What did you do in the garden today?

[SheaLoner]

Hemp thru a chipper?
Im assuming you will probably get one of the 'people grade' ones.
ie I got the Harbor Freight electric one and that thing has been a work horse like you could not imagine. Ive beat the everliving crap out of it and it keeps chugging right along. !!

Gas powered ones, bigger, stronger, a LOT more expensive, but anyways to the point.

Running Hemp thru it? Isn't hemp real fibrous / stringy? Wouldn't that raise total hell with the chipper, getting twisted and wound around it with the fibers and clogging it. I know certain palm fronds, trying to chip them, oof yah, now I need the screwdriver and socket

Maybe there is a reason they are not mulching it.

Aaron

This one? What kind of chips does it produce? Nuggets or closer to chips/shavings?

 

[TJAnonymous]

I'd love to get a chipper but I don't really have any room to store it. DH is already complaining that the sprayer, seeder, and tiller take up too much room in his shop. Besides, the tree companies are more than willing to drop their mulch to anyone who asks. I *still* have 2 giant mounds of it from last summer which is halfway composted by now.

On another note, I picked up 1.5 tons of rock this morning in my pickup. There's a 2 ft gap between my field fence and the privacy fence for the medical clinic next door. The weeds that grew in the gap nearly overtook everything I planted on that side of the garden (grapes, raspberries, tomatoes, etc...). So after a good rain when the ground was nice and soft, I cleared everything out and put down feed bags to act as a weed barrier. I'm going to put the stone on top. Hopefully this will not only keep the weeds from going crazy but also give me a nice path I can use to harvest from the opposite side of the fence, if needed. Of course, DH & DS are not overly thrilled at the prospect of shoveling rock all day on Saturday. I'll have to do something nice for them in exchange....

Mama hen had her 4 little babies out of the nesting box today. There's 3 black and 1 blue. At least 2 with feathered feet, 1 without. I didn't get a close enough look at the 4th baby to see if she has feathered feet too. Fingers crossed that none of them are roosters!

 

[Ascholten]

View attachment 3035937
This one? What kind of chips does it produce? Nuggets or closer to chips/shavings?

Yep, thats the one, it's more along the lines of shavings and fairly fine. if you are putting straight wood thru there, I throw everything thru mine, Ill ram the leaves and everything down it, twigs etc, but if you were doing more just wood, they'd be ghod shavings for the bottom of a coop once it dries out.

It has a large disc in there that spins, and it has a cutting blade on it. Every time the blade spins round it shaves a slice off what you shoved down there, picture like a food processor and putting a carrot against that .. not the chopping but the slicing blade.. type thing. and it spits it out the end up front. I find that a 5 gallon bucket fits up under there fairly well so you fill it with wood chips / shredded leaves etc then just go dump it in wherever you need it.

Aaron

I figured at a hundred dollars, if I destroyed it, no big deal but that thing's been going on years now with some really nasty stuff ive slammed down it.

Edit: let me remind everyone, these ARE loud. No they don't scream like a diesel one or a gas engine one does but when you shove a branch down it, you'll hear it.

 

[Elyrian1]

Hearing protection recommend sort of loud, Aaron?

If we buy property out here in western Texas, I'll need to clear a goodly amount of mesquite to do ANYTHING at all. Big enough chunks I'll save for firewood, but if you've seen wild mesquite, you know it's mostly twiggy!

 

[Sally PB]

I dug up two 5' diameter areas. I just got the sod off*, not really holes there yet. Future home of apple trees. The soil is heavy, wet clay, made even more heavy by the recent rain.

*I kept saying, "Sod off!" as I dug. I've wanted to say that.

 

[SheaLoner]

I dug up two 5' diameter areas. I just got the sod off*, not really holes there yet. Future home of apple trees. The soil is heavy, wet clay, made even more heavy by the recent rain.

*I kept saying, "Sod off!" as I dug. I've wanted to say that.

I went looking for a sod cutter to rent for the new potato patch. No luck without driving 40 min out my local place was like we were thinking about it, people keep asking for one.
Looks like Im shoveling the sod off.

 

[Ascholten]

Hearing protection recommend sort of loud, Aaron?

If we buy property out here in western Texas, I'll need to clear a goodly amount of mesquite to do ANYTHING at all. Big enough chunks I'll save for firewood, but if you've seen wild mesquite, you know it's mostly twiggy!

Ive spent 4 decades working around Turbines. Steam / Combustion, so Im pretty hearing impaired. (Translation, im deaf as an old coot.. ) With that, on a safety side, yes Id say you might want hearing protection just to be safe. No it's not gunshot make your ears ring loud, but it's the constant, just above threshold sound that gets you in the long run. A 30 cent pair of squeezies would work just fine. Lets say if you'd wear hearing protection with your lawn mower, you'll want it with this too.

The Mesquite is AWESOME for smoking meats too, and seafood !! A little goes a long way tho! When I do my steaks with Hickory / Mesquite, just a little meskie along with the hickory and you are golden !

Aaron

 

[Elyrian1]

Yeah, I worked around semi trucks for 2 years and that didn't help me at all, so I know where you're coming from.

And I would definitely be saving some mesquite for smoking meat. No way I could pass that up!

 

[Ascholten]

I ran out trying to get a picture of my wood shaving pile but it's pouring out again and the damned phone wouldn't click with my finger because it got wet, so i'll get you pictures tomorrow of the shavings and what the inside of this thing looks like

aaron

 

[LoveMyChickens123]

What did you do in your garden today?

I picked a bunch of Rattlesnake green beans and Cherokee wax beans, a few tomatoes, three eggplants, some broccoli shoots, and jalapenos. Pretty happy with today's harvest!

Pulled some weeds!
My therapy session everyday….