Installing a Post for a Bird Feeder

So your going to build a fence or a deck, or put up a pole for a bird feeder, whatever you need a post for you need it solid in the ground which means pouring concrete around it.

But the concrete does not need to be wet. An old trick is to pour dry concrete mix around your pole, using the handle from shovel pack it around the pole. You want to pour about 6 inches of concrete at a time and this is important in order to get the concrete packed well to do just 6 inches at a time. By the time you get to the ground surface the pole is solid.

I always like to make the concrete a little higher than the ground and make it in a dome shape to keep water from forming a puddle around your pole.

The water in the ground and there is plenty of it right now will be absorbed by the concrete and turn it hard over time.

But in the meantime your post is set and ready to work on right away, if you packed the concrete right with the handle the post will be solid as if you poured wet concrete and waited a week to get started.

Now to make the post straight while doing this I have always used a 4-foot level, but I saw a tip in a magazine that looked pretty good to me.

Take a string about 2 foot long or so and tape a large washer on each end. You will need two of these, now you can drape them over the top of your post so that they hang down each side. The post is straight when all the washers are touching the post. This should work on square as well as round post.