!! SEPP to Boot: Stephen's Experience (BEL)

Rob Griffin wrote:Stephen,
What seems to be the major flaws in a junk pole fence? They seem to be very maintenance prone. Is it the post going into the ground or is it the cross posts or is it the uprights?  

Rob, until the advent of the "gravel sock" technique, vertical posts were buried in the ground with no real protection from moisture intrusion. In my experience, I've seen a lot of posts rotting where the post enters the ground. From what I understand that's the meeting point for water, air, bacteria, fungi, etc.  That's the place I see the most failure. Posts will rot, then a strong wind comes along and these posts crack, knocking the entire panel down, likely causing additional damage to the horizontal supports.

I think the more we use the gravel sock and/or build proper rock jacks, the less failure of these fences we'll see. At this point, we're mostly replacing sections of fence that were built prior to my arrival here (over three years ago).

A couple other notes/observations:
- vertical pickets tend to be much too long for the purpose,  sometimes reaching a forehead-slapping 20 feet in height. No deer's gonna jump that high. At that height, they're primarily generating more drag/resistance to wind, and increasing the chance of failure. Based on my experience, I'd say a picket that's 10 to 12 feet tall would be more than sufficient. That's taller than the vertical posts that go into the ground, and a typical deer fence is 8 feet tall.
- Taking the time to create a good "notch" that snugly presses a horizontal support into a vertical post also ensures additional resistance during strong winds.
- Using nails instead of screws allows for support during high winds, and less chance of fasteners snapping during occasional shocks.

During this recent fence-building project, I shot a lot of video I hope to cut together as a reference for future Boots, so they have more on-demand guidance on how to properly build junkpole fence as well as avoid common errors and pitfalls.

Thanks, Stephen. I was suspecting the vertical posts, but excellent point on height.  I helped on a couple of the Ant houses or whatever you wanna call them.  We burned the part that went into and above the ground. Pretty good to get a nice charcoal on it.  I forget whose idea that was might’ve been Ohler’s at some point.  I’m sure you’ve seen that burn over forest that burnt trees hang around for like 15 to 20 years.  At least they’re not rotting from the outside.  Three or four years is definitely not very permi.  I personally would like to see your video on that. Thanks again,

Rob

BEL #817

We had wrapped our day yesterday with some canning, but ran out of time due to it being Taco Tuesday. So we finished rhubarb-serviceberry jam (AKA "Saskabarb") in the first half of the day. We also prepped and cooked a bunch of "Yellow Transparent" apples - apparently, the first-ripening apples of the season - to make applesauce.



Although it's imminently possible to make applesauce without any sweetener, this is a batch intended for Paul. He likes sweet stuff, but doesn't like to eat sugar. So we made this batch with some apple juice concentrate purchased specifically for preserving. Incidentally, the Saskabarb Jam is also sweetened with apple juice concentrate.

Anyhow, here's our applesauce recipe. It's measured in metric, because that's what I'd set our kitchen scale to display.

4.5Kg apples
1Kg apple juice concentrate
1Tbsp cinnamon
1 to 2 Tbsp grated ginger

This stuff tastes lovely. SEPPer Emma remarked that it tasted very similar to apple pie filling, and could probably stand-in for that, in a pinch.



Speaking of SEPPers, Russ and Emma spent the afternoon caring for a couple kittens that didn't seem to be doing very well. Their mother disappeared something like a week and a half ago, and there are two that aren't gaining weight like their siblings, and today they needed a little extra TLC. Russ and Emma sprang for some kitty formula, which I didn't even know existed. After my Boot day was done, I stepped in as this one's hammock for, hmmm... Maybe an hour and a half?



And speaking of kittens, Lab cat Cheyenne let her litter out earlier today and I hung out with them for a bit while I was up at the Abbey, doing fence repairs.



Over at the fence, it was all about repairing the three downed panels (no, they're not done yet, and yes, I've seen some deer tracks in the vicinity... ). Here's a snapshot of a rarely-attempted vertically-sawn chainsaw notch. One end of this horizontal support was already attached, and I didn't want to detach it just to do this notching. Things turned out okay.



At the end of the Boot day, I still wasn't close to finishing the fence panels, but I was tired of leaving a door wide open for deer. So I hastily lined-up some junk poles on the supports I finished in an effort to at least make it inconvenient for them. Hopefully they'll get the memo that they're not welcome. This all ought to be done tomorrow, anyway. I just couldn't suffer another night leaving them free to treat our gardens like a complimentary breakfast buffet.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BEL #818

Here's a video update featuring Judy, our water-hauling truck. Have a look here:



That's all for now. Thanks for watching, and enjoy your day...!

BEL #819

Did some preserving this week along with Paul, Fred, and special guests Samantha and Cedar...! Thanks for visiting, and for the fruit!

Paul's interested in sweetening things with fruit juice, and earlier this week he prepped some rhubarb with apple juice concentrate:



I brought everything down to behind the Classroom, next to the solar dehydrator. I didn't want to spill all the juice in the kitchen and drip it on the way to the dehydrators, so I elected to do all the potentially messy stuff outdoors.



All the bits of rhubarb fit on three trays. There was a bit of excess apple juice concentrate still left in the bowls, so I dropped it off at a pair of rhubarb plants that weren't far away.



Here they are in the solar-powered dehydrator.



I ended up leaving the rhubarb in the dehydrator for about a day and a half. It was in the triple digits Fahrenheit this week - at least for the hottest parts of the afternoon - so that was helpful in condensing the drying time.

Everything reduced to tiny, tiny bits...! I'm always surprised at how much rhubarb reduces after it's dried. The texture is slightly-twiggy, and is slightly-sticky to the touch. I can personally vouch for its done-ness and taste. Two thumbs up.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!