Draining The Water System, Digging Root Laden Holes, More Fence Posts & Fabricating An Extension Cord
It is kind of late in the morning to be doing the writing but since it is still quite chilly outside (maybe one degree above freezing) I am off to a slow start. I also woke up a few hours later than usual (around six) but I was so warm and cozy in the bed with the dogs that I just did not have any desire to rouse myself and start tediously pecking out words on the keyboard after brewing my morning espresso and letting the dogs out to do their morning business. Last night I was awake much later than usual because I had to drain the water system here as a preventative measure before the freezing temperatures arrived which is no big deal or anything and just required opening a few outdoor spigots, turning off the well pump breaker and letting gravity drain the water from the entire system. Here in another half hour or so I will need to do the reverse of all that and turn the water back on, purge the air from the lines and close the spigots again.
I wound up gaming for much of the morning and did not get started working outdoors until the sun was near its zenith and it was basically as warm as it was going to get for the day which really was not all that warm and the wind had started blowing hard again to boot so the 'chill' was quite noticeable to say the least. It was the kind of day that reminded me all too well of why I like taking the winters off because it was basically just cold and damp which is always hard on all my joints and makes me feel stiff, achy and uncomfortable but hey I have to just sort of ignore all that weather stuff (and its resulting discomforts) so that I can continue to make progress on the new shelter site.
Once I managed to pull myself away from the relative warmth of the tent and got all bundled up in a few layers of warm clothes I headed over to the shelter site. As a side note I have been checking that short electrical extension cord each day that I am using with that oil recirculating heater and I noticed (by grabbing it and holding it in my hand) that the cord was staying quite warm and that the plastic insulation around it had shrunk a good bit from overheating. I knew that I was pushing the limits on that gauge cord and although it would probably be fine I decided to take no risks with it because after all I am in a tent and even if it is a canvas one... it is a tent and and I should take any fire precautions that I possibly can just to be safe so I made a mental note to 'do something' about it later. I actually contacted one of the landowners to see if they had a spare cord here somewhere that would work for it or if they could bring me one but alas there was no 'good fit' available so I fabricated a twelve gauge one a little before dark and humorously just after I finished the fabrication the landowners showed up with a new cord they had just bought for me to use as well as more fence posts, dog food, chicken feed and an order of tobacco supplies that we had placed a little over a week ago which was epic of them to do and now I feel much less neurotic about running low on all that stuff... and about using the dodgy extension cord!
Anyway, the shelter site was rather sunny even given the cloud cover and after getting a count for the remaining number of fence posts that were needed for the dog yard I set to work pulling out all the tools and digging more holes and installing all the remaining posts on that northern fence line that I have been working on the last several days. The digging was pretty dodgy because of the proximity of all the trees (and stumps from where I felled trees) and I wound up encountering more roots on the four remaining post holes on that fence line than all the other holes that I had previously dug combined. Thankfully the roots were relatively small and even the larger ones were not all that problematic and that chisel head on my homemade rock-bar cut them off rather easily even though it took a bit of effort to do so. Digging a plumb hole through the roots and densely packed clay is not all that easy of a task to start with but at this point in the project I have the process for doing so down to a rather precise method.
It is kind of crazy that some of the fence post holes are super easy to dig (relative to the harder ones of course) while others are slow as hell and requires me making gradual progress by essentially 'chipping away' at the hard packed clay with the rock-bar before using the post hole diggers to remove the loose clay from the bottom of the hole. Once I have the hole dug to a reasonable depth (or just as deep as I can dig it) I use a trenching shovel to shape the hole and get its sides plumb and its bottom flat which makes getting the post plumb much easier. Once the post is in I begin the tedious process of scooping some clay around the post and compacting it the best that I can with first a small stick, then a larger stick, then I pound everything with the mini sledge hammer before doing the final tamping down with the tamp on the end of the rock-bar. If by the end of all the compaction the post is not stoutly in place (meaning that I cannot wiggle it) I then start pounding in a few stakes around the base of the stump to stiffen it up. As a side note I may go around to all the posts in the end and add some rebar 'stakes' around their bases and anchor them to the post with some fasteners just for good measure but we will see how all of that turns out once the wire kennel fencing is installed and I can see how taut/stiff everything stays.
As far as the overall dog yard itself goes it is rather frigging impressive and I really like how strong (and large) of a fenced area that it will make which as everyone knows the 'dog yard thing' has been quite challenging over the last several years. I am looking forward to that particular problem being solved at long last even if I will later be building another fence in that more secluded area when I build my long-term homestead site here. As far as a long-term site goes I have gone on many hikes and although I have yet to explore every 'nook and cranny' of the property the few big flat (secluded) sites that I found the other week would probably benefit the most by not being utilized for a long-term site. In other words those two sites are nice places as they are as 'natural sites' best left to nature. Also felling all the big pine trees in those areas just to make it safe for building there would amount to taking down the largest pine trees on the property and it is probably best to leave that sort of genetic stock in place just for the overall health of the woods because they seem to have been unfazed by the pine beetles (or whatever blight) laid waste to many of the pine trees here.
Well, I better just get to wrapping this up because I have to bundle up in some warm clothes and go get the well pump breaker turned back on, purge all the air from the water lines and get the spigots closed so that the site has running water again. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
I hit an empty cavity in the ground with the rock-bar while cutting roots and over half the rock-bar disappeared!
This was the worst of the root laden holes!I
I have yet to add the corner braces but all the northern fence line posts are in.
The extension cord that I fabricated!
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That Is All For Now!
This post was originally posted to the Hive Blockchain here:
https://peakd.com/homesteading/@jacobpeacock/apocalyptic-homesteading-day-20
