Hedge raising: Off the ground

Post: Bernie: April 12, 2011
Note: To follow The Gathered Hedge from beginning to end, choose Introduction from the index at right.

It is now mid April and the Hedge has fully reemerged out from under the snow and we are ready to begin with the Hedge raising work.

We want to raise it up so it can dry.

I thought it best to pull the poles out of the sleeves...

...so we could stretch out the Hedge.

The poles were soft enough to bend by kneeling on.

Something we should have seen coming in a strong wind.

Almost up.

Now with some more drying we can test the rest of our Hedge raising plan.

We used our extension ladder as a platform supported by saw horses and a garbage can.

Remember I said  I thought it best to pull out the poles and straighten them...

Well we had another visit from our partner the wind that night and the Hedge was actually blown over, flipped over, almost landing in the road. Sorry we didn't get a shot of that...

But it is now weighted with cement blocks.

We used bungee cords to attach them to the poles.

Let our partner the wind try to move that!

We plan to test the next component in the Hedge raising plan soon. The Hedge raising party is taking shape too. We have a lot of volunteers that said they would come and help. If all goes well with the "added support" idea we hope to have the raising party in early May.

But then there is the wind...

Next: Hedge raising, testing added supports [READ]