Howdy,
Thought I'd take a look at two related concepts relative to the title about post holes: one in the philosophical (oh God!) and one the mechanical (Whew!) Here we go...
So anyways, sometime around 2 AM last night, I decided that our broken squirrel feeder post had to be replaced... This should come as no surprise to those who know me -- I'm a night owl/insomniac who appreciates the stillness of the night. So with the proper prep work done (more on that in a bit), I turned on the spotlight and ventured back into my old haunts. There's an amazing peace and beauty to the night -- a calm and a fine mist (indistinguishable except through a porch light.) There's a time to reflect (I'm reminded of Hoffer's ' Working and Thinking on the Waterfront', and Frost's 'Mending Wall'... Perhaps the ideal background music would be the wafting of the Warwick/Bacharach/David master stroke, 'What's it all About Alfie?') But that's my thing. The night was as unspeakably beautiful as quahogging on a waning, raining, winter afternoon. (Which stirs the Platter's, Twilight Time'...)
But that's all warmth, fuzziness, and distance. How the Hell do you plant the freaking post in the ground? Step by step:
- Gather your weapons of backyard carnage:
- Open can of beer... (If you choose to sink the post late PM/early AM, you'll need to have that to convince the cops (who may well show up) that that you're simply inebriated and not trying to vertically bury the corpse of an anorexic wee person...)
- Shovel...
- Post hole digger...
- Tape measure...
- Four foot level and torpedo level...
- Flashlight if working at night...
- Figure out where you want the post... Remember the "Five Five Rule"... At least 5' off the ground and within 5' of shrubs or other protection...
- Dig the hole using the post digger... The excavation should be about 2' deep at least... And be sure not to hit a gas line, electrical line, water line etc. When in doubt, call someone like DigSafe.
- The diameter of the hole should be at least the thickness of the post plus another 2" on each side. So a 4x4 requires a minimum of an eight inch diameter pit...
- Scrape the rich top soil off the target area and set that aside -- you'll want that later so that you can replant grass...
- Carefully plop the post in place and begin the back filling. Don't get too persnickety about whether it's plumb -- just use the torpedo level to keep it in the ball park.
- When the hole is about one quarter full, use the end of the handle to firmly pack down the soil. Repeat this process using the longer level as you go... Don't be afraid the push the post around and then re-tamp mercilessly Note! Do note hit yourself in the face with the shovel blade or shovel foot rests!!!
- Finally, replace the top soil, grass seed and water...
- Mount the feeder appropriately
And that's it... The zen of backyard maintenance...
By the well thought-out and plunked feeders...
Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding
Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding
Live eBirdseed.com streaming cam
eBirdseed.com photo library
eBirdseed and misc. references
Other birding references
By Location, Birds and Natural History Books (a global reference)
When I say "address the drain on the road beside our house", I actually mislead -- back in the day the town placed it on our property, which isn't necessarily a bad thing -- 'tis the cost of being a good citizen. But what was a pain was that it didn't drain properly which caused the rain to pile up and saturate our lawn as the top photo shows. (The previous owners in fact suffered basement flooding because of this.)
