons they later escaped from. Picket fences, or none at all, were still common. The occasional door-to-door salesman (remember those?) might have been an annoyance, but not a threat.
Nowadays, fences carry a sociological message. The tall ugly ones are a homeowner's defense, consciously or not, against a world perceived as dangerous. They're not just a financial or status marker: as common around Beverly Hills mansions as in sketchy suburbs.
Though I've never lived in one, I (and I suspect many Americans) still have a soft spot in our hearts for small towns. Occasionally new developments attempt to revive them, but the idea never seems to gain widespread traction. For them to really work, we would need a smaller population -- a possibility that a large majority views with horror.
Reminded me of this classic Far Side comic...
This is one of the only links I could find: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1939806836878192/
If that doesn't work, search for "And now, Randy, by the use of song, the male sparrow will stake out his territory"