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Deer Fence Post Installation
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April 2, 2005
Fence Post Delivery
Special thanks to our great friends and family for today's amazing accomplishments!
Mickey Mackey (mom)
Beck Mackey (dad)
Rebecca Mackey (and pickup!)
Jeff Smith (and pickup!)
Ken Wright
Pat Cross
Tiago Stock
Ron Read - check out Ron's Racing Team
Randy Badura
Check out the crew!
The morning dawned bright and early. I awoke in the cab of the truck in the lumber yard of Kencove in Blairsville, PA about 6 am and there was no way I was getting back to sleep. Since there was no one else on the lot jockeying for position, I got myself together then went and filled up the truck with diesel and grabbed a sausage McStomachache. Back to the lumber yard to await the crew, who showed up about 7:45 with the rain. So I went in to the office and settled the invoice while Bill started putting bundles of 10' posts on the truck. 30 posts to a bundle, 4 bundles. 18' flatbed so I was hanging off a bit but not to worry. Then he dropped the bundle of 10 x 12' on top and I started strapping everything down, which takes a while when you're at the truck's load limit and need to be extra careful. Hit the road about 9:30, stopped a few times to check the load and down to VA I went. Got to the vineyard about 1:45 pm just as the volunteers started to show.
It was immediately apparent that the previous day/night of rain would prevent taking the flatbed into the vineyard, which was a waterlogged, soggy mess. Fortunately two of my volunteers had 4x4 pickups, so we decided it was best to transfer posts from the flatbed into the pickups then drive them around the perimeter of the vineyard and drop them next to the holes. We took turns getting on the flatbed, on the ground, and in the pickups loading them up. Once we started driving around it also became immediately apparent that all the holes were filled to the top with water!!!
It took until 5:30 pm to get the posts distributed (taking time out for a nice break in the hospitality tent setup by Shannon and my mom.) Of course each pickup got stuck once and had to be pushed out, but that was to be expected given the sorry state of the soil. Then the debate began as to whether or not work could continue on Sunday due to the fact that the holes were filled with water. Once most of the people left, I decided to drop two posts in the holes just to see how bad it would actually be.
So I put the posts in and took some height measurements (the deer fence is 7'6" high so the posts need to settle at 7'7"-7'9") They were too deep so I pulled them out and added some soil back in the hole. But once the posts were put back in place the muddy soil just squished out around the post and it settled right back down where it was. So Jeff and I conferred and decided it would be fine to pack the bottom of the hole with gravel to bring the post up to the proper height, then pack gravel around the bottom foot of the post to hold it level, then fill the remaining hole with soil.
So tomorrow's tasks would start off with me at Tractor Supply picking up the lumber for the endpost h-braces (36 - 4"x8' posts) and Jeff heading over to Meadows Farms to get a truckload of gravel. But boy did I feel bad calling Ken tonight (he was already settled into his recliner with his rum-n-cokes cuz he thought he got the day off...) and tell him that we figured out a way to work tomorrow. He took it in stride - foolish man will think twice about picking up the phone on a Saturday night when my number shows up on caller id!
Posted by
Stephen
at
April 2, 2005 9:45 PM
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