On Thu, 4 Aug 2016 10:06:10 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 4 Aug 2016 07:33:42 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:
.....
mushroom on the other end tamps the fill in post holes.

What fill? Don't you mound the crete so it sheds water?

I try not to do things I can't easily undo, or repair if damaged by a
wind or ice storm. My posts are part of structures that are joined at
the top and diagonally braced, not free-standing fence posts that need
concrete to hold them upright. If a tree falls on them they can be
rebuilt quickly from spare timbers. Thus the posts rest on flat rocks
in sand-filled holes,

I've never built a pole barn, but I undersand that they do it with the
gravel-bottomed rammed-earth style, similar to the way you mention.
I'm lucky, too, in that I don't even know what the term "frost heave"
means, except from reading about it. g


except for the more permanent back deck whose
columns sit on 4' deep concrete footings.

Galvanized U sunk in the concrete footing, with post on top? Works
well.

--
It is easier to fool people than it is to
convince people that they have been fooled.
--Mark Twain