Less is More

This morning I woke up at 7:00 A.M.  I had received nearly 12 1/2 hours of sleep.  My body picked up a bug or food poisoning yesterday, and I was in rough shape yesterday.  So I went to bed to avoid the pain and misery.  I woke up a couple of times in the night to get rid of more of the sickness, but I was up and ready at 7:00.

I headed to Harbor Freight to pick up a farm jack for the project today.  Somehow or another, I had seen a YouTube video about removing fence posts with a farm jack, so I wanted to give it a shot.

I stopped by Dad's house just before 9:00 this morning, and we headed out to the farm.

Before the big project, Dad and I removed the conduit for the container box.  The owner wanted the conduit, so we just pulled it up into the container.  It didn't pull very smoothly, but we were able to get it in.  We cut the telephone conduit and wire.  Now the container is ready for pick-up next Friday...just a week away!  I can't wait to see that big hunk of metal out of here!

The long conduit.

Dad had already done the hard part yesterday and dug the conduit out of the ground.

We pulled the conduit into the container for the next owner to use again.

After that, it was time for our big project!

I didn't know just exactly how many fence posts I needed to remove, but it was a lot more than I thought!!!  We started at the front of the house.  When I purchased the house, the previous owner had had an old rusty cattle panel fence around the home.  It wasn't very inviting, appealing, or attractive.  We had removed the cattle panels, but we didn't dig out all of the hard-to-remove fence posts.  Some came out easy.  These were the ones that didn't!

Two of the posts that remained from the old cattle fence that used to surround the home.

The house had numerous fence posts remaining from the old fence we removed.

So we started with just a farm jack and a log chain that we had repaired just this morning, too!  It had had a broken link.  Our first post didn't go smoothly.  The chain wasn't easy to wrap around the jack or the post.  We fought it over and over again.  We just couldn't get a good grip.  It was going to un-smoothly that I even tried sticking a bolt through the chain links in order to get them to stay.

The brand-new farm jack and our first attempt at removing a pole.  It did not go smoothly at all.

Finally, Dad figured out a way to wrap the chain over the jack and onto itself.  Once we had that method, the posts started coming up.  It was slow but steady work.  But again, our first two posts were just not smooth at all.

But after those first two, we had a method, and the method kept working!  Some posts came up easy! Others took a bit more work!  But time and time again, the posts just kept lifting out of the ground.

Once we figured out a method, the posts started coming up out of the ground.

We cleared out the five or six in front of and north of the house.  Then we moved to the northeast part of the pasture where a couple of gates used to be.  These posts were much bigger (telephone pole size).  We didn't think the jack could pull these up, but we were left dumb-founded as we watched the soil break and the poles lift out of the ground.

The yard already looks better without these!

The old posts are out of the ground!  Woo hoo!

Little by little, the yard is clearing up.

Of course, we were reminded of a time just a little over a month ago where we dug...and dug...and dug...one of these posts out of the pasture.  Boy, was that work.  But now we were removing them steadily!  Slowly...but steadily.

The front yard is clear of poles!

No longer does a gate block the area.

Around 12:35, I had a gentleman show up to purchase a cattle sliding gate that I had listed on the internet a couple of days ago.  I was selling the gate and the homemade cattle chute for $400.  He just wanted the gate and was willing to pay me the full $400!  He had been looking for one of these for awhile and was close to buying a new one around $700.  So he was ecstatic...as was I!

We talked a bit about cattle, and he planted a seed that I might take advantage of next year.  He highly recommends raising feeder cattle from 425 pounds or so to about 1000 pounds and selling them before winter.  It's a thought I had never considered before.  But adding 600 pounds at $1.50/pound doesn't sound too shabby!  I sure have the land for it.

We took a break for lunch and headed back to do more posts.  I counted 16 on the east area of the barn.  Ugh.  Some were small, but others were HUGE.  This was going to be an all-day project!!!  But we worked little by little.  I would do a post; Dad would do a post.  And one by one, they kept coming down.  And one by one, the area east of the barn started looking better!!!  It's amazing how a mess of just wood can really detract from the view.  But once these numerous posts started falling, the area took on a whole new shape!

This area was filled with massive posts...SIXTEEN of them.

The entire area is just messy.  I want to turn this into more pasture.

The area east of the barn was just riddled with old wooden posts of all different shapes, sizes, and lengths.

The posts are coming down one by one!

This post was in the ground more than out of the ground...and it was HEAVY!

And the jack just kept on working.  We were pulling up multi-hundred-pound posts at times...some over 10-feet tall.  And the jack just kept on working.  We pulled up the three telephone poles in the pasture that have driving me nuts (it looks so much better without them).  And we tackled the large white 4 x 4 vinyl posts in the pasture, too.  Again, the pasture looks so much better without them!

The posts just kept on falling.

Some of these were telephone poles cut down to size.

The three telephone poles that were just driving me nuts since I bought the place.

They are down!

The pigs started chewing on the poles.

The area is still a mess!

Today was work.  We even pulled up a small tree with the jack and chain!  It grabbed the roots and all.

We finally pulled up the two vinyl wooden posts out of the pasture.  Now all that remains is concrete.

All in all, we pulled up 25 posts and one small tree.  It took two of us an entire day, but without hydraulics, this was all we had.  And it sure beat digging.

The entire farm looks so much better, and it allows for easier access to mowing around the house, too, with the riding lawnmower.  The east side of the barn is starting to look like a potential pasture (future years).  With the grain bin pads removed as well as the concrete mess east of the barn, this should add an entire extra acre to the pasture.  More acres means the potential for more animals!

The area can be be turned to grass only!

Look at all of those posts we removed today!

25 altogether.

Dad left to go watch Evie's soccer game, but I stayed behind the mow the yard before tomorrow's rains.  I was able to mow the entire yard with the riding lawnmower, and it took me just minutes under two hours.  That's a bit too long if you ask me!  It is all the more incentive to turn that east side of the barn into a pasture!

But what a great day.  The entire farm just looks better.  Cleaner.  More open.  I hope to sell the posts for cheap.  Several of them are sturdy and strong.  Perfect for gates and corners.  I just don't need them.

The house as I bought it several weeks ago vs. after today's work!

The area east of the current pasture when I bought the house vs. after the work today!  Wow, what a difference!

The farm is looking better with less.  All it needs is a house, a machine shed, and a barn.  The rest is going...little by little.

The pasture grass is trying to grow!

And, of course, the pigs just kept eating all day.  It's what they do.