Well, I got more 'sperience' yesterday /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. My wife and I marked the spots for 20 posts yesterday. My original plan was to drill all the holes on Saturday, then get the posts the following weekend and install them. This is to break the job of installing 185 posts into a managble project from a time and budget perspective plus I don't have a place to store 185 posts!
As I said, that was my original plan...Of the 20 spots we marked I got exactly 3 holes dug after working all day. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif In each hole I hit rocks less than a foot into the ground. Not single big rocks, just medium size rocks that necessitated stopping the digging, moving the tractor and using a digging iron to get them out. Then repositioning the tractor to continue digging.
On the bright side, someone's recommendation here on TBN of leaving the rear PTO engaged (tractor engine off, of course!) when changing a shear bolt worked great. It allowed me to turn the auger by hand without the driveshaft turning which made it easier to line up the holes in order to knock the broken bolt out (I broke 2 bolts). I also bought two 9/16" box end wrenches to make installing a new bolt easier. I had been using two 10" adjustable wrenches. The box end wrenches take up less room in the tool box and are faster. The adjustables were fine when I didn't think I'd be breaking so many bolts. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif While I was at the hardware store, I also bought more bolts. Interestingly enough, the shear bolts I bought from Leinbach are 2.25" long. Neither TSC nor the local TruValue had them, so I had to buy 2.5" long bolts. They're Grade 2 and the additional .25" wont interfere with anything.
I also discovered that as the temperature goes up, my patience goes down /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif. So, I kept that in mind as impatience and a tractor can easily result in making a disagreeable situation worse. When I felt patience wearing thin, I took a break. Not a bad idea with temps in the 90s.
Oh, on one of my rest stops my wife told me that the air conditioner in our bedroom was producing nothing but hot air. (She refrained from drawing the obvious analogy to me. Bless her heart! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif) So, I got to go look for a new air conditioner last night. Sears was the only place that had ones even on display. They had none in stock except the bazillion BTU, 'you need a picture window sized opening to install it' models or ones for casement windows. I offered to buy the display model which would have been ideal but they wouldn't sell it to me. They said if they can order the model, they can not sell the floor model. Sigh. So, I ordered one. They claim it'll be in on the 8th. We'll see. My local Sears is sad, I don't see how they stay in business. It took the salesman 45 minutes to determine what they had in stock since he had to actually go look instead of trusting the online inventory. (I noticed their registers are CompuAdd PCs!!! CompuAdd hasn't been in business for years). When I ordered the air conditioner I did not have my Sears card with me. No problem. Enter your SSN and your card number will appear. Er, um, someone elses name showed up. Guess Sears card number database is as accurate as their inventory database! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I ended up using my Visa card.
Sears was a place my Dad always shopped for tools and it was a great place. It's sad to see what they've (at least the ones in our area) become. I only go there when I have to.
