Monday, July 26, 2010

Work Around the Place

Ted and I have been hard at work around the place the last couple of days.  Saturday I ran the lawn mower to tame the jungle, and then pulled some steel posts from the ground at Mike Green's place.  Those steel posts are planted deep - five feet or more.  To remove them I wrap a chain around the base of the pole and use a Handy-Man jack to pull the post. 
Handy Man Jack, similar to mine

Some of the posts are set so firmly that I actually broke my chain while trying to jack one from the ground.  In all, I was able to remove 8 posts and cart them home.  I have five left to fetch in the next day or two.  
Yesterday Ted and I spent the afternoon filling holes in the dog yard.  Some of the dogs are well versed in the art of excavation, and since digging is an innate, species-typical behavior I don't try to thwart them any more than necessary to maintain a safe yard.  Thwarting a natural behavior is likely to result in displacement behaviors that I may find even less desirable, such as destroying dog houses.  

It was important that we fill in the deepest of the holes because we are bringing in a truck load of wood shavings to cover the ground in the kennel.  The wood shaving should make for more pleasant footing, especially during wet weather when the bare ground in the pens and circles turns to sloppy muck.  Although they eventually break down and need to be replaced, wood shavings help minimize the slop, are relatively easy to keep clean at scooping time, and when purchased by the truck load are relatively inexpensive.

In our case, we are going "halves" with Stephanie Little Wolf for a full truck load of shavings.  It should be enough for both of us to lay in a nice, deep bed of fresh shaving in each of our kennels.


1 comment:

  1. G'day Swanny - I have been trying to imagine how the chain and the jack help remove posts from the ground - is the post welded horizontally into a plate? Perhaps if I had ever had to do it, I would get it. :-)

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