The Old Folks Home

[bruceha2000]

Now all DH has to do is drag the barbed wire down to the nearest ravine where it will become erosion control.

I would urge you not to do that. Someone in the future is going to come across that old barbed wire and likely get hurt because they won't see it. I keep coming across really rusty downed barbed wire, at least it is running what used to be an old fence line.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Most likely it turn off the mobile data when it "upgraded". I guess so you can't accidentally use up all your data time. I have mine turned off unless I need it for something specific.

Thanks a LOT, Bruce! I’m going to tackle that now!

I have unlimited data, so I don’t need to conserve it. I’m hopeless at keeping track of such things.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Yesterday DH and I came out the back door, and the chickies gathered round, demanding treats. DH has a bad habit of reaching out to them like they were dogs wanting to sniff his fingers, so they were sure he had hidden treats. Blackbird jumped up and bit the hot end of his cigarette!

I was horrified, but Blackbird was apparently unbothered.

yikes!

 

[microchick]

That's true under normal circumstances, Bruce but in Missouri everyone has a deep ravine that they fill up with everything from old junk cars to tin cans for erosion control. On our last property we pulled a 1940's pickup truck out of the ravine when we were cleaning up the property. We don't do that (dump that kind of junk) but we do dump downed rotted trees, old tires and yes, barbed wire with the hopes that heavy rain creating flash flooding in the ravines will cause debris to hang up and form a natural cofferdam that will slow down soil loss. The metal in the barbed wire will probably be gone in 5 years due to the fact that it is already rusted but by that time it will have done it's job and we will have shallower ravines. Even the conservation dept has said that is about all we can do to fight erosion caused by the ravines flooding.

Some of our ravines are 20+ feet deep and at least that wide. The walls are so steep that I've had to rappel down into them in order to retrieve rocks for my flower bed edging. It's pretty impressive to see that the erosion has caused a tree that is 24" wide to topple over because the roots have been undermined by the erosion.

Morning all. Slept in this morning. Now up and ready to face the day!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Micro that is a tad scary huh I guess not sure how to respond this end of the country we know someone in years past dug holes for garbage to be buried that we have to walk through the chicken yard pickup glass they uncovered little slow going to take a hot shower

 

[microchick]

Yeah, our coop is beside an area that the previous owner used as an 'incinerator'. He had a big round metal whatever that he used to burn his trash and dead small livestock in. Now I'm constantly picking up broken glass and pieces of metal from the run and around the coop.

Penny, folks dig holes here also but most just fill a ravine. Seriously. We were helping the neighbors put out a grass fire several years back and found the ravine where they had been dumping their bad TVs.

Just took apples next door to our neighbor with 13-14 kids...I lost count after 10. They have 4 sows and a boar hog and are expecting piglets. Yay! Now I know where to buy a half a hot for the freezer!

I'm just glad they are to the east of us and the prevailing winds are from the other directions but they seem to be nice hogs and currently they are plowing their garden for them.

 

[drumstick diva]

Folks try NOT to dig holes here - this was a previous quarry area . You cannot dig a couple inches down without hearing the screech of shovel against solid rock. We had uncovered some, way too big to pull out - so just covered them back up.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Wowzer Diva no boulders here but not able to say much do not dig but chicken poo
here started no pain now lot's Banana bread in the oven .. Banana and nut already cooling.. coops done had to shovel half the shavings in silkie they were wet I think a nipple may need changing use the horizontal style almost never go bad

 

[bruceha2000]

The metal in the barbed wire will probably be gone in 5 years due to the fact that it is already rusted

I don't know, the stuff I'm finding is likely many decades old based on what I know of the prior owners. Must have been put in by the owner 3 back and it was sold to owner 2 back in the 50's. The stuff is brittle, can't bend it to make a smaller "package" to move it, it just snaps but it is still plenty sharp. Some still visible running between trees it was nailed to (now several inches into the tree as the tree grew around it) and some just below the surface where it fell when the posts rotted. Maybe, like most things, "they don't make it like they used to" and yours will rust into oblivion in short order.

Some of our ravines are 20+ feet deep and at least that wide.

Maybe dump a lot of trees and stuff on the barbed wire when you are done putting it in the ravine?

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Those ravines sound like a really difficult issue! I can’t imagine - flooding and just pulling more good land down into them.

I love rotten wood, though. I pull it out of the woods and use it as the base for my raised beds. It would cost far too much to fill them, otherwise. I am also trying to reclaim the very steep hillside behind our house. It was clear cut about 10 years ago, and the top 2/3 are terribly eroded. The bottom third grows thick, green grass and wildflowers!

I gathered “used” Christmas trees last year and laid them across the hillside. I’ve been adding Rotten logs, wood chips, leaves, and “used” chicken bedding. I’ve gotten a few flowers to grow in these berms, and I keep adding to them. if we can get the water to linger up on the hill we can get things growing up there and it will look so much better. Last summer we took out almost all the thorny locust that had begun growing up there. Now we just have blackberry brambles.
And my chickens, the darlings, have found spots up in the scrub to lay eggs! They’re locked in until everybody remembers how to use a nest box!