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.

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.