The Old Folks Home

[Wickedchicken6]

Still working on it....

 

[Alaskan]

@perchie.girl's dry place is more the area I am familiar with....


That wet stuff you have @microchick would make me keep pinching myself.... as in "how can grass be that green and grow THAT fast"



My place is odd... probably super productive like microchick...for two months...then horrid dark and cold and snow and ice for the rest of the year..


In this photo you can see how the lawn is still green and growing... but all native forage is totally dead....so Fall.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Made it thru 13 degree night no casualties. Removed driveway tree this morning

 

[microchick]

Perchie.girl, I absolutely LOVE the desert.My husband and I were married in southern Arizona and I think if moving wasn't so much danged work we would probably have retired to a desert climate both for our health and because he hates mowing as much lawn as he mows now.

Me, I love the sand, chaparral, mesquite and rock landscape.

Wickedchicken6, your landscape almost looks like Illinois farmland. Without the trees. Very pretty. Our pasture on our land will grow mixed grass and clover forage that will get about 4 and in some places 5 foot tall. Since we have been mowing about 2/3rd of it to use as a flying field for our RC planes, the natural occurring weeds have been knocked back and we are noticing that the grass is coming in thicker and healthier. The field day we attended concerning rotational grazing promoted that this would happen if pasture was either used for a rotation schedule of being grazed for X number of days and then livestock removed from it for X number of days allowing the grass to recover. It also happens if the pasture is mowed.

Alaskan might know more about this but we were also told that the health of the pasture by the number of earth worms int he root base of the grass. To prove his point, he pulled a clump of grass and there were a bunch of wigglers dangling from the roots. He promoted cattle turning the grass into A)fertilizer and B)mulch the latter by simply walking on the grass and treading it over.

Superchemicalgirl. Stay safe and warm. Isn't it remarkable how fast Mother Nature can knock you back in time 300 years? I almost feel guilty that our winter is in a mild spell right now with the sun shining and temps in the 40s. But this is the Midwest. If you don't like the weather, hang around for a few hours cause it may change!

 

[perchie.girl]

Made it thru 13 degree night no casualties. Removed driveway tree this morning

on purpose?

deb

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hopefully the tree did not do any damage to have to be removed

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Yes it cracked under the high wind and heavy snow. Top was in driveway

 

[pennyJo1960]

Yes it cracked under the high wind and heavy snow. Top was in driveway

We had the top of a very old evergreen come out here last
year the first winter here missed us the neighbor but not by much
hte guys got out and made short work of cutting it up

 

[chickadoodles]

White oak, red oak, pin oak, shingle oak, shag bark hickory and smooth bark hickory, black walnut, wild cherry, ash, poplar, cedar, honey locust and black locust and I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a few but those are the ones that are in our timber that I can call to mind. Missouri has a booming timber industry and over 14 million acres of timber with 730 different native species of trees.

One of the things we were showed is how to thin out the hickory to stimulate the development of old growth trees and promote growth of desirable trees like oak. We have a lot of areas where oaks were cut and used either for home building or furniture/cabinet making. They have a tendency to resprout from their roots around the base of the stump. We are trying to clear out the surplus of hickory to make room for the new growth oak. The one good thing about having a lot of hickory is that we are never going to run out of firewood.

I've got different pictures of our forest but this is an areal view that gives a better idea of how much timber is around us. That is our house at the very bottom of the picture and if you look reeeeeeal close you can almost see my chicken coop, LOL

Microchick you can make some awesome syrup from Shagbark Hickory! It's a wonderful golden color and has a smokey wonderful taste. You can use it on pancakes, fish, chicken and everything else. I pull some bark off in the summer when it separates from the tree, and wash it off put a large pot full on to boil all day take the bark out and let it cool over night.
The next day run it thru a coffee filter (I have the permanent kind) three times to make sure it is clean and golden. Then measure it and for every cup of liquid add 2 cups of sugar
bring that to a hard rolling boil for 15-20 min. Pour into sterile mason jars and water bath process for 10 minutes. It's wonderful!


Scg I sure hope your power comes back on soon! Eat what ever you can find! lol I would!
I would never be able to leave home if I lived in the snow!

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote:
13* Wow I would have got on a plane to the Bahamas!