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Hot take: a Cheyenne rancher showed me to set posts with a mix of dirt and a splash of water from the stock tank, packed it hard and those corners haven't budged in 2 years
Did this on a corner post job outside Laramie last summer when the ground was too dry for my auger, and now I want to know if any of you pack dry dirt instead of hauling bags of concrete for every single post.
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knight.uma29d ago
The "splash of water from the stock tank" part is what nobody talks about. Water is the whole trick, not the dirt. Dry dirt alone will not pack, it just pours back out of the hole. You add just enough moisture so it clumps in your fist and holds shape, then you ram it in lifts and it sets up like a rock when it dries. But here is the thing folks miss: that method only works in certain soils. If your ground is straight sand or heavy gumbo clay, it will not hold the same way, so you have to know what you are standing on first. Also, dirt tamped around a post keeps the wood wet longer than concrete does in a lot of spots, which is great for the hold but hard on untreated posts over time.
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