Fence Posts Are Up Out of the Ground

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Updating on the fence for my sister... She worked with me to help get the posts out of the ground. Her neighbor cut his metal fence posts and removed 18 feet of his 3 and 1/2 foot fence helping us to get our posts dug out. I opted to use a jack and force the metal posts of my sister's fence up a bit so we could begin to get them out. We had to remove four of them.

One thing to note about things having been set in the ground for a long long time is that it might help to soften the ground. So, I first dug a bit around the post and then ran the water hose over to the area and soaked the ground. Then I jacked the post up as far as I could before the anchor bolts started to move. I ran more water into the hole and my sister and I began rocking the post back and forth allowing the water to get under the concrete setting.

My sister's neighbor walked over to see what we were doing. He was surprised and commented that he thought we had a good idea to soften the earth with water. My take is that you save the post by not cutting it and you prepare for replacing a post at the same time. What good is it to cut the post if you are going to have to dig in and around that area anyway to set another post. Bring the entire thing up.

So this leads me to the spiritual. Some things are set so deeply in people that it takes a jack to force it up and out, to uproot it if you will. Often times it takes a lot of rain or water to soften that hard part of us. The water must go deep and it gets less dirty but more muddy. The mud is often tougher to deal with than the dirt can be.

Some folks would rather cut whatever it is off and be done with it. Rarely do we realize that there is still the root that remains. It has not gone anywhere.

The other component is the fact that removing things completely takes more time. It takes more time to complete this process. Patience is a virtue for a reason, right? I could have come through with a metal blade and cut all the posts down. That would be the tip of the iceberg and the most difficult unseen part would still be a problem. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but it remains there so it remains a problem.

I am thankful for the water, the rain, the deluge and the rocking back and forth. I am thankful for the mud and the holes and places for the water to run. I am thankful for the uprooting.



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