Came up around 4:30 with a 16′ 4×4 jutting out of the back of the truck. I intend to deer-proof the bird feeders today. But first, some unloading. I stopped by my folks’ house on the way up to pick up Dad’s snowblower. It’ll stay in the pole barn for the summer. Also brought up a bunch of new blankets and sheets for the keep.

I found the auger in the pole barn and started digging a hole for the new bird feeder pole. Went as far as the handle would allow and then set the post. I had bought this stuff called Fast 2K that promised to deliver the strength and rigidity of a 50-lb bag of concrete in a 2-lb bag of 2-part expanding foam. It had all sorts of colorful warnings, the best of which was, “CAUTION! DO NOT EXCEED MIXING TIME AND NEVER ALLOW THE COMPOSITE TO START EXPANDING INSIDE THE BAG AS BAG MAY RUPTURE, CAUSING CONTENTS TO SPRAY OUT AND PERSONAL INJURY AS WELL AS PROPERTY DAMAGE TO OCCUR.” Sounds like a fine product to me. I mixed the two parts in the bag, sliced the corner, and poured it in the hole. It looked like melted black cherry ice cream; I figured I had done it wrong, or didn’t mix it enough, or something. However, after about a minute, it started rising up in the hole as thick, off-white foam. I held the post plumb for a few minutes while it set, and went to clean up. I grabbed the bag, which itself was inflating a bit, and immediately dropped it—it was red-hot. This stuff has one helluva catalytic reaction.

I switched gears while waiting for the foam to finish solidifying and set out to clear some leaves. I fired up the new mower and mulched my way up and down the driveway from the road to the pole barn. I need to take a look at the bagger unit for this thing and see what I can salvage from it. I’m hoping to at least save the chute; I’d like to build some OSB walls in the little red garden tractor trailer we have up here and use it as a super-bagger.

After spending a few hours excavating leaf layers and kicking up a ton of dust, I returned to the feeder pole to finish the job. I grabbed a ladder and installed four mounting hooks a little over 10 feet up. I topped the pole with a cheap solar light from Menards, filled and hung three feeders from the shepherd’s hooks and a bird bath on the new pole. The feeders are at eye-level when you’re standing on the deck. Hopefully, they’ll stay up there. I took the shepherd’s hooks and bird bath back to the spot in front of the big house trailer but kept the big open feeder out and filled it with corn for the deer and turkeys.

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Can’t beat a cheap set of solar lights to guide you to the deck at night.

I also brought up a pair of wall-mounted solar lights and installed them on the posts at the base of the deck stairs. Figured it’d be a good beacon when coming up at night and none of the other lights are on. And at only $4 each, I’ll probably end up getting some more.

I put the mower away and closed up shop in the pole barn just as the sun was setting. Spent a little time organizing in the keep and was on my way home by 8:30. Looking forward to coming back for the weekend.