Thank you. No, the deer probably won’t go in the narrow fenced back yard because they have already been scared away by the dog barking in the front yard when I let her out on leash briefly for a bathroom break. The dog monitors the yard pretty well through the windows.

The deer have lots of other safe places to go nearby - the woods surrounding the property and the street. I have only seen them in the front yard which will not be fenced, and they were close to the street. I’ve heard that these deer have modified their behavior based on hunter patterns - they know where the hunter’s vehicles park during hunting season days, and avoid those areas until the vehicles leave. They are smart.

I’m trying to design the fence so that I can repair it quickly and easily if something takes down a part of it.

“Stretching” fence, try a come a long…hand winch.

Black for sure. We used it to line our black picket fence when our dog was small enough to get through the pickets. You can't even see it.

Are the fence runs straight with few ups and downs? Welded wire doesn't stretch very well, especially when it has to adjust to slopes. You can tighten yourself, but if want it taut you'll need to install substantial corner posts and bracing. We have the same fencing, and it's not especially taut, and it looks fine. The black will probably look better.

Thank you. It’s a flat lot. There may be minor ups and downs after it’s cleared. The soil is soft, so I may be able to even it out where necessary. I have 12” stakes to secure the wire to the ground between posts.

I plan to brace the corner posts with diagonal 4x4s on 2 sides. If I need 6x6 posts, I’ll have to get a pro to install them. The pro I talked to gave me the impression that 6x6s weren’t that much better with regard to ground rot. He did recommend securing the posts with concrete in the corners which would make the posts more prone to rot in this area than a gravel/sand mix, but we did not talk about bracing. I am concerned about rotting posts, which is why I prefer to use 4x4s and no concrete because they are easier for me to replace. I could use post sleeves for the corners at ground level and apply extra preservative. I have a few test posts to install for the porch and mailbox, and I can revise the plan based on what I learn from that.

Black, brown, or green will fade into the background much better than silver will. Four foot high can keep your dogs in. But it will not keep deer out- if you have anything tasty in your yard they will hop the fence and go for it.

Have you considered using post anchors instead of footing them? Not sure if it's a viable option for you or not. But if you haven't considered it, you might want to.

I looked at post anchors. I think expense was the issue. Or stability in soft soil. This is a long fence.

When I talked to the local fence pro, we concluded a sand/gravel mix in the hole would be the best option for our yard, with concrete reinforcement in the corners. However I would rather brace the corner posts than use concrete (to avoid rot and replacement issues), so I may try that first. I’m not trying to contain farm animals, though I did watch a video that said you need to brace the corner posts to contain farm animals.

The last fence I built I backfilled with pea gravel I had lying around as the silt coming out of the holes was impossible to work with. It did a good job of firming up the posts. The previous fence I had backfilled with native soil ended up with wobbly posts.