Digging Fence Post Holes

Sawyer and I had a very productive day at the prop on Saturday.  It's been fun to watch our fence building skills improve and steadily get quicker and quicker.

The first fence roll we did took us two Saturdays, the second roll took a full day.  The third roll we finished off by the early afternoon.  Last week, we were very surprised when we'd finished a full roll by lunch.

Since we'd only bought one roll, expecting it to take up the whole day,  we ended up doing fence posts the rest of the day.  Sawyer was begging to try out the post hole digger.  I was skeptical at first, so I left him to it and went off to do other things.  I was pleasantly surprised to come back and see that he'd accomplished quite a bit.  Nothing like digging fence post holes to build up some muscle.

The problem we have is that  we have 2 1/3 rolls left to do.  The fencing material is expensive, so I don't want to have to buy that 1/3 roll.  To fix this, we've been cutting corners and straightening up lines as much as possible to squeak out that last 100 feet. 

Another thing we decided to try was making a double gate since we had the panels sitting around and each one is about 16 feet long.  That's 32 feet + the 6 feet of spacer Holmes.  Only 62 feet left to eat up.

We've been using cedars for fence posts and crossbars.  Fortunately, we have an endless supply so we can put in as many as we can dig holes for.  Fortunately, as well, we had no rock, only clay.  It's sooo much easier digging fence post holes in clay.  You can dig a 24" hole in about 5-10 minutes.  Sawyer shows the tools of the trade below.

We had rainstorms on and off,throughout the day and were pretty muddy and bedraggled by the end.  Sawyer is definitely looking like a mud farmer here.  He was a good worker and put in a 10 hour day without complaint.

Ready to go home and relax in the recliner with and ice cold Diet Coke!  

Green Grass is Growing

One of my projects has been trying to get grass to grow in areas we've cleared out. Until now, my attempts have been mostly unsuccessful.

I attribute this to a couple of factors including, poor soil, no irrigation and not being willing to put in the time necessary to fix the previous two.

The following picture shows what an untreated area looks like.  This was previously so thick with cedar and undergrowth that it was difficult to even walk through.  The trees like to muck up the soil so other things won't grow there and compete.  As you can see, the trees did a good job and there is very little green.

From 2012-03-16

After putting down the straw (that was formerly in the barn), we were very happy to see green stuff sprouting all throughout.   This is all without any prep work such as tilling, seed or fertilizer.  It's just dumping and spreading the straw.  It will interesting to see how it does through the spring and summer and whether it can establish itself in the soil without straw.

From 2012-03-16

I'm not sure what the official name the trees in the picture below are, but we call them Bodocks.  There are only a few of them scattered around the place, mostly close to the old house.  Since they don't show up anywhere else, I assume they were planted.   For what purpose?  I've yet to figure it out.

They are a very interesting tree due to their odd yellow wood (which quickly dulls up my chainsaw) and the large green fruit they drop.  They're about the size of a softball and very odd looking. 

The two bodocks were almost choked out by the cedars until I started clearing.  In fact, they seem to be mostly dead.  I'm looking forward to seeing how they do now that they don't have so much competition.  
 

From 2012-03-16

We're still trying to figure out what to do with all the cut stone from the old fireplace.  It seems like a lot of work to move it.  We might just end up leaving it there, unless something really motivating comes along.  Motivating enough to move many hundred pounds of stone by hand.

From 2012-03-16

The end of a hard days work.  Sawyer and I put down 330 feet of fence as well as moving several gate sections.  Definitely ready for a rest.

From 2012-03-16

Sawyer still looked pretty spry at the end of the day.  He probably could have done another roll of fence.

From 2012-03-16

Working on the Chain Gang

Another beautiful Saturday and another day on the fence line. It's been exciting to see how much more fence we can lay down with each session as we improve our technique.

On our first try, we got about a 1/3 of a roll and the 2nd time we did the other 2/3rds. Last Saturday we were able to get a full roll of fence put in. That's 330 feet of hard work. The fun part is going to be putting in all the support posts later on. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it though.

For now, we just want to get the 10 acres encircled and put the gates on so we can get the animals in there as soon as everything starts blooming. At this point, I figure we have at least 3 more rolls to do and the long straigtaways are turning into the serpentine section which will slow things down as well.  It'll be interesting to see how long it takes to wrap this up.

Sawyer was my chain man.  He wanted a picture of showing off the proper way to accessorize when putting in fence.

From 2012-03-09

Sammy came down and helped out too. She worked really hard clearing the fence line and helping me with the stretching.

From 2012-03-09

What a good crew. Sawyer could'nt wait to use his machete on the brush. However, he always seemed to be cutting good trees and never the brush or roots that I needed cut.

From 2012-03-09

These days, we try to minimize the axe work, but it comes in handy every now and then for chopping out roots or cutting things that the chainsaw can't reach.

From 2012-03-09