A little bit sad

"When loved ones die, you have to live on their behalf. See things as though with their eyes. Remember how they used to say things, and use those words oneself. Be thankful that you can do things that they cannot, and also feel the sadness of it" Louis de Berniere, Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Helen's father died at the end of October. He had helped us at every stage of Lough Bishop House's development. From the septic tank to the roof he was there with practical assistance and good humour.

He was diagnosed with cancer in February of this year and asked us if we would plant a tree for him. He particularly wanted a Wellingtonia and after much searching O'Mearas Garden Centre just outside Mullingar managed to source one for us.

We brought the tree home in October.

And in December we finally got around to planting "Graham's Tree". All who come to visit us at Lough Bishop House will now be met at our entrance by a Wellingtonia (Sequoiadendron Giganteum). As its name suggests this tree will grow to be very big and I suppose we won't get to see that either.

John McCabe, from McCabe Contracters, was coming to do a little digger work, so we took advantage of the opportunity and got the machine to dig the hole for  us. Christopher mixed in a bag of compost to the loosened soil and the job was complete.

In a few hundred years time it will look like this, and will probably be blocking the avenue if not the road!

Broken Fence Posts

It's about fifteen years since this fence was put up, and some of the post have started to rot and break off which means the fence is sagging, and cannot be relied upon to contain livestock. Replacing intermediate post is not a big problem it's just a case of removing staples taking out the old post and banging in a new one either by hand or by machine.

King posts on the other hand, which have to take the strain of the entire fence, are a different story altogether

And it's a king post I'm replacing today, which has rotted off at the base!

It's been in the ground about 15 years which is good going for a tanalised post which is guaranteed for 10.

I used to go to all the trouble of removing every staple and untying all the wire, which is very time consuming and not worth it, so now I just cut the broken post out.

I'm replacing it with a new pressure creosoted king post which should last at least twenty years. If it's good enough for a telegraph pole it's good enough for me!

Mind you they are expensive but they do last, so for any new fence creosoted posts all round are best, but if you want to save money use creostoted kings and tanalised intermediates.

For high tensile fencing the king posts need to be driven in by machine.

To see more photos of this machine action click HERE for a link to an earlier post.

A new section of wire is then joined in using these ingenious joiners from Gripple, and the fence pulled tight.

As good as new and stock proof once again!

I've done 3 articles on fencing and never mentioned.... 'The American'.

An essential tool for fencing, the american fencing pliers is used to remove staples, cut wire, pull wire and if badly stuck can even be used as a hammer.

Basically if you don't have one you can't go fencing! Just what a farmer needs for Christmas, or in our case a wedding present!