Raising the Hopyard Trellis Poles

Finally. We're ready to raise the poles. First we've got to clean out any dirt and muck that may have fallen in since digging and/or draining.

 Here I've put a board down in the hole to help catch the pole.

Up.

and

Up.

 

 

 

Cleaning Out the Pole Holes

Just when you think you're ready to install your poles it becomes the wettest Spring on record. The constant rains washed dirt back into the holes and, due to the high water table, water was standing in the holes. We need to get this water out and remove all the muck before we can drop in our poles. This is one good reason to treat the poles.... they will be in contact with moisture.

Here is a hole right after it was dug earlier in the year.

Here it is after the rains.

Here's how it's done. Get out your dirty water pump and get to work.

Once you get the water out you're halfway there. Next you need to get out the post hole shovel and dig out all the muck. This might have been the hardest work of the trellis building operation. Lifting loose wet muddy muck out of a 4 foot hole is not something you want to experience. Only about 25% of the holes had water standing in them. The higher ground was pretty good, although, they all had the muck to remove... ugh.

Chores: Preparing Firewood For Next Year

While most folks, who are already prepared, probably have a couple years of firewood split and stacked, we are now preparing for our next winter season. Once the new Autumn begins it is too late. So get cracking!

We have so many chores to do on the farm, even without animals. On a rainy days you can work outside in the rain, do machinery maintenance and repairs, or work in the shed on other projects.

Here the field was too wet work in so we dropped a couple old dead oak trees, cut and split them up.

 Keep your chain sharp. Even this cheapy sharpener can keep you going on a long a day of sawing logs... especially after you hit one of your wedges.

Yes.. our young Paul Bunyan is smiling because he is sitting down instead of working... geesh.

You can see one tree down and the one with fire damage ready to go.

That is a lot of tree to cut up. Don't kill yourself trying to do it all at once.

sss

I split up a cart full in the shed while it was raining this day. This is from some seasoned wood though, not the fresh cuts above.

This is what you like to see. Split and stacked for immediate use.

I like to stack my firewood loose. This allows more airflow between for quicker drying. It does take more space, just something to consider.

Your gas or liquid fuel furnace requires an electric fan or pump to move air, steam or water. How will you keep your family warm when the power grid fails?

Prepping the Hopyard Poles: Stripping Bark and Treating

Before we can put the poles in the holes we need to strip the bark and treat them with a copper sulfate product. First we get a wagon load out to the field.

We used a hatchet and draw knife to strip the bark. This was hard work but it needed to be done. You'll be happy, happy, happy if you keep them razor sharp.

We used a cheap hand pump sprayer to coat the logs. This stuff is very smelly and you'll not want to use this sprayer for anything else once finished. Keep the nozzle clean or it will clog up quick.

Here they are treated and ready to stand up!

Fixing a Wagon Wheel

One of the rear wheels on my wagon has a slow leak. I figured I would find the hole, plug it and post the process of plugging a tire here. Unfortunately, there were no nails, screws or anything to be found sticking out of the tire. Although that would normally be a good thing, in this case there is a leak and the easiest ones to fix are a screw or nail hole.

I took the wheel in to the shop and poured a water and dish soap mix on the tire, around the bead and around the valve stem.

And you can now see the leaking area around the bead.


Here you can see it leaking around the valve stem.


The best fix for this is to remove the tire, replace the valve stem and use some bead lock to stop the leak during re-installation. In our case, this is not a critical high speed wagon. It rarely meets the blacktop. I waited for a warm day, and one that I would be using the wagon, and filled the tire with some fix-a-flat from the local auto parts store.

So far, it's holding.

Welding Pipes to the Bucket to Help Raise Poles

Here we're using the old Lincoln buzzbox welder to add some steel pipes to the front end loader bucket. These old welders are great. I picked this one up for around $50, cleaned it up and installed new leads. Good as new and will do nearly all machinery welds we'll need.

Once the pole raising task is complete we'll knock the pipes off with a heavy hammer and grind off any remaining weld or pipe.

The pipes will help keep the poles from sliding left and right while I guide them up.

All done, ready to get started.

Loading Up The Poles

Here we're loading up the poles for transport to the hopyard. This won't be good for the yard but what can you do right?