Bulding fences

During the Easter break, while everyone else was busy having fun, HFH had a lil' fun of our own!
On April 8th and 9th, a few HFH members participated in the Easter 'Brush with Kindness' project, to help a bushfire affected victim, working the family garden and fence.

At about 7am, Melbourne Uni HFH volunteers met at the intersection of Princes and Lygon Street, ready for take-off to the HFH Ringwood office, where we met up with a senior HFH member, Brian Finch. After settling some logistics, and some brief introductions, we headed to Whittlesea, Kinglake Area.

Upon our arrival, we were introduced to Troy, a bushfire victim last year. Fire swept his house and cattle farm, his cattle got loose and the land was ablaze. Thankfully, him and his family remained safe, and our aim was to help him rebuild his life-- experienced construction workers rebuilt a home for him ,while us volunteers rebuilt his cattle farm,

which was like that while it shoulda been like this:

ie, with many tall wooden posts, buried deep in the ground, and hard wires passing through.

I went on a Friday and the amusing thing was-- all the volunteers were girls! Where's all that testosterone when you actually need it? Nevertheless, we told ourselves that this was the new age, and we females could do just as well! : )

Equipped with a shovel and a pair of gloves each, we started off by first digging holes about 16-17 inches deep, for the wooden pole to stand in. If any of us were groggy before this, we were definitely awake now.

We each took turns digging into the soils of different textures, some were really dry and hard, some were moist and mushy. Occasionally you find a worm, followed by a few shrieks, but we moved around the perimeter of the cattle farm anyway,and dug holes while putting the wooden poles in.

Brian would occasionally come around and give us a few tips on how to make the best of our equipments.

Within that first hour maybe (no one really kept track of time), these were the fruits of our labour:

We also had to fill the holes we dug with buckets of water and some cement to make the soil compact so as to hold the wooden poles in place. We drew water from the lake (how very outback-y of us) and circulated around the perimeter once more.

As we were moving along the perimeter, another HFH senior volunteer went around to tie some strings as a guide before the wiring. This required more accuracy than you'd think, because it has to be dead straight, so the task was left to the experts.

Soon, Brian declared it was time for tea, bought some potato buns and drinks and cookies. We took a well-deserved break and some of us decided to check out the surroundings. Just to give you guys a feel;

This was the house that was being rebuilt .

Some trucks that were parked around, and the trailer that Troy currently resides in.

And not forgetting the dog, which was so big and loud, it could scare the living daylights out of you.

And the toilet we had to use all day if we needed to do a number 1, and hopefully, not a number 2.

When we returned from tea, which we had by Brian's car, the wooden posts were now all aligned with some string.

Our next task was to place 2 or 3 metal posts with holes on them, in between the wooden poles, so that we could string wires through. We were handed a post driver to, true to its name, drive the metal posts down . This process required a certain amount of accuracy, and some members had to stand aside and judge the alignment, as the posts had to be straight, for wires to pass through the little holes in the metal posts. It had to be aligned with the other metal posts, and be as vertical as possible from the front view.

Of course, Brian first showed us how to use it. What we do is we put the post-driver (the red thing) over the metal post, lift it slightly and drop it so that it rams the metal post deep into the ground, enough for it to hold itself up stably. Think - 2 metal objects clanking together real loudly, and a very very heavy red metal object. It was such good exercise that we reckon people should stop joining gyms and start building cattle farms.

We worked in partners, and while some people were driving the metal posts down, some patched up the hole with soil, completing each post as we went along.

Soon it was lunch time, and we were all pretty tired, so food sounded good again. We had some sandwiches--assorted so we could have our pick. We were pampered, really, considering this was volunteer work, after all. We chatted and took some group pictures, and before long it was back to business!

We continued what we were doing, while Troy and another HFH member sawed a tree down. Yup, those moments, that you see on cartoons, and yell "Timmmmmmmberrrrrrrrr!" --we saw that! and of course, yelled it out! :D

The tree was apparently diseased/old, and we needed to clear the path to complete the perimeter of the cattle farm.

We soon found out why the tree was diseased:

Little caterpillars chewing away on the insides of the tree! Little caterpillars that look like the Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar in Lewis Caroll's stories:

At about 3 pm we decided to call it a day, Brian said the wiring could be done by them later and we were free to go! We packed up, and stuffed the equipment back to where it came from, in Brian's handy-dandy HFH car, where you can literally find any piece of equipment in it:

The results of our hole-digging, post-driving day was the following:

Needless to say, it was a very rewarding and bonding day--not to mention educational.

None of us regretted a moment of it, and it was a day well-spent!

If you're kicking yourself right now wishing you were there, do not despair because another project is bound to be on its way!: )

To all the volunteers who participated, thanks and good job--give yourselves a pat on the back ! :)




Cheers,
Melanie