A couple of things for you Rox, one, a week ago our twenty four year old granddaughter visited for a couple of days. While she was here Glenda made something or another with your olive oil. Granddaughter thought it was the best ever. When she got back up to OKC she told her dad about the olive oil. So the ex-son-in-law called Glenda to get the particulars and said he was not only ordering some for his house. He was going to order some as gifts for others. He runs in that kind of circle. Word of mouth, best advertising.
You're right of course about the a/c here in north Texas. Along the coast in California it wasn't necessary. But here, it's not as bad as along our coast, it's still pretty well necessary. You get out of the sun and you only lose ten or so degrees of misery. In drier even though hotter climates the difference is a lot more.
Our arbor makes a ton of difference from two on during most of the summer. In fact this time of year we get almost complete shade in the afternoon and it does make a big difference in the comfort factor out on the deck and back porch.
I'm glad you like work. I believe it is what we're designed to do. Part of the reason I believe that is I've noticed most of the happy people I know like work. And I choose to believe it is the work that makes them happy and not vice versa.
One of the things that I believe makes work easier for me than it seems to be for some folks is my itty bitty bites attitude. I find that I break everything into small increments, itty bitty bites if you will.
You take this afternoon. I had to dig two holes and set two posts. I used a small hydraulic auger to dig the holes. It digs right down with the twelve inch bit to about three feet. The hiccup in the get up always is pulling it back up by yourself when it is considered a two man machine.
So when I dig a hole with this machine there's first the going down. Right now it's tough because the ground is dried down to about four feet so we have these humungous cracks, some of them three plus feet deep. When the auger catches a crack it wants to wrestle. Not with the crack, with you.
When its wetter the clay is a nightmare because after about a foot or so down you have to start adding small amounts of water to keep it from sticking the auger in place. If you let it get stuck then you waste two days energy in about five minutes getting it unstuck.
Going down to depth is one segment, itty bitty bite you understand. Once it's to depth you've got something done, you're on top, do a back pat. You need it because the next thing, itty bitty bite, is a hoss. That's because you have to lift out of the hole the auger with its dirt. No fun at all. Well, unless you do it like I do. You see there's a touch where you spin the auger with the hydraulic control just right as you lift up. If you don't spin the auger at all it's dead weight. If you spin it too fast it wants to keep on going down which is actually a little tougher lifting than picking up the dead weight option. If you spin it just right it comes out nice and easy, back pat one oh one one more time because you need it.
That's because the next thing is you have to get all the loose dirt out of the hole. When it's dry like it was today that's about half a hole's worth. That's done with good old fashioned post hole diggers.
The post hole digger thing is another example of itty bitty bites all on its own. Again, the touch, when you have the touch you bring up the maximum amount of loose dirt possible at a time. Each successful post hole digger maximum load up is an itty bitty bite feel good on its own. Sometimes there's a magnifier in the post hole digger itty bitty bite process. That magnifier is the burn.
You see if you're doing very many of these posthole cleaning excercises you get the good old fashioned muscle burn. That's a trip all on to itself. When you get the burn you know you're doing good and you can do better.
After the hole is dug and cleaned out we get to the itty bitty bite of placement. Step one is putting the post in the hole. It wouldn't be such a big thing if invariably there's a bunch of posts to place in the holes. And just as invariably them posts are heavy.
The next thing is the putting the concrete in the holes. A lot of the time I use sacked concrete. It's what I did today. I only had to do two wheelbarrow loads, two holes, simple math, making the holes big makes the math simple.
Again, itty bitty bites one oh one all over again. You only mix a small batch at a time by adding water to the concrete mix in the wheelbarrow. Each small batch is itty bitty biting all on its own. When you're doing it right you're extremely efficient. When you're not, well, you're not. Inefficiency at this point will eat you for lunch.
When the posthole is full of concrete then it's time to line up the post for height and line. I do it by eye. Some people use a string. That's fine. But have you ever noticed what they do after they set it with the string? They check it with their eye. We get to the same place. I just don't trip as often.
When I was a young man my father told me what he liked about being a fenceman was you got to see progress. When you arrive at the job there's no fence and when you leave there's either a good fence or evidence that there will be one shortly if not sooner.
I bet he operated on the itty bitty bite theory. He just didn't call it that. I believe the pictures Bobby Goodman posted show what I'm talking about.
