Posthole "Ovens" Make Winter Digging Easier
A quick and safe way to dig postholes in frozen ground is to use a barrel “oven” to contain the fire over each post hole spot. This winter, my husband and son had to rebuild some pens near our calving barn and chipping down through frozen ground was taking several hours per hole.
So they made “ovens” out of old metal protein supplement tubs. They used a cutting torch to make small vent holes (about 1 1/2-in. dia.) along the bottom edge (to draw air in to keep the fire going) and cut a hole (4 or 5 in. dia.) in the center of the top of each “oven” for the smoke to come out.
The place where they were building the fence was grassy so they cleared the grass away from around each post spot and built a small fire over each prospective hole. There was plenty of firewood handy, with post and pole end scraps from their corral building project.
The ovens safely contained the fires. A small mesh screen was also put over each smoke hole, weighted down with rocks, to keep any sparks or embers from coming out.
Our son built fires under several ovens and let them burn while working on other parts of the corral, and the frost was completely gone under the ovens within a few hours.
Where the frost was really deep, he scooped out the embers after the fire burned down, dug down through the thawed dirt a ways farther, put the ember/coals back in, and added more wood to continue thawing the ground underneath.
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Posthole Ovens Make Winter Digging Easier FENCING Miscellaneous A quick and safe way to dig postholes in frozen ground is to use a barrel “oven” to contain the fire over each post hole spot This winter my husband and son had to rebuild some pens near our calving barn and chipping down through frozen ground was taking several hours per hole So they made “ovens” out of old metal protein supplement tubs They used a cutting torch to make small vent holes about 1 1/2-in dia along the bottom edge to draw air in to keep the fire going and cut a hole 4 or 5 in dia in the center of the top of each “oven” for the smoke to come out The place where they were building the fence was grassy so they cleared the grass away from around each post spot and built a small fire over each prospective hole There was plenty of firewood handy with post and pole end scraps from their corral building project The ovens safely contained the fires A small mesh screen was also put over each smoke hole weighted down with rocks to keep any sparks or embers from coming out Our son built fires under several ovens and let them burn while working on other parts of the corral and the frost was completely gone under the ovens within a few hours Where the frost was really deep he scooped out the embers after the fire burned down dug down through the thawed dirt a ways farther put the ember/coals back in and added more wood to continue thawing the ground underneath
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