pulling T-posts

[flowerbug]

I'm slowly replacing posts in the chicken coop with 6'tposts... which means they are 8' before I drive them in.
It's a job for the day after a good rain. The tricky part is getting the HEAVY t-post driver off - it's still over my head when it's done.
View attachment 35460

i won't be buying any more 10 footers that is for sure! overkill for the fence i'm putting up. i guess if they eventually rust out on the bottom i can just keep using them by driving them in again.

how is Eva doing? i miss her stories and your stories too.

 

[seedcorn]

When I need a tall post, I pound one deep. Then take bolts and attach another post to it.

 

[henless]

We have a t-post driver & a t-post puller. Makes fencing much easier.

 

[flowerbug]

i'm hoping i never have to remove any of these posts ever again. so for this project i'm ok with less fancy implements.

i'll have this project done over the next few weeks now that i have the worst of it done the rest is like eating cake on a plate with a fork and a glass of milk. way too easy... and where it is means it is not pressing for getting done ASAP. i just wanted that part finished where i removed the previous fence and it was wide open to deer, groundhog and bunny traffic. much smaller posts needed where the rest of the run has to be put up, i can do almost all of it without a ladder and even the last few posts where i'll have to use a ladder it is actually flat ground and not much in the way of setup or propping.

in the long run for finishing off the enclosure of the gardens i can do it for about 20 more posts and a few more rolls of fencing, which at current prices would run me about $500. to get around an extra 20,000 sq ft of space enclosed and to eliminate deer, etc. traffic to where i could grow a lot more strawberries and beans and such and not have to lose them to predation and even better to not have deer ticks getting dropped in the yard by wandering deer would be well worth it.

 

[canesisters]

i won't be buying any more 10 footers that is for sure! overkill for the fence i'm putting up. i guess if they eventually rust out on the bottom i can just keep using them by driving them in again.

how is Eva doing? i miss her stories and your stories too.

She's doing great. Hopefully about 2.5months into growing next year's beef.
I did some tree work yesterday and she got all of the branches that I could toss over the fence. LOL, she stood there all afternoon belly deep in tree limbs munching on the leaves.
She has gotten quite spoiled …. well.. MORE spoiled than before. I started giving her grain in Jan/Feb to help her hold her weight and now if I'm late with the groceries she picks up her feeder (bottom half of a plastic barrel) and swings it all over the field in a temper tantrum! "Dinner before 5PM OR ELSE!"

Even thought it's only a bit more than a double hand-full..

 

[seedcorn]

Guessing it’s the attention.

 

[flowerbug]

She's doing great. Hopefully about 2.5months into growing next year's beef.
I did some tree work yesterday and she got all of the branches that I could toss over the fence. LOL, she stood there all afternoon belly deep in tree limbs munching on the leaves.
She has gotten quite spoiled …. well.. MORE spoiled than before. I started giving her grain in Jan/Feb to help her hold her weight and now if I'm late with the groceries she picks up her feeder (bottom half of a plastic barrel) and swings it all over the field in a temper tantrum! "Dinner before 5PM OR ELSE!" View attachment 35517 Even thought it's only a bit more than a double hand-full..

hahaha!

 

[Ridgerunner]

These are my T-post tools. I have used a sledge hammer to drive them but got this driver and was grateful I did. So much easier. I wear leather gloves as it will tear my hands up, my hands are not nearly as tough as they were when I was a kid. It is kind of heavy getting it into place. I'll pound a couple of times until it is self-supporting and then walk away a bit to look at it from two different directions to see if it is going in straight.

I used to use a chain and another T-post to pull them when I couldn't dig or rattle them out. Sometimes they are not that hard to pull but I don't see a good reason to get a hernia trying. Persistence is good but stubbornness can be painful. The longer the lever arm the more force you generate so I'd try to get a long lever arm. Sometimes the T-post I was pulling with would bend. Then one day Bay posted a photo of her T-post puller she was using at the time. I got one from Tractor Supply the following Tuesday, my normal shopping day. It is heavy, You have to pay attention or you will pinch a finger. There is a bit of a technique in wrapping the T-post with a chain but this is so much easier.

Of course, if you have heavy equipment like a Bobcat or tractor so you can lift and can get access, that has to be the easiest way.

 

[Zeedman]

These are my T-post tools. I have used a sledge hammer to drive them but got this driver and was grateful I did. So much easier. I wear leather gloves as it will tear my hands up, my hands are not nearly as tough as they were when I was a kid. It is kind of heavy getting it into place. I'll pound a couple of times until it is self-supporting and then walk away a bit to look at it from two different directions to see if it is going in straight.

I used to use a chain and another T-post to pull them when I couldn't dig or rattle them out. Sometimes they are not that hard to pull but I don't see a good reason to get a hernia trying. Persistence is good but stubbornness can be painful. The longer the lever arm the more force you generate so I'd try to get a long lever arm. Sometimes the T-post I was pulling with would bend. Then one day Bay posted a photo of her T-post puller she was using at the time. I got one from Tractor Supply the following Tuesday, my normal shopping day. It is heavy, You have to pay attention or you will pinch a finger. There is a bit of a technique in wrapping the T-post with a chain but this is so much easier.

Of course, if you have heavy equipment like a Bobcat or tractor so you can lift and can get access, that has to be the easiest way.
View attachment 35528

Those are what I use too. There was a time I used a sledge & ladder, when my garden was much smaller; it was a PITA even pounding 10 poles that way (and I was younger then!) Now I trellis almost everything, so 400-500' of trellis supported by T-posts if the weather lets me get the whole garden in. Can't imagine pounding 90-100 7.5' T-posts (or pulling them at season's end) without the right tools.

It's going to be a PITA this year even with the right tools, since I will be moving 200' of fenceline in addition to whatever I put up for trellises. There will be a berm against one side of the new fence, to re-direct drainage from the adjoining field around my garden.

 

[flowerbug]

i would not want to put posts up and take them down each season.

if things go well i won't be moving these posts or fence again. i may need to eventually change out the old recycled chunks of fence for newer fence but that won't be happening this year. once i get this beat up stuff put up i'll be done until whenever... probably next year or ...