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.

 

 

 

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.

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?