Notaviva Vineyards Blog

« Fence Post Delivery | Main | Spraying Herbicide »

April 7, 2005

Deer Fence Post Installation

Special thanks to our great friends and family for today's amazing accomplishments!

Mickey Mackey (mom)
Jeff Smith (and pickup!)
Ken Wright
Gerhard "Grunyard" Krohn
Hibb

I got up early today to head over to Tractor Supply. Needed to pick up 40 x 4"x8' posts to be used for corner bracing. I couldn't just get them at Kencove yesterday because I was already over the truck's load limit. So I was there as the doors opened at 9:00 AM and was loaded up and on the road by about 9:45. Meanwhile Jeff was over at Meadow's Farms getting a scoop of gravel to put down the holes for setting the posts. We all convened at the vineyard and got to work.

The basic process was transferring gravel out of the bed of the pickup into the loader of the tractor, then moving over to the holes. We painted a reference mark on a 2"x4" (toobuhfer) so we could quickly gauge how much gravel we needed to the bottom of the hole to bring the post up to the right height. The first several holes went about as smoothly as a goat rodeo, but then we settled into a process and really started making progress. Check it out. Basically Grunyard/Jeff would be one hole ahead measuring/prepping/filling the hole while Ken/Hibb/I were filling/leveling/tamping a post. Some back and forth between tasks but it mostly worked out great just like that. Obviously it was a soggy mess because of all the rain but the gravel in the holes made setting the posts possible.

In fact we made such great progress that Jeff decided to skip lunch and head back to Meadows for another scoop of gravel. The rest of us headed up to the house where Shannon and mom had fixed lunch. Just as we finished lunch Jeff got back with more gravel and we continued around the vineyard. I called it a day around 4 PM because we still needed time to clean up, plus Shannon and I had to run the flatbed back up to Frederick, MD. The day was a huge success, as you can see! We probably placed about 70 posts (out of 110) which leaves me with a very manageable task ahead.

So we all headed home, and I got a quick shower, then Shannon followed me up to Rentals Unlimited in Frederick, MD. We dropped off the truck and headed out for some dinner. What a weekend, but man is it really starting to take shape!

Posted by Stephen at April 7, 2005 9:58 PM