Post holes

This morning we awoke to find that one of our fence posts had fallen down during the night.

Well that post had started to take root and grow. It was even growing some leaves.

John informed me that that was the post that the company that delivers us bottled water, bumped it with their truck a while ago. John said that they made it lean to one side. John and the boys just put it up right again.

Well it must have cracked and broke off from the roots and over time it rotted and then finally fell over.

Well it must be fixed so we figured out it would be easier to make another post hole than digging it all up again. So we picked a spot for the new post hole and John Francis went to work on digging the new hole.


It is not an easy thing to do, making a hole 3 ft. deep. Here are some pictures of John Francis digging the hole.

First he uses a heavy digging bar. It weighs about 14 lbs. It doesn't sound like a lot but when you have to throw it down and pull it up many times, it gets very heavy indeed.



Then John Francis uses the shovel to get the dirt out with in the beginning.



After it starts to get to deep for the shovel he will switch to using the post hole digger.





At some part John Francis he needs water to soften the dirt to dig deeper.



During the time John Francis is working on the post hole, Christopher and John went in our forest to cut down more posts.



That is a big job as well, however I have not witnessed it because I don't go into the forests. I don't like forests. But luckily John likes them just fine. So John chops down a tree or two, and Christopher pulls or carries them out. I think if is a live tree they like to carry it rather than drag it. Here is a picture of Christopher pulling one of the trees they chopped this trip.







After the hole is dug and the post collected, it is then placed in the hole as straight as they can get it. If it is a live tree post then they put a fist full of fertilizer and good dirt and watered heavily so no air pockets, no if it is a dead post then it gets filled in with rocks and then marl. Then water is pored in the hole to make the marl go all around the rocks and post. The marl will harden.

They then put the wire back on the new post and then it is fixed. Wow! Done in just a short time.







Now on to other work.