To day we finished rolling logs in the new ground and went to staking & ridering the fence. one plow breaking up. Sam* [Samuel Houston Sharp] stocked another bull tongue. I took my first dinner at the old place. Weather cloudy & windy. We branded 2 oxen "Brandy" & "Spot" ? on the right hip & turned them out.
*This Sam is a 2nd great-grandpa to the Keeper of this family history blog.
stake-and-rider fence -- A rail fence assembled without the use of post holes, as follows: two stakes are crossed, forming a crotch near their upper ends; a horizontal rail (called the rider) is supported by the crotch, then this assembly is bound together at the crotch; a series of such assemblies is required to form the fence, often with additional horizontal rails below the rider.
