Progress?

The auger broke on the second day (Wednesday). It hit a rock, spun out of my hands and broke both the bolts on the spring that holds the two auger halves together, bruising the hell out of the back of my left hand. I quit after that. I managed to dig zero of four holes, but I at least got a start on one of them.

Thursday I went to town and got bolts for the auger. I brought them home and found that they were too short. Back to the store I went and bought longer bolts. I put them in and the damn thing wouldn't start. Back to town to get some carb cleaner, some judicious spraying into carb throats and it started. It wouldn't dig a damn thing, the blades were so dull it wouldn't cut through butter. I spent the rest of the day with a chainsaw instead.

Friday I went to town again for various things, worked some more with the chainsaw, then took the auger apart and sharpened the bits on my bench grinder. I reassembled the auger and my son Jack showed up to lend a hand. We got the auger started and put it to work, it died ten minutes later and wouldn't start again.

 I think it's probably due to the old gas and oil that I had laying around. Oh the joys of two-stroke power, I should have bought new gas and oil from the beginning. The carb will have to come off for a thorough cleaning before getting fresh gas and new oil. I need to take the carb apart on the generator, too, so I'll do both at the same time. 

For that matter, I have a gas powered chain saw that needs some work, too. The battery on the electric Ryobi chainsaw lasts about 15 minutes and then needs recharged. I bought a bigger battery for it and the damn thing won't physically fit into the hole in the chainsaw. That made me happy.

This morning the wife and I went out and dug the last four holes in a couple of hours with a spade and a post hole digger.

Maybe I'll get that auger running again, and maybe I won't.

Happy Fourth of July

 I've taken my two work-days off this week, not to travel and celebrate the holidays but to do some work around the house. I need to get my new train room cleaned out, I need to finish some ceilings and floors, and I need to build a fence.

So, for the Fourth of July I was digging fence posts.

Several months ago, I forget how many, I mentioned to Range Partner that I needed some holes dug and asked if he had an auger on his tractor. Instead, he said he had a gas powered single operator auger that he would be glad to part with. (I think this was actually before he developed his airplane addiction, but I'm not quite sure.) Deals were made, cash changed hands, and the auger came to rest in my shed.

Today I pulled it out of its box, attached the auger bit to the power head, fueled it up and put it to work. I managed to dig 2.5 holes before I gave up for the day. Yeah, 2.5. The first was a test hole in the back that I dug down about a foot before Mrs Hades reminded me the holes need to be in the front for the new fence. Blah blah blah.

So I drug my new auger around to the front and commenced to digging holes.

First off, it's not as fast as I thought it would be. Faster than a post-hole digger, don't get me wrong, but not as fast as I had hoped. Second, it's hot today. Damned hot. When I was digging the hole in the back I was in the shade, but just in front of the driveway it's in the direct sunlight. Next up, thanks to my ongoing rock-growing enterprise, I ran into a lot of rock seeds. 

And lest I forget to mention, every 4-6 inches of digging you have to pull the auger up and clear the hole with the aforementioned post-hole digger. Not such a big deal, really, because about the time the hole needs cleared the auger runs into a rock seed and twists out of your hands anyway.

I got the first hole dug, inserted the post and tamped the dirt back around it. I stepped back and proudly observed my work, and then realized that this particular post was also going to be a gate post so it needed to be set in concrete. Back out of the hole came the post and the post-hole digger came back into play to clear the hole once more. But, I wasn't ready for concrete yet, so I moved on to the next hole.

I ran out of steam about halfway through this hole. I put everything away and went inside for a cool drink, thinking I would wait until the sun set behind the tree line and provided me a little shade. A couple of hours later I went out and finished that hole. This one didn't need cement, so I was then able to place the post and stomp the dirt around it to hold it straight and level. 

It was about then that I decided that I was done for the day. I'll go out tomorrow after the sun sets behind the trees and have another go at it. I can get two more holes dug for posts that don't need cement and set those posts, then I'll have two to dig that do. Once they get done I can mix up the concrete and set those three posts, then go about putting up the slats. Finally, after that is all done, it will be time to build two 4 foot gates so I'll still have access to my utility trailer and the lawn guy can get his mower back there.

Hopefully after a couple of days of fence building I'll have everything done that needs to get done. This part of the fence needed to be pretty because it's visible from the street, but the rest of it will be wire fence on steel poles so I won't have any more holes to dig for a while...until Mrs Hades decides it is time to expand the front yard fence to meet the back yard fence. The fence between us and the neighbor has to be pretty, too, you see. Fortunately there won't have to be a gate in that one.

I am somewhat disappointed in my progress today, I must say. I used to be able to do all of this type of work in the hot sun without having such a problem with it, but I'm a whole lot closer to 60 these days than I am to 30. How that was allowed to happen I can't say, but there it is.