Well, Chris and Mum thought it might be a good idea to get a new clothesline, since the old one was pretty knackered. I finally got around to taking another trailer load of rubbish to the tip and came home with a new clothesline from Bunnings.
Of course the trick was to get the old one out. After trying to loosen it with a pipe wrench that did nothing, I got out the angle grinder and cut it off. Even then, the stump refused to budge.
I figured that a decent amount of force would lift the post free of the socket, so I drilled through the post, inserted a steel rod and tried levering it up. No luck.
Not wishing to hurt myself, I hauled out the jack that I’d salvaged from the jeep. Surely that would do the job. Well, yes and no. The theory was sound and the timbers were sturdy enough, but what I ended up doing…
…was lifting the whole concrete footing out of the ground. Not the complete disaster it could have been but not as easy as if the post had come free. That left me only one option.
And that was to use the socket supplied with the new clothesline and concrete that in place. I didn’t follow the instructions. Since I had the old clothesline, I squared it up using a length of the old post. That saved me from having to tie it in position with ropes while the concrete set, like the instructions said.
Then I’ll have to figure out what to do with the paving block where the socket is, because the paving stone was cut for the diameter of the post. I’ve lifted the socket up to the height of the paving stones so the cap can be used. I think I might need to fill that space with cracker dust.
I hope that’s not going to come back and bite me.