The Never-ending Post Hole Augering Drama at Lupin Farm

[2468herdsrgr8]

How's it going/? Have you had some time in between thunder storms to put you fence up?

 

[cmjust0]

unfortunately our cement is more like 4.75 a bag, and while we pounded our bottom field in, that is just not going to happen with this field... the clay is so packed that the posts would just split apart.

Maybe I need to check my prices again..?

I didn't think we'd have very much luck driving posts around here, either.. Most spots, there's about 3" of soil over heavy clay and limestone rocks... The guy who drove the posts had assured me that it worked, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

We had to reposition a few here and there because they went straight into unbreakable rocks, but for the most part they drove right in. Where it was just clay, the driver would sink about 4" of post per strike. Rocks made it a little tougher, but with the force of about 800lbs of steel coming through a 5" post, most of the rocks just broke and moved out of the way.

Something else that helped tremendously is that I went out with a chainsaw shortly before that and "sharpened" all the posts.. Not sure we could have gotten them to drive if they were flat on the bottom. Lots of folks won't do that because they think they'll rot out, but there's very little bacterial activity that deep in the soil...most posts rot in the 3"-4" above and below grade, where all the aerobic bacteria hang out.

Also, we drove posts before it got too hot out, when the clay was still moist and malleable. If we'd tried it in summer......probably wouldn't have worked.

 

[lupinfarm]

We pounded posts last year, the whole job cost $1500 ... Post Pounders are few and far between here. We only have about 2.5ft of soil in this area, on shield rock and thus angling the ends of the posts to make driving easier is not done here.

I sound like I'm making excuses, but this is what we live with here. The guy who is going to auger posts BROKE his auger on clay at another job in our area, he's got a replacement and it's rained straight for like the past week so hopefully we can get something going here.

 

[lupinfarm]

How's it going/? Have you had some time in between thunder storms to put you fence up?

HAHA get this, Dan's auger BROKE while trying to do another job in our area (he's in Roslin, south of Tweed) on clay in the Stirling area. He's been bugging the company to send replacement parts and finally they have been forward and said it'll be coming this week, he should be by this weekend to try again. Thank god it's been raining non-stop recently, maybe we'll actually be able to get the holes drilled. Until then nothing much is happening except we found someone to rent a chicken plucker from in Wooler

 

[2468herdsrgr8]

Thank God for a chicken plucker !!! YEEE ha....okay whats a chicken plucker? .....never heard or seen one....unless their human? hee hee hee!!! or animal....hope your weekend goes well...looks a little promising for weather....

 

[lupinfarm]

hahaha... a chicken plucker can be a human but it sucks doing it yourself, i did 10 chickens by hand and it was horrible, a chicken plucker however is a big barrel with a bunch of little rubber fingers inside, the barrel spins and you stick the chicken in after scalding and dunking in cold water (the chicken is dead ) and the rubber fingers pluck the feathers for you!

They are VERY expensive to buy, so i've been looking for someone to rent from and finally found someone.

 

[2468herdsrgr8]

Ooooooooh! Well you learn something everyday around here!!! thanks for the information !

 

[cmjust0]

We pounded posts last year, the whole job cost $1500 ... Post Pounders are few and far between here. We only have about 2.5ft of soil in this area, on shield rock and thus angling the ends of the posts to make driving easier is not done here.

I dunno what shield rock is.. Enlighten me.

I sound like I'm making excuses, but this is what we live with here. The guy who is going to auger posts BROKE his auger on clay at another job in our area, he's got a replacement and it's rained straight for like the past week so hopefully we can get something going here.

I wait until it's bone dry before I auger in our clay ground.. I thought wet clay would be easier, but no...it's just stickier and heavier and much more likely to end your day early with a buried auger, in my experience.

When it's dry, though, the knives on the end of the auger make dust out of it and it comes up out of the hole like flour. Takes a while...sometimes the auger just sits there and spins and spins and moves down in millimeters...but that's better than watching it bite and screw itself halfway to China before I can get my foot on the clutch..

I've had it bite so hard and sink so fast in wet clay before that it's raised the front of my old Tractor.. It's just an old 8N ford, but it takes about 800lbs of downward force to pull the front end off the ground..

 

[lupinfarm]

We pounded posts last year, the whole job cost $1500 ... Post Pounders are few and far between here. We only have about 2.5ft of soil in this area, on shield rock and thus angling the ends of the posts to make driving easier is not done here.

I dunno what shield rock is.. Enlighten me.

I sound like I'm making excuses, but this is what we live with here. The guy who is going to auger posts BROKE his auger on clay at another job in our area, he's got a replacement and it's rained straight for like the past week so hopefully we can get something going here.

I wait until it's bone dry before I auger in our clay ground.. I thought wet clay would be easier, but no...it's just stickier and heavier and much more likely to end your day early with a buried auger, in my experience.

When it's dry, though, the knives on the end of the auger make dust out of it and it comes up out of the hole like flour. Takes a while...sometimes the auger just sits there and spins and spins and moves down in millimeters...but that's better than watching it bite and screw itself halfway to China before I can get my foot on the clutch..

I've had it bite so hard and sink so fast in wet clay before that it's raised the front of my old Tractor.. It's just an old 8N ford, but it takes about 800lbs of downward force to pull the front end off the ground..

Umm, shield rock is like rock attached to the earth.. lol We live on the edge of the Canadian Shield, if you google it there should be some information on the Canadian Shield.

 

[Mini-M Ranch]

Ahhh....all this talk of rock and clay...

Dear Husband brought home a gas powered auger from work to set the new posts for our elevated chicken coop. We got it STUCK in the ground because he turned it on and it just ****ZIP**** all the way down to the handles.

I haven't seen a rock in our sandy ground in the 7 years that we've lived here. Digging is easy, but then you have to put concrete around every post or it just falls over in the rain.