Hops Poles Must Be Planted - Now..

Mid June is already here and the poles are ready to be planted. Here they lie next to their designated holes.

  Our help has arrived.

Our good friends Diana and Jerry came willing and smiling.  Hope they are still smiling tomorrow...

Additional help showed up...Howie and Amber helped to plant more of the mighty posts. 

 The clay from 3 ft. below the surface was soooo difficult to tamp down around the poles once they were set in the holes

Gina, the dog proved to be our most valuable helper of all.

Day 2 and everyone is still smiling.  Guess it wasn't too bad after all.

On the following weekend we did not have any helpers scheduled.  With 30 poles left to plant just 2 of us to do the work, we encountered a little problem.  I don't like to drive heavy equipment, but I  am way too small to maneuver a 250 lb. pole into a hole.  Howard gave me one choice:

I reluctantly took the controls of the trac hoe and made an attempt at moving it.

Hmmm....this isn't so bad.  Actually kind of fun.

We finished setting one acre of poles....finally.

Whew...glad this task is finally done.