A Bit Peckish

    Finally the weather has got to the round posts that hold up the netting over the middle of the plot. The two end pole seem fine which is a bit odd. The five pole along the centre line have rotted off just below ground level. It might be something to do with folk leaning on them whilst they chat to me but is alot to do with them sitting in sodden ground all last year. The improvement of the soil since I started the plot has raised the surface level with the effect the netting is closer to my head. I find that I have to stoop when walking round the plot. That is a bit rubbish so the replacement poles are going to be taller, not a lot taller but definitely taller.

   I put a little money by and have purchase steel fence post spikes and the posts to go with them. Since the poles where rotted out it was no trouble to remove them.

I dropped a spike in a short distance from the original pole and used my post rammer as a hammer. The rammer is a steel tube with handles on the side. One end is closed with a two inch [50mm] steel cap. I just turned it upside down using the cap end as the hammer. With soil being deeply cultivated and quite wet the spike which are two feet [600mm] long where fairly easy to hammer in and they went in vertically. I have dug out many, many stones over the years. The tip of the spike did not hit any stones so did not get deflected. after the spike ramming it was just a case of putting the post into the holder at the top of the spike. I had to use the rammer to tap the post into the holder. The holder has flukes which grip the post. The rammer almost meant I did not have to be higher than the post to tap it home. "Tap" suggests the posts just needed slight persuasion but it took a good couple of whacks. The last job was the put the ridge wire over the top of the post and secure it with a galvanised staple. I was worried that there might not be enough slack in the wire to allow the wire to fit over the post heads without creating a lot of tension. My worries were unfounded.

   The final, final job was to fill up the bird feeders and fit the holders on to the ridge wire. I put up a few fat balls as well. Even as I gathered my tools the Robin's were on the fat balls. It had been snowing the previous few days so they must have been a bit peckish