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When we first got our 039
Stihl chainsaw
we also got a ripping chain with a special adjustable guide that
connects to the chainsaw body. The guide helps to make even cuts when
you want to make planks from a tree.
I think we cut a total of 15
planks from a pine tree that were each about 2 feet long. They worked
good for our foot bridge, but the process was not easy.
We decided making our own
planks was a bit too complex for our skill level, but if you've got the
time and a remote location that makes delivery a challenge then maybe a
chainsaw mill is an option worth considering.
If you keep potting your
dwarf Meyer lemon up into the next size pot each year, it will grow
into a beast too heavy to maneuver out the door. Putting our
house plants outside in the summer is the sum-total of my pest
management plan, so I chose to instead use some bonsai techniques to
keep the dwarf citrus at a manageable size.
I waited until I'd harvested
all of the fruits,
but made sure to time my pruning to come before the lemon tree opened
its first blooms. With Mark's help, I
yanked the tree out of its pot and used a bread knife to shave off
about a third of its root ball.
Cutting back roots helps
miniaturize the tree, and also ensures that the lemon won't get
rootbound and strangle itself when roots circle the inside of the
pot. Meanwhile, the technique allows me to replace a third of the
potting soil with well composted manure, which will make sure our
darling lemon gets plenty of micronutrients to round out its weekly
meals of diluted
urine.
To counteract the stress
of suddenly cutting off part of the tree's feeding apparatus, I also
trimmed away about a third of its branches. I'd never actually
pruned the lemon before, so I focused on shaping it to an open center system, removing twigs that were
shaded under other branches. I tried to leave as many of the
branches with tiny bloom buds as possible, but figured the long term
shape of the tree trumped the current year's fruit. (If I was
pruning a young tree, I'd try to focus on three main limbs, but I
didn't want to make my changes to drastic on this long-unpruned tree.)
My root pruning is
relatively major surgery, so I'll keep a close eye on our lemon for the
next week or so. Hopefully it'll bounce right back and start
opening those flower buds that dot its branches.
Today was the day for
operation dwarf
Meyer lemon re-potting.
I was nervous we'd hurt our
precious fruit tree during the procedure.
No branches were harmed. I
mainly assisted with the heavy pulling while Anna held the pot and did
the actual surgery.
The reason I'm so interested
in mob grazing (even though we're unlikely to have large livestock any
time soon) is the potential for renovating poor soil. Next week,
I'll cover a few other ways that mob grazing can improve pastures, but
today I want to focus on trampling.
Remember how I mentioned
that Greg
Judy plans for about a third of the grass to be trampled into the soil
during each grazing session? If you're renovating
poor soil, you may need to trample a lot more.
Greg notes that degraded
pastures will generally produce very seedy, poor quality grass the
first year they are managed by mob grazing. He recommends using a
very low stocking density so that your livestock can subsist on the bit
of high quality grass present, then make sure they trample the
rest. Next year, the grass will be more palatable.
The same theory applies
if your pasture has grown up in poor quality weeds. Greg regaled
us with the tale of how he tried to manage a field of cockleburs by
grazing hard every spring in hopes of eradicating the problem.
The result? The cockleburs did better and better each year.
However, once he started ignoring the weeds and managing for grass,
cockleburs were trampled down into the litter and eventually wiped out.
You might be tempted to let some paddocks
lie fallow if they're very problematic, but Greg recommends against
this. Remember, your livestock are the ones improving the soil,
both with their manure and by trampling down weeds and grass to enrich
the ground. If you have to, give your livestock supplementary
feed that they can eat on pasture, but keep them on the problematic
ground if you want it to improve. (And, whatever you do, don't
mine out the few nutrients you have by haying!)
Finally, plan your
paddock's shape based on the quality of your pasture. Livestock
trample more in rectangular paddocks since they have to mill around to
find the food, so make your paddocks long and skinny while you're in
the soil improvement phase. Once you've build up organic matter
and your pastures are thriving, you can switch over to square paddocks
so your livestock can utilize as much grass as possible.
Someday,
I'll let the deep
bedding in our
chicken coops rot all the way down into high quality compost. But
it won't be this year.
As usual, I need more
biomass than I have on hand, so I'm mining the chicken coops
early. I figure the half-composted mixture of manure, leaves, and
straw will work as both compost and mulch for our blueberries.
(It certainly did a good job underneath our peach tree last year.)
In the coop, I used the
pitchfork to pull back the top six inches or so of bedding, then
scooped out the partly broken down material underneath. I caught
the faintest hint of ammonia (a sign that I let a
pocket of manure get too thick before adding more bedding), but
otherwise felt like I was working with good quality leaf mold.
My blueberries are in
mulched wide rows, but I don't think their roots have colonized all of
the intervening space between plants yet. So I made circles of
deep bedding material around each bush, then filled in the gaps with
magnolia leaves my mom had picked up on her city curb.
I wonder if I'll have
enough deep bedding to finish the whole blueberry patch?
Bob reminded me in the
comment section yesterday about the angle marks on the cutters of a
Stihl chain. It really helped to teach me the proper angle when I first
started sharpening.
I went through a phase with
the old 039
where I used a generic chain that our local hardware store would cut to
whatever size you needed. I think they were maybe 5 dollars cheaper,
but at the time I was trying to avoid a trip to the big city. I've
since decided to pay a little extra and get the Stihl brand chains
after talking to a few old timers about the difference.
Image credit goes to
PlanoPower.com.
Yesterday, I wrote about the benefits
of stockpiling winter forage. But how do you manage
pastures so that you'll have extra grass to tide your animals over
through the winter?
Greg Judy tries to
stockpile his whole farm every year. By extending his recovery
period and always grazing paddocks in the same order, pastures last
grazed in July are ready to be eaten in fall and early winter, while
the areas grazed in October and November will have grown back enough to
be grazed again in January.
Greg makes two passes
over each stockpiled paddock over the course of the winter.
First, he rotates the animals through quickly, ensuring that they only
eat the upper third of each plant. These growing tips are the
part of the plant highest in sugars, which means Greg's cows are
getting lots of energy right when they need it --- during the coldest
part of the winter.
Starting in February, he
rotates the cows through the same paddocks again, this time letting
them eat half of what remains. This second helping of stockpiled
grass isn't as high quality as the grass tips, but the cows don't need
as much energy since winter is beginning to mellow into spring.
Come April, the pastures
should have fully recovered, with new grass stalks once again reaching
the boot stage. However, Greg aims to still have a bit of
stockpiled, brown grass left in each field even as the new grass is
growing up. (He notes that if your cows have eaten up every last
bit and you don't have stockpile left in April, you've got too many
animals on the farm.) The combination of lush spring growth and
leftover winter growth keep the cows from coming down with bloat since
they tend to consume both types of plant matter at once.
The final factor Greg
Judy mentions about winter grazing is soil management. Many
farmers don't allow their animals on pasture at all during the winter
because of the tendency of their hooves to churn the ground up into mud
("pugging"). Greg is able to keep his animals on pasture since
he's bred for a lighter cow (more on this later) and since he moves his
cattle twice a day during wet periods in the winter. Make sure
you pay attention to the soil as well as the grass!
Are
logs along the sides of permanent garden beds good, bad, or indifferent?
On the positive side,
edging your beds with logs increases the quality of your soil.
Not only do they catch topsoil that might try to erode away, they also
serve as breeding grounds for beneficial soil microorganisms, and
slowly rot down into top notch humus.
Log-lined beds are
pretty too, especially as mosses and mushrooms start to grow in the
rotting wood. And they'll ensure that you don't accidentally walk
on or mow the plants you care about.
You
don't really need to be concerned about the high carbon wood sucking
nitrogen out of your soil since the log is all one piece. (You
have even less to worry about if you're edging a bed of woody
perennials since they can handle a bit of nitrogen loss and will enjoy
the fungi that come along for the ride.)
On the other hand,
log-edged beds don't play well with grassy aisles maintained with a
lawnmower. You can't mow right up to the edge of the bed, so
weeds tend to grow up amid the logs and take over. Yes, I am
writing from experience --- our poor blueberry
patch got so weedy
last year I was afraid to let Mark mow it for fear he'd run over a
beloved plant.
I'm trying out a new
method of dealing with weeds this year, in hopes we can keep that
downside of log-lined beds under control. First, I laid down a kill
mulch along the edge
of the bed I planned to line, then I rolled the logs into place and
added leaf mulch on both sides.
Of course, the real
reason I'm willing to give logs another try is the ninja
blade on Mark's new weedeater. I suspect one pass of
the weedeater will make short work of any nefarious honeysuckle and
wingstem trying to wiggle up in the unmown space beside the logs.
I'll be sure to let you know if I'm wrong as summer progresses.
Our chicken waterer is the permaculture solution
to healthy chickens --- low work and always pristine.
I like to use a round file without
the guide piece attached.
There are several different size
files you can get, and it's important to have the right diameter.
My method involves pushing
the file with pressure from the short side of the angle towards the
long end. When pulling back reduce the pressure and repeat until the
resistance feels smooth.
It should only take a few
strokes to do each tooth. Some people will say to twist a little while
you're pushing. Easier said than done. I've found that rotating the
file after each tooth helps spread the wear more evenly. Replace the
file once the grooves get worn down. I think one will usually last me
somewhere around 10 to 15 sharpenings.
In addition to long
recovery periods and trampling a third of the grass, mob grazing's third unique
feature is stockpiling winter forage.
Greg Judy notes that 80%
of the expenses for a typical cattle farm come during the winter when
farmers feed hay. You can either make it yourself (which requires
lots of expensive equipment and turns your hayfields into ecological
monocultures), or you can buy hay from your neighbor and at least add
nutrients to your farm (while spending an arm and a leg).
Or you can simply
stockpile your summer grass. Allowing grass to grow tall and
remain standing in the field during late summer means you can keep
grazing your cattle right through the winter without buying much (or
any) hay. Cows also tend to be healthier on stockpiled grass than
on hay --- probably a lot like we feel healthier eating greens out of
our quick hoops all winter rather than subsisting entirely on frozen
produce.
Although the idea seems best
suited to areas with mild winters, Greg Judy notes that he feeds hay
only about eight days a year on his Missouri farm, and I've read
similar reports from farmers in Ohio and Washington state. Even
when the ground is covered with snow, cows are able to dig up
stockpiled grass (and the grass helps the snow melt faster too.)
Tomorrow, I'll write
about the nuts and bolts of stockpiling, but I want to back up for a
minute and make sure nobody's getting too carried away. Greg
Judy's operation focuses primarily on beef cattle, with some sheep,
goats, and pigs. Ruminants are going to get a lot more winter
nutrition from stockpile than monogastric animals (like chickens) will
--- don't plan to feed your livestock on stockpiled grass if they
couldn't survive the winter eating hay.
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