New Farm Toys

Charles is excited like a little boy at Christmas ("he's been! he's been!"). His new tractor-driven post driver is fully operational. It's very heavy duty, basically a steel beam with a hydraulic ram. On a full drive it will exert 71,500 pounds of pressure on the end of an 8-inch diameter post. Don't get any body part in the way! The warning contains words like "crush" and "amputation". Once the tractor is exactly in the right place, the driver is adjusted until it is level and plumb. A fence post is loaded - no need to sharpen the end - and held in place with a spring. Then the operator stands to one side and moves a little lever, about six inches long, back and forth, which raises and lowers the ram. Five minutes later the post is firmly in the ground.

It's at the limit of our old tractor's capabilities, but in 75 minutes, he put in 6 posts, including manuvering between post locations. That would take almost two days the old way of auger out the hole, finish by hand with a post hole digger, and tamp the post in by hand. One morning, he and I put in 21 posts in about 4 hours, and that included having to deal with a fountain of hydraulic fluid when the return hose worked itself loose from the hydraulic tank. Messy!

The Campsite Field is now divided into four, with another fence to go, giving us a total of 5 paddocks. Each paddock will have access to an automatic waterer and a shelter corral, but these won't be finished until spring. I'll put pictures of our completed fence up then, for now, just gaze upon the glory of our post driver!