Its been a busy fall!
The past six weeks have been full of activity as we've added an additional three acres of hops trellis to our field.  What does this entail?  Well the basic steps include:

Building a Hops Trellis:

1. Mark pole locations
2. Dig 4' deep holes 
3. Place 22' poles into holes
4. Straighten and install poles in permanent locations
5. Install cabling and anchors  

It might be surprising that one of the most difficult parts of this entire process in digging the holes. Because the poles are placed on a grid, they must go in their exact location and cannot be moved over a couple of feet to avoid large rocks. 

The poles are set in place with the help of our wonderful friend, Don Briggs, and Mike. These two have mastered the technique for using the bucket of the tractor to lift the end of the pole just high enough for it to be gently set into the hole. 

The next step involves using a "pogo stick" on the end of an air compressor to back fill the soil in around the pole. We attempt to align each pole on the north side of each hole to help with alignment, use a level to get things straight, and then fill the hole in roughly three different steps so that the soil can be compacted at several layers to keep things steady. 

We are very lucky to have the incredible team of Tom Perez and Lisa Ott from Otter's Edge Farms help us with both the design and cable install.  They are awesome and did a great job. ​