another day of farm chores

4:09 PM No Comments

We had decided that yesterday and today woudl be catch up days, while Toni was off putting fruit fly traps in the peach and nectariine trees and bagging the fruit,

Peach Tree fruit being bagged and trap added.

I was fixing another pole in the chook yard that was rotting at the bottom.  When initially bult they had short cut by simily putting thepoled dorectly into the ground, over the years the base has simply rotted. 

Chook yard netting support pole with rotted base

 We had replaced one a few weeks ago, and I had ago at doing this one myself.  The previous one needed us to coppice a log from our property, de-bark and then season for a month before use.  This time we decided to cut the pole off at the bottom and keep using it, the only rotten bit as the base itself.

I had the trim the side with an axe so the stirrup post support would fit

and then used the chainsaw to cut 3/4 of the way through, drive a wood splitting wedge in t hold the cut opne, then finished the cut on the other side.  Voila!

the chickens came over to do a workplace inspection !

Then dig the old stump out of the ground, make a hole for the new stirrup and concrete and then off to mix a batch of concrete, the sand and gravel for the concrete we source from our property.

The stirrup is put in place and supported with a couple of patented stirrup support posts (aka sticks) until it is set.  This will leave a 20mm or so air gap so the wood on the pole doesn't rot.  Now we leave it to set for a couple days, then put the pole in the stirrup, drill holes through, insert some 10mm threaded rod, cut to length with a hacksaw and attach the washers and nuts.

Here is a photo of the one we'd done previously

The finished product

Another productive day catching up with things.