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Post by hmoosek on Oct 28, 2022 20:44:29 GMT -6
The rain bypassed you and hit me. I had to crawl my lazy butt out of bed and drag my beans inside early this morning. The wind hit hard and then the bottom fell out.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 28, 2022 22:03:29 GMT -6
Once more, it was a pleasure to come back inside from shelling seeds all day, to see that even more was accomplished on the Iron Curtain. You made my day again, two days in a row! Which begs one to wonder what we'll all do for nightly entertainment once your fencing project is finally done.
Thanks, Woodeye, for the heroic daily effort.
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Post by woodeye on Oct 28, 2022 22:38:13 GMT -6
Many Thanks, Folks! The Iron Curtain is progressing better now, but still has quite a ways to go. I don't know what the nightly updates will be after completion, but from the looks of things it may take me all of November to get both sides completely installed, the upper sections of wire will be slow going, I have to take a lot of extra precautions while working on those.
I also have a group of cutting boards that I must have done by Thanksgiving, so that is going to take about 7 to 10 days of November.
I forgot to mention in an earlier post that I tracked the deer in the open area of the garden again today. There was one more successful jump over the horizontal pipes. Mama deer had brought her youngster with her this morning early and I followed his tracks, they led to the east side again and then the little rascal jumped over the bottom pipe, which is all of 6 inches off the ground. He trotted around on the outside for a bit and then jumped back to the inside. It was not a "BOING!! thar he goes!", but I'm sure he was proud of his efforts. He's running out of bottom horizontal pipe to leap over though, there won't be any left for him by Sunday...
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Post by woodeye on Oct 30, 2022 11:05:47 GMT -6
And now there is 6 foot height chainlink fence fabric on both sides, 68 feet on the west side and 69 feet on the east side. I may change my schedule a bit and drill the top holes in the post extensions tomorrow, I believe it's supposed to be windier Tuesday, but the order of the remaining wiring, drilling, and installation of the top pipe and fence fabric will be determined by the wind and weather conditions at the beginning of each day...
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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 30, 2022 14:08:59 GMT -6
That photo does a good job of showing why you named your enclosure “The Iron Curtain.” You’ve been making great progress. I wonder if the deer are starting to get nervous about it.
In that picture is it the west side that’s closer to the camera with the opening being to the south? I think I’m orienting myself properly, but it doesn’t take a lot for me to get my directions completely wrong. Even left and right don’t come naturally to me after all these years.
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Post by woodeye on Oct 30, 2022 16:41:31 GMT -6
Yes, chrysanthemum, the lower left corner in the picture is the SW corner, the opening is the South end. The fence on the far side is the East side. The shade in the garden is from the Black Jack that I want to remove, and it is South of the Iron Curtain.
I would say that the deer are definitely wondering what in the world is going on? There were lots of tracks out there today, mostly from deer walking in circles. Oh just wait until the entrances and exits are closed off. I'm sure my popularity ratings will plummet when the free garden stuffs are taken away. I hope so anyway...
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Post by woodeye on Oct 31, 2022 13:17:44 GMT -6
I started out today drilling the holes for the top horizontal pipes. I cut a piece of PVC pipe to use for a yard stick to measure from the ground to the hole I wanted to drill in the post extensions. It was time consuming because I had to move the tractor to each post, but the method I used was safe. The ladder was never relying on the post for support while I was up off the ground, the ladder was against the front loader. The height of the fence fabric will be 9 feet when it is installed.
I drilled a hole in the first joint of the top pipe and secured it to the first post extension. I used the tractor bucket to hold the pipe close to its final destination, and climbed up and down the ladder to secure the top pipes to the post extensions. Lots more tractor movement, I had to move to each post.
Three joints of the top pipe installed. I have to make another trip to the fence boneyard tomorrow morning to find and haul more pipe. The problem I am running into is that some of the pipes are much older than others and the newer pipes don't fit the older pipes. But I'll find enough of each size to finish it somehow. This is the final photo of the day, and it doesn't look like much production, but it took 3-1/2 hours to drill and install 60 feet of the top pipes...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 31, 2022 21:46:34 GMT -6
Woodeye,
60" feet of pipe in one day with one man working seems like a very hefty accomplishment to me! Every time I see that top rail, I think of the potential for running across the middle with a stick of pipe, or two, or three, and that leads me further to imagine sunscreens and other hanging things that might find their way into your gardening future!
Very exciting things to consider there! Thanks, for sparking my imagination. It has been a long time since I've done any sparking!
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Post by woodeye on Oct 31, 2022 22:30:33 GMT -6
heavyhitterokra, Agreed. I got to thinking about it after chrysanthemum posted pictures of the shade cloth she put over her raised beds. Hmmm, I thought at the time, that might be something I can do someday. You are correct, some pipes across the middle would be feasible because they would still be higher than my tractor roll bar. Temporary supports during the growing season up to the pipes that span the Iron Curtain would be easy to do, and pole beans, or cucumbers, or anything like that on cattle panels between the supports would also be possible.
But yes, the pipe installation did work out pretty well today. I did a lot of thinking about how I am going to install the upper section of fence fabric, so once I decided on the method, the first thing is to install the pipes. For raising and attaching the fence fabric to the top horizontal pipe, I'm going to use a joint of heavy top rail, which is what I made the t-post extensions with. I'll use one that is at least 20 feet long, and attach it to the front loader. Then I'll attach the 20 foot pieces of fence fabric to it with heavy duty wire, raise it up to the pipes that I installed today, wire the fabric to the pipes I installed today, then take the wires off that I attached to the heavy top rail that is attached to the loader. I'll have to use the tractor from the outside of the Iron Curtain. It will work, and even if it doesn't look like it will work, I'll make it work anyway...
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Post by rdback on Nov 1, 2022 7:14:12 GMT -6
Nice progress today T-Man!
I gotta say, this thing is starting to remind me of the basketball court we used when I was a kid. If the garden thing doesn't work out, you can put up some hoops! lol
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Post by amyinowasso on Nov 1, 2022 8:53:49 GMT -6
I always wanted to "roof" my garden with chicken wire for hail protection. Then I could lay something on it for shade. You have many options there, even making a tent for frost protection. I'm excited for you. How will you water?
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Post by woodeye on Nov 1, 2022 9:13:50 GMT -6
amyinowasso, I plan to use drip irrigation on most of it, with a valve that would let me use a hose, or soaker hose if I choose to do that too. I hadn't thought about the chicken wire you wrote about, boy the possibilities are numerous to say the least.
Mr. Rick, that's a great idea, I love playing Basketball. Badminton would work good in there too...
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Post by woodeye on Nov 1, 2022 13:14:02 GMT -6
Today I went to the fence boneyard first, found some more pipe I could use. Hauled it back to the Iron Curtain area and repeated the process of drilling each post extension and installing the top pipe on the east side. One more day of preparation; moving fence fabric, cutting short pieces of pipe and installing them, getting the heavy duty pipe attached to the tractor for raising the top section of fence fabric, etc. The following day I will begin the final assault, but I have no idea how long it will take to install the top section, all I know is that it will get installed somehow. When it is eventually all finished, I'll plant a flag on the top pole. With that we will have the North Pole, the South Pole, and the Top Pole...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 2, 2022 18:44:25 GMT -6
Planting those flags could get to be a bit confusing for an educated person; as my Science Teacher in college informed all of us one day that the 'North Pole' of the Earth was really the South Pole, or else the north pole of a magnet would not be attracted to it.
The sad thing is that I really believe she was serious when she said it.
Do you have a magnet?
What if it's attracted to all three poles?
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Post by chrysanthemum on Nov 2, 2022 19:48:38 GMT -6
My little ones still occasionally listen to a story about when Winnie-the-Pooh and friends make an Expotition to the North Pole. He is so proud of himself when he finds a Pole that he asks Christopher Robin if there are other Poles a bear might discover.
“There's the South Pole,” said Christopher Robin, “and I expect there's an East Pole and a West Pole, though people don't like talking about them.”
That’s what I thought of when reading about the Top Pole.
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