Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

[Baymule]

Only those well acquainted with red iron ore clay would think that is funny.
snicker, snicker, giggle, guffaw.....

 

[Latestarter]

I've used the powered hand held augers before, single and two man. They generate a LOT of torque and the constant lifting to keep them from biting off more than you can chew (lift) would absolutely not agree with my back or my hand/wrist. If I had my son or a younger stronger guy to help, I would have rented one and done all the holes then returned it. So, yeah, I'm using a clamshell digger and it does the trick. It just takes a lot longer and I have to go a bit slower. I'll get it done, just might take a couple more days. It's a good upper body workout.

I took a muscle relaxer when I came in and it helped quite a bit. Sat in my recliner and dozed for a couple of hours (after my last visit here). Boy was I stiff when I woke up. Now that I've been up for a couple of hours moving around, I'll be good to go. I'll be back at it tomorrow. I'm not as young or strong as I once was, but I can still get it done. Will just take longer Need to work off some of these extra pounds too.

No call from the trailer place. Gotts check into that and see what's going on there. Still need to go pick up the cattle panels I paid for. Really want the trailer for those as I don't want to "spring load" them and have to make multiple trips w/just the pickup truck. Don't need to do any more damage to the truck. Need to buy some wire anyway to wire up the "H" braces and floating braces. Was considering just using some of the old (newer - not rusted) barbed wire that I'm going to remove when I fence the property boundary, but I don't really want to cut myself up into hamburger working with it.

 

[HomeOnTheRange]

Slow but steady is my motto.
Sounds like you are doing great @Latestarter!

 

[greybeard]

. So, yeah, I'm using a clamshell digger and it does the trick. It just takes a lot longer and I have to go a bit slower. I'll get it done, just might take a couple more days. It's a good upper body workout.

I have a pair you can borrow--they have handles about 8' tall. They work a little different, with flat handles instead of round and the clamshell will open a lot wider than just 'straight'. You can dig a very deep hole without having to widen the top of the hole out. They're lineman diggers, from back before every electric company bucket truck had an auger on it. Some of my corner posts I put in 5' deep or more.

 

[Mini Horses]

Yep...we're slower but just keep on "gettin up"

At our age we don't have a meter running, we just have a younger memory of past work and our body isn't on the same clock anymore.....it's all good, it will get done. I removed the hog panels & did a "semi" leveling job at the pigs field. More to do & it will be there when I get back to it. Rain today. I work my jobs next four, so will do farm work again on Monday. No problem.

Relax.

 

[babsbag]

I was doing some digging today putting in a 2x12 as a guide for barn doors and of course it had to be level and my ground isn't. I got one done and I was really glad it got dark so I had a reason to quit. It's tough getting old and I will be paying for it in the morning.

 

[Hens and Roos]

what about using a 1 man hydraulic posthole digger? When DH put our fencing up, he rented one and was able to do about 20 posts in a couple hours.

 

[Bruce]

I have a pair you can borrow--they have handles about 8' tall. They work a little different, with flat handles instead of round and the clamshell will open a lot wider than just 'straight'. You can dig a very deep hole without having to widen the top of the hole out. They're lineman diggers, from back before every electric company bucket truck had an auger on it. Some of my corner posts I put in 5' deep or more.

That would be nice! I had to make my holes wider than technically necessary since there is no way to pull the handles apart to "grab" once the digger is about 2' down.

I was SURE you were going to tell @Latestarter "good decision" on using real brace wire instead of barbed wire. The obvious danger aside, I think brace wire is a thicker (smaller gauge) than fence wire. You can now tell me I'm wrong

 

[greybeard]

Gauge size is gauge size regardless of the type wire.
Barb wire comes in 18, 15, and 12.5 ga. Some is HT, some is not.

HT slick wire comes 18, 17, 16, 12.5 ga



I've used barbed wire on H braces before, but not often. HT (gaucho) barb wire is plenty stout to hold and H brace or H corner together, but it doesn't like to be twisted--breaks easily. I won't use the low carbon (old Red Brand type) wire for this because it just stretches too much.
You just have to be careful not to twist the gaucho too much. This one is barbed wire.

I usually use 3/8 wire rope (cable) to hold my H corners or ends together.

 

[greybeard]

Other than my lineman diggers, there are some posthole diggers that help in getting the dirt ot without having to open the hole at the top. I have a pair, that I think I got from Tractor Supply. The drawback, is thatthey are heavy and the handles work opposite normal diggers--they have an extra pivot joint added and you close the handles to close the clamshell. Take some getting used to if you use regular diggers on the top part of the hole.
They look a lot like these--as you can see, the clamshell is almost closed and so are the handles. The dogleg (bend) in the handles also helps to not have to widen the top of the hole. Because the upper pivot is so far up, you can dig a lot deeper without interference from the sides of the top of the hole.

another type that help with this is a single pivot and work the same way as the traditional digger, but they too have an offset in the handles. This design goes back several decades..