The Half Post

[Tom Hull]

This is about the half post on small houses. These are early houses that were too small to have a regular round "firecracker" technology fence post - unless one used a lady finger size. But they didn't. I have had these before but they are sort of uncommon. Likely because the makers need to have a ready source of reeds of some sort. What I used are some sunflower stalks that came from a droughty field and were small and stunted but the diameters of the ones I picked up were right. In the photos below you can see the house with all three posts I had to replace. The two front half posts were much smaller than the one on the side. Unfortunately a reed would work better as the inside of the sunflower stocks is soft and pithy but I made them work anyway as it isn't a structural issue and doesn't show. Notice I used a plastic Tupperware cutting board as my work service and a serrated kitchen knife to saw the piece of the stalks. I also used a box cutter type knife to split the post into. Snick snack and done. Quick easy and fills the bill.
If anyone has any questions about this please write. I think the photos are pretty self explanatory.

[Tom Hull]

This shows the cut post and the house I installed it on.

[paulrace]

Thanks, Tom, that's a very helpful suggestion.