Take one post…
Digging the posthole wasn’t that difficult—it just took a while to hack through 45cm (18in) of stone by hand. Placing the strainer post in the hole, on the other hand, was a little more challenging. I had to carry the 2.4m (8ft) long, 20cm (8in) diameter post to the hole, which meant hoisting it onto my shoulder and tromping up the hill with it. Then, I had to drop it to the ground, stand it on end and squat so I could grasp it low down. After that, I straightened my knees and lifted the post before carrying it over to the hole and carefully lowering it in.
With the post sitting in the hole, I carefully sighted over it to each of the lines of fencing to check the post’s alignment. It wasn’t quite right so decided to widen the posthole to one side to get a better position. Of course, that meant I had to lift the post back out of the 90cm (36in) deep hole and that was somewhat more challenging…
Talk about tossing the caber…!!
What impresses me is the fact that you’re wearing what appears to be a pristine white shirt. How on earth do you manage to keep it so clean….?! If it was me said garment would be all shades of muddy brown by now.
To me, it is the size of that log. How much does that thing weighs?
It’s not the size, it’s how you use it.
Erm…. I’ve always wondered about that expression, ‘putting a round peg into a square hole’!
An amazing accomplishment! How on earth do you then steady it (presumably) to concrete it in place …… and then wait for it to set?
And I agree about the white shirt…how cool is that?
No, the post is not concreted in. Large stones are used to wedge it in place, then layers of smaller stone and spoil are rammed in around it. There’s a real knack to setting a post properly.
As for the white shirt, well, what can I say? Even difficult and strenuous jobs should be done with style!
I was also very impressed with the white shirt. How
did your back feel after moving the post? Ouch!
No, no ouch. As I explained to Steve in a comment on my last post, I put in a lot of hard work day in, day out and my body is used to it. I’m careful how I lift things, making sure to use my legs and not my back, but the rest is simply down to constant, hard, physical labour.
Every day I carry at least 500kg (1100lb) of water out to the non-piped troughs, covering about 5000 metres (3 miles) in the process.
Once a fortngight, I load the truck with 750kg of pig feed at the local merchant, drive it home and then unload it. Each 25kg bag is carried about 20 metres on my shoulder, cut open, lifted and emptied into the feed bin, and then I walk back to get the next one. And the next one. (And I often do it at a run.)
When I turn the contents of the muck boxes, I use a fork to move about a ton and a half of muck from one box to the next. I repeat that with four other boxes.
I spend several hours a day digging, hoeing, ploughing or cultivating—all by hand. I chop firewood. I use a 12lb maul to drive in stobs (smaller fence posts).
And the list goes on.
The more hard physical work you do and the more often you do it, the more you can do.
Although I do concede attitude also helps a little!
Wow. Just wow.
I know any small-farm farmer works hard, and please forgive my asking, but how much of your usual workload is a result of conscious choice versus a result of economics? (In other words, are you working this way because you want to, or because you want to farm and this is how you can make it work financially?)
It’s a mixture. I enjoy doing most jobs by hand and can often do jobs just as fast with manual implements as I can with power tools. For example, a scythe is just as fast as a brushcutter, and has the advantage of silence and no vibration. However, in some situations a power tool is better. The brushcutter is better clearing the fence lines as it’s easy to damage the scythe’s cutting edge on the wire.
Money is also a factor. I’d like to run piped water to all the troughs, but even if I dig all the trenches with a mattock and shovel I still have to find the money for pipe and fittings. I have a small collection of salvaged pipe, taps, and fittings but it’s not yet enough to reach the first of the troughs that remains to be done.
Similarly with a tractor. A small diesel tractor would be extremely useful for certain jobs—ploughing, harrowing and rolling in particular. All are jobs that are difficult and time consuming to do by hand. But a tractor is beyond our means so I do as much as I can by hand and if friends/neighbours offer to help with their tractor, I’ll happily accept.
However, I wouldn’t buy a shed-load of implements for a tractor—as quite a few starting smallholders do. Driving a tractor around and around is not my idea of getting stuck in. I’d rather dig a posthole by hand than use a tractor and auger. I’d rather split logs by hand than use a PTO log splitter. And so on.
There’s also an element of practicality. I could hitch the trailer to the Land Rover, tow it around to the post pile, load a post, drive it up the hill, unload the post, drive the Land Rover back to the house , unhitch the trailer, and then go back up the hill to do the job. Or I could just throw the post on my shoulder and walk up the hill with it.
Other factors are reducing our fossil fuel consumption (and that also makes sense on the money side, too) and the sense of satisfaction I get from doing a job with nothing more than muscle and brains.
Thanks for such a thoughtful and detailed response. BTW, I didn’t mean to be rude in asking–hope you didn’t take it that way but I can totally see why you might.
You’ve sure got the attitude. Wish I could summon some of that sort of determination.
I think pound for pound, you could probably beat most of those competitors in the strongest man challenge in strength and endurance.
Hello Stonehead,
Nice job with the strainer post although I would have gone with a spirit level read before setting into final position. May I ask what your fencing in or out?
What gauge wire are you running through the fence and what have you got to strain it with? Do they use barb wire in Scotland?
I once had a pair of wire strainers that were cursed by the devil! They would trick me into going that one ratchet too far when straining the wire to tie off on the post. When this occurred they would slip their grip on the wire, fling off at me at a rate of knots and attempt to take my head off. As I result I tend to duck for cover when any one mentions fencing to me these days or pretend to have a bad back.
Further – if you have a similar set of wire strainers to my old set then get them blessed by the local priest before your start work with them.
Man I thought this was going to be a caber tossing post too! Some form of fence building caber tossing event with points for accuracy!
I keep looking at that white shirt and thinking how unfair.. l only have to look at a speck of dirt about 1/2 a mile away and every bit of dirt, mud and gunge in the neighbourhood sticks to me as it assumes l feel to clean
With regards to pipes is there any old houses being knocked down whose old pipes and fittings you could take?
I’m already collecting 25mm MDPE pipe, both blue (potable) and black (agricultural, non-potable) and suitable compression fittings. I also have 30m of stainless steel 1in water pipe. Old houses are most likely to have lead or copper piping. I’m not going to use lead, and the value of the metal means I wouldn’t get copper for nowt.
Of course, the problem with using lengths of salvaged pipe is that I have to use a lot more fittings to join it all together, which makes it both more expensive and more prone to leaks at each joint. But I’ll get there in the end.
It’s the same with many jobs around the croft. We use time to them done, where people with more disposable income would use cash. As always, we’ve traded time and labour for money.
You have just summed up my life! (Though I cannot claim to do the kind of strenuous work which you do) Time & effort v cash….
You certainly did not get the “clean white work shirt” from me mate. Perhaps I like to think there is some insulating factor in the dirt attaching itself to my clothes!