I am not Rosie the Riveter. I did pose as her once for Halloween, and while I’d say I managed a fair resemblance from the naked eye’s perspective, I think it must have given me a very false sense of my own strength. Tonight is proof of that.
6:45pm. I report to duty for night one of my fence building career. Tonight’s lesson: how to dig the wooden corner post. Let’s omit the fact that by the time I showed up nearly 4/5 of the hole had been dug. By the time 7pm rolled around the sweat was already beading up around my forehead and I had a blister the size of a dime on my right hand.
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| Travis offers some guidance |
For those who haven’t had the pleasure of digging a fence post hole before, let me share a few things I learned (and if you have, please chuckle to yourself as you recall your first night with the post hole digger).
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| using the tamping rod |
#1: the posts you see scattered throughout a field are only half the story. Yes, just as much post is buried under ground as is visible above ground. That amounts to four painful feet of digging. I completed about four inches before feeling like I needed to pass out.
#2: until you dig such a hole with four friends standing by watching, you will not know the meaning of humiliation.
#3: forget putting up a pull up bar in the barn, this is all the workout anyone needs.
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| checking how solid it is |
Despite a little embarrassment and a lot of exhaustion, I figure it can only get better from here on out. Who knows, maybe next time I’ll get eight inches dug before falling to the ground!
