Last Tuesday I received a telephone call from the real estate agent who sold us the property. He told me that the owner of the block at the front of our property was installing fences so he could put cattle on his land. Unfortunately, this meant that he would be fencing across a track which we use to get into the property and we wouldn't be able to get into our property. The only solution was to re-prioritise my chores and install the gate at the front of the property - something I had planned to do anyway.
Full of enthusiasm, I cleared the schedule for an overnight stay and headed off to the farm by myself. Kath and Fonzi were left to enjoy the comforts of home in Sydney.
The first job was to buy all the materials needed to install the gate. Easier said than done. The first store I went to had everything, EXCEPT the steel posts I needed. I wouldn't be able to even start the job without these! Luckily, another store was open in Goulburn and they had everything, at lower prices. I was a couple of hours behind schedule, but here is the ute fully loaded.
This is the before photograph of where the gate will go. I had to drive into the property via a back track. It takes a lot longer to drive and I got a bit lost. By this stage it's past 1pm and I haven't even started the job yet!
The first job was to unload all the gear and install the bottom hinge of the gate.
Next, the top hinge is installed and the gate is attached - all in about 30 minutes! Well, this was going very smoothly and I thought that this fencing business was a piece of cake.
You might be thinking "Um, there a few trees in the way, how are you going to get in?". Well, read on!
Of course, the fence needs 2 posts, so I started up the trusty Auger and got to work. Drilling so close to tress, I shouldn't be surprised to hit tree roots. This slowed me down considerably as I had to remove the roots by hand. After about 45mins of drilling, the hole was completed and I was back on schedule! Here's the second post in and the support pole in place. The concrete should set overnight and the fence should be ready for wiring up the next morning.
With the sun starting to set, the air was getting a little cold. The weather forecast was for a low of -3 degrees tonight, so I needed to stay warm. I got to work with the chainsaw and soon had a ute full of fire wood. While cutting up the wood, one of the neighbours popped around to introduce himself and apologise for installing the fence which blocked our access. Never mind! The local fire inspector also came around to introduce himself and give us some bushfire advice. So much for peace and quite!
With the gate progressing nicely, I decided to set up my bed for the night. I didn't bring along the tent for the overnight stay. Instead, I was going to sleep in the shed. I brought along an air mattress and a tarp to cover the dirt floor. Here's my accommodation for the night - I'm sure homeless people sleep in more comfort! Truth be told, I was looking forward to my night in the shed. I also worked out a way to attach the door to the shed so the cold night air would stay out.
After a hard day's work, I sat back and watched the sun set over the hills with a hot cup of coffee and enjoyed the serenity. I cooked up a nice dinner of pasta and meatballs and kept warm by the fire. The weather was perfect with no noticeable wind with a clear sky, but a real chill to the air.
After a couple of hours of fire-watching, I was off to bed. My first night in the shed was un-eventful. I could hear gunshots in the distance as the neighbours went shooting. During the night, I heard some strange animal noises and (what I think was) an owl landed on the shed roof - which sounded loud because I was inside the shed. At 5am, the temperature in the shed was 2 degrees.
The next morning, the sun was out and it was another glorious day. The only job today was to wire up the gate by cutting the wires and attaching them to the poles. You can see that there is a slight gap between the fence and the gate.
Well, the progress I made up yesterday was lost today. I battled with the fence wire all day long. Here are the wire strainer you might recognise from a couple of blogs ago. I'm sure that they were also developed as a torture instrument, as I kept getting my gloves and clothing caught in them.
It took me about 3 hours to attach just one side of the pole, but here it is. The gate can finally open!
Next, I wired up the other side of the fence to the other post. That didn't take as long as the first side, but still close to 2.5 hours. Here's the gate all wired up and swinging like a 1960's go-go dancer. But what about the trees?!? If I was going to drive out of the property through my new gate (as planned), I had to clear away the trees.
I started up the chain saw and got to work! All but one of the trees are dead. Here's the biggest of the trees down - glad it didn't fall on the fence. That would have been hard to explain.
After 30 minutes on the chainsaw, most of the other trees were out of the way. I'll have to remove the tree stump another day. That's a big job!
This leaves (no pun intended) 3 trees standing. It was already past the 3:30pm curfew for heading back to Sydney and the remaining trees were all leaning towards the fence - so cutting them would be tricky to ensure they don't fall on the fence - and I needed to take my time. I would have to leave them for another day. Anyway, there was plenty of room to drive out thought the new gate!
Here's the maiden voyage through the gate. All ready to head back to the big smoke. All in, an enjoyable weekend, but really hard work!
This is the before photograph of where the gate will go. I had to drive into the property via a back track. It takes a lot longer to drive and I got a bit lost. By this stage it's past 1pm and I haven't even started the job yet!
The first job was to unload all the gear and install the bottom hinge of the gate.
Next, the top hinge is installed and the gate is attached - all in about 30 minutes! Well, this was going very smoothly and I thought that this fencing business was a piece of cake.
You might be thinking "Um, there a few trees in the way, how are you going to get in?". Well, read on!
Of course, the fence needs 2 posts, so I started up the trusty Auger and got to work. Drilling so close to tress, I shouldn't be surprised to hit tree roots. This slowed me down considerably as I had to remove the roots by hand. After about 45mins of drilling, the hole was completed and I was back on schedule! Here's the second post in and the support pole in place. The concrete should set overnight and the fence should be ready for wiring up the next morning.
With the sun starting to set, the air was getting a little cold. The weather forecast was for a low of -3 degrees tonight, so I needed to stay warm. I got to work with the chainsaw and soon had a ute full of fire wood. While cutting up the wood, one of the neighbours popped around to introduce himself and apologise for installing the fence which blocked our access. Never mind! The local fire inspector also came around to introduce himself and give us some bushfire advice. So much for peace and quite!
With the gate progressing nicely, I decided to set up my bed for the night. I didn't bring along the tent for the overnight stay. Instead, I was going to sleep in the shed. I brought along an air mattress and a tarp to cover the dirt floor. Here's my accommodation for the night - I'm sure homeless people sleep in more comfort! Truth be told, I was looking forward to my night in the shed. I also worked out a way to attach the door to the shed so the cold night air would stay out.
After a hard day's work, I sat back and watched the sun set over the hills with a hot cup of coffee and enjoyed the serenity. I cooked up a nice dinner of pasta and meatballs and kept warm by the fire. The weather was perfect with no noticeable wind with a clear sky, but a real chill to the air.
After a couple of hours of fire-watching, I was off to bed. My first night in the shed was un-eventful. I could hear gunshots in the distance as the neighbours went shooting. During the night, I heard some strange animal noises and (what I think was) an owl landed on the shed roof - which sounded loud because I was inside the shed. At 5am, the temperature in the shed was 2 degrees.
The next morning, the sun was out and it was another glorious day. The only job today was to wire up the gate by cutting the wires and attaching them to the poles. You can see that there is a slight gap between the fence and the gate.
Well, the progress I made up yesterday was lost today. I battled with the fence wire all day long. Here are the wire strainer you might recognise from a couple of blogs ago. I'm sure that they were also developed as a torture instrument, as I kept getting my gloves and clothing caught in them.
It took me about 3 hours to attach just one side of the pole, but here it is. The gate can finally open!
Next, I wired up the other side of the fence to the other post. That didn't take as long as the first side, but still close to 2.5 hours. Here's the gate all wired up and swinging like a 1960's go-go dancer. But what about the trees?!? If I was going to drive out of the property through my new gate (as planned), I had to clear away the trees.
I started up the chain saw and got to work! All but one of the trees are dead. Here's the biggest of the trees down - glad it didn't fall on the fence. That would have been hard to explain.
After 30 minutes on the chainsaw, most of the other trees were out of the way. I'll have to remove the tree stump another day. That's a big job!
This leaves (no pun intended) 3 trees standing. It was already past the 3:30pm curfew for heading back to Sydney and the remaining trees were all leaning towards the fence - so cutting them would be tricky to ensure they don't fall on the fence - and I needed to take my time. I would have to leave them for another day. Anyway, there was plenty of room to drive out thought the new gate!Here's the maiden voyage through the gate. All ready to head back to the big smoke. All in, an enjoyable weekend, but really hard work!
No comments:
Post a Comment