Homesteading

[DeepseekerADS]

Oh, and went with cable ties to secure the fencing to each post. Easier that way. Ran out of them and finished the rest using wire.

 

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[releventchair]

Your gaining.
I used big cable ties on a fence panel dog kennel. Surprised they held out for years.
A gate post had to be replaced this winter and that was cable tied old to new, till a proper repair can be made. Makin do.
A note towards chain saws,read an article where a guy used his p-38 can opener to clean the groove in his chainsaw bar. It might work with gloves on..
Frost here has still shown up fathers day before. Earliest June some stuff can be growing though, if able to cover plants at night.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

It's all staked down now, went through one of my brush piles and cut up enough to do the entire fence.

By the way, just why am I growing hops? Homebrew! After I make the first batch (been putting it off) I can take the yeast and keep growing my own of that. Barley I'm not sure what to do about yet, but I'll figure that out later - when it matters The barley needs to be malted. I know how they do that on a large scale, but I'm thinking maybe 10 lbs at a time. To be completely independent, I need that South bottom to become a field of barley... When I brewed my own in the 80's up to the mid 90's I'd throw in peaches or other fruit to give it a delicious flavor, and an added kick.

Back about '92 I'd made my best batch yet, the ABV was over 10%. I lived in Ohio, it was Summer, and my mother and stepfather were driving up. When I got home from work I went to the fridge and the last 6 beers I'd saved were gone. Went out to the deck, and my stepfather was leaned up in the corner, about passed out with a stream of drool reaching down to the deck. He thought it was normal potency and drank all six.

I have a jeweler's screw driver I use the clean the bar. I also found a jeweler's file so I can go at the rough spots.

Those chain saws will get a workout for next Winter, I want to be more than prepared. I went through the South bottom land and cut all the dead and diseased trees. Stacked lengths up and will carry up to the house later. Quite a bit of wood in that pile.

It's hot out in the sun, so with the fence staked down, I'm resting up to go back to the post to post wire.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

The rain is coming, threatening now. I've only about 100 ft of post to post wire left to stretch.

I've some trouble coming too. Looks like it will be about a week before I plant the crops. This morning when I looked at the hops plant it was doing fine. I just looked at it again, and that baby has grown at least 3" since morning and it's looking for something to climb on. Come tomorrow morning it may have found something. I'll have to put my brain to work on that. I read they'll reach 30 feet in a year.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

The posts to post fencing is wired tight. I'll be doing a little more to the fence of course, but the fence is up - finally!

My next step is taking all my scrap lumber and building bed frames. I had thought of just using rows and not framing them in, but have decided the beds will be more controlled framed in. That'll be my job tomorrow. The rest of today will be spent getting all the boxes in my bedroom area stored in the eaves. Of course the eaves are already full of empty boxes and who knows what kind of junk - and maybe a little treasure here and there.

One serious milestone reached!

 

[joncutt87]

Well deep, glad to hear your fence is up. I had to press pause for the day, and mow half the yard.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Good morning All,

Yesterday I took all my scrap lumber and misc re-purposed boards and put together 5 frames for my beds. I'll be fetching more lumber scrounging around. They're not all 4'x4', one larger a little, and the rest just lacking an inch or two on one end or the other. The size just isn't an issue. The area of my fence is a lawn, and I'll not be disrupting the soil. My compost will go directly on the undisturbed ground.

It has been pouring rain most of the morning, water logged again! I was going to run wheel barrow loads of compost today, maybe later - rain supposed to end by 2:00. It's been a leisurely morning. I'll have to restart the wood stove for the coming cold tonight.

One thing I need some advice on.

I've been ignoring the issue. There's 4 critter built holes in the ground, go down at least about a foot and are 5" to 6" in diameter. They appear to be inactive, no signs of egress, and I first noticed them a couple years ago. These are inside the fence.

I'm going to fill the holes with rocks, but it looks like I may have a nemesis. Recommendations?

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I use straight gas with a hint of seafoam. My hens were feeling very ambitious today

jon, you've been eating away at my mind with this! And I have to wait till next year for chickens. Veggies must come first

 

[joncutt87]

Some of your plant residue from your garden can be used to feed your chickens. Lawn clippings could also be turned into silage for winter feed.

 

[releventchair]

Good morning All,

Yesterday I took all my scrap lumber and misc re-purposed boards and put together 5 frames for my beds. I'll be fetching more lumber scrounging around. They're not all 4'x4', one larger a little, and the rest just lacking an inch or two on one end or the other. The size just isn't an issue. The area of my fence is a lawn, and I'll not be disrupting the soil. My compost will go directly on the undisturbed ground.

It has been pouring rain most of the morning, water logged again! I was going to run wheel barrow loads of compost today, maybe later - rain supposed to end by 2:00. It's been a leisurely morning. I'll have to restart the wood stove for the coming cold tonight.

One thing I need some advice on.

I've been ignoring the issue. There's 4 critter built holes in the ground, go down at least about a foot and are 5" to 6" in diameter. They appear to be inactive, no signs of egress, and I first noticed them a couple years ago. These are inside the fence.

I'm going to fill the holes with rocks, but it looks like I may have a nemesis. Recommendations?

A foot deep is not likely a den. More like something was being unearthed. Bees being dug out, or grubs.Sometimes old grey to black paper nest fragments are near hole if bees.
Wild chance a woodchuck was sampling diggs for a den site but that shallow and unused is not likely to be revisited if filled in with dirt. Beyond the attraction of freshly disturbed earth anyway.
Naptha mothballs can discourage use of a den when tossed in. Not a harmonious gesture though... A wood chuck den will run several feet underground. Below frost line anyway and into a more ambient earth temperature.
Rabbits and such often burrow down, then up at an angle to allow dry area to den in. Multiple holes in same area often serve as a back door.

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

Those shallow dens sounds more like a mother fox teaching her litter how to dig out field mice for food. Just fill them in for now.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Those shallow dens sounds more like a mother fox teaching her litter how to dig out field mice for food. Just fill them in for now.

Yesterday I filled 3 of my frames with compost, 2 more to go on that and planning as many as I can get. Last night I was looking through seeds trying to plan what seeds I'll put where, companion planting etc.

I was filling in holes yesterday and saw down into one hole, there was a horizontal tunnel off the bottom. And of course in looking around late yesterday, I found 3 additional holes making 7 total.

I'll certainly be watching this.... It may very well turn into a war. But in the end I will win.... It is too important to ignore.

Weather turns warm on Sunday, tomorrow. So that may be my day of planting. Tonight's low is supposed to be 23. It's 26 out there right now.

 

[BIGSCOTT]

I never plant or till the earth on sundays.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Sorry Scott, but tomorrow is the day for me. The time has come, and Our Lord willing, I pray I'll have made the right choices.

I've used 1/3 of the compost, all 5 beds are filled. Then I followed with each bed, a layer of Biochar compost, 20# for each bed. Then I covered that with 40# of humus and cow manure. I may have had that backwards or something, but all 5 beds are ready.

Each bed, I surrounded with a layer of prime (rank) cat litter (Feline Pine), and then a layer of wood ash to keep all the critters out - hope it helps! All those "gopher" holes, I filled with the really rank cat litter. I'd been building up a barrel of that for 4 months now. In the beds I was trying to create a super soil. I'll find out this year if that was the right thing to do. I've only used about 1/3 of the compost I brought in.

I'll be building more beds, but felt I needed to attend to the ones I have already, first.

My live plants in the basement are going crazy now, so I've got to get them in the dirt ASAP. My hops plant has grown darned near a foot since I last mentioned it. Darned thing has reached the window and is trying to wrap around my raspberry plants. All of the live plants are going nuts, and tomorrow is the time to do it. I don't know if I'll go to Sunday School yet or not. Please understand that I'm feeling plenty pressure to put them all safely in the garden. Waiting, and waiting, and now the weather is turning? Oh yeah, gotta get at it! None of the berries are in the beds. I'm digging holes in the ground for them, will fill with compost, transplant, and then mulch around them to keep the grass or weeds from taking over. The next few weeks will be pure baby sitting.

Ya'll wish me luck - I may need it! I'm adlibbing for all it is worth.

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

The deep den sounds like wood-chuck but you should have seen one of them by now. Fill the deep den for sure and see if they dig it back out right away. Wood-chuck are easy to get rid of. If you let them go on working they will undermine you and your gardens. There are vegetarians.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Wood-chuck are easy to get rid of.

With that rancid cat litter in their holes, I should see evidence of escape today.

What's the best way to get rid of the critters?

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

Wood-Chucks are a lot meaner then they look when it comes to them standing their ground with other animals, they can kill a cat if it jumps on them so cat litter won't brother them. I always keep a couple working dogs on my farm, a Border Collie and a Australian Healer and some times it takes both of them to put the hurt on a big ground hog when they decide they are going to hold their territory. Pour some ground-mole pellets deep in their dens and they will be gone in 2 days. No other small animal will do as much damage around your buildings and garden area as a ground hog.

 

[releventchair]

Last chuck I ridded required a shovel, digging, and a wallop.
Today, and I'm not sure you have a chuck.. If clover is growing nearby a patient, well camouflaged wait with a rimfire would be easier.
A conibear trap does not discriminate. Properly sized and placed over the entrance and fenced in to keep non target species out it will dispatch the hole's resident.
Non lethal methods may disperse tenant ,but how far?
A stocking with moth balls might stink enough to discourage use and allow later removal of chemicals not wanted in a garden area.
Diagnosis of what critter might need to come first for future knowledge. Sometimes when a habitat is desirable another critter replaces one that moves on or dies. Annual recruitment of younger generations will send colonist's looking for homesites too. Sand around entrance might reveal tracks. Sighted critters in area of holes too, though not a guarantee they are actual culprits.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I found a few more holes this morning, very well done almost smooth bores. But there's no hint of use. There's no piles of dirt around the holes. And they mostly hidden in the grass - until you step in one! I tend to find them that way.

Maybe there's a very stealth space craft dropping down here during the nights and taking core samples

 

[releventchair]

Well, if they are going to steal your dirt in the middle of the night, they could at least throw a stick of wood in the stove in exchange...