Over one hurdle

Today, I finished making the fence hurdle for the farm gate. I still haven’t put the gate hardware onto the fencepost, but it is done for now.

The first job today was cutting the checks and fitting the crossbar.

The check was cut by cutting across the post and then using a chisel to chip out the rebate. I marked the rebate by placing the cross bar across the two posts and marking where the cross bar would sit. Then I marked the depth of the cross bar using a square. I used a bush saw to make the cut as it was in a difficult position and the bush saw has an aggressive cut.

The next thing was to drill through the post and into the cross beam and then drive the coach bolt into the hurdle using a crescent wrench. I was going to drive a “nail” made from a piece of steel reinforcing rod, but the coach bolt seemed a better choice as it would also draw the pieces together.

The post was then cemented in properly. I mixed up the concrete in a big bucket and then poured it into the hole. After that, I tapped the concrete so that the mix was smooth on top. I also wanted to avoid having water sitting in a hole where it would rot the timber over time.

The final job for the day, was to put on our new letter box. I had already drilled and riveted the house number onto the letter-box. The letterbox was my darling daughters choice. I’d like to replace the rivets that the letterbox was constructed with, as they are pretty poorly done. Some of the rivets are set at an angle and it would be easy to catch clothing or skin on these rivets.

I will need to make a small step at the foot of the fence post, as our youngest daughter isn’t quite able to reach the letterbox.

I’ll make a fence style type step for my daughter so that she can stand on the step and see into the letterbox.

I also intent to put some fence rails on the hurdle to make it stronger and more attractive.