POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

[ChazzC]

Mmcmdl you need a bigger tractor.

I’m pretty sure he does, but I think he buried it a few years ago to make room in the garage.

 

[rwdenney]

Wished I had one of them a while back. Digging fence post holes is not my idea of fun. Especially in New England. The ground is a rock factory. dig a hole, maybe 3" deep and you hit a rock. That rock is, if you are lucky, about 6x8x12", if you aren't lucky its far larger. I was lucky, umm, maybe 25% of the time....

They don't call it the Granite State for nothing.

Same here in Virginia--and anywhere along Appalachia. If rocks and poison ivy were cash crops, I'd have a nice, new KBC mill like Abom's.

And it's Wild Kingdom here, too. Deer aplenty (too aplenty) and rabbits, ground hogs, turkeys, foxes, coyotes, the occasional bear (nearby we hear but never within view of the house), bobcats (by sound only), voles, vultures, owls, hawks, cardinals, bluebirds, black snakes, a bunch of other kinds of birds, at 1.498 bazillion different kinds of biting or stinging insects. All of those are seen or heard routinely.

The foxes tend to keep the rabbit population down, but the coyotes are too few to take on the deer population.

A few years ago, I wandered out into the yard with a chain saw to cut up a pine tree that had toppled in an ice storm, and there was a colony of rabbits--at least 50 of them--foraging through my side "yard". As I approached they wandered along, not particularly afraid. Strength in numbers. The Redhead loves rabbits so they are untouchable, not that I'm tempted anyway. I have a live-and-let-live relationship with the Wild Kingdom but I don't accommodate them. Except for mice, which bring out the Dealer of Death in me.

Protecting gardens from rabbits doesn't necessarily require trenching your fence below the surface, but you can take your rabbit wire and fold it horizontal and bury it just a couple of inches down for about a 18-24" band on the outside of the garden. They usually can't figure out how to start their digging that far away from the fence. Foxes will dig into gardens, too, and this works for them as well. And the fence doesn't have to be so tight. Those rocks that keep growing in the soil would probably help keep that flat part from coming up by stacking a row of rocks around the garden's periphery, on top of where the horizontal mesh is buried. I end up following orders and using the rocks to line my gravel driveway, just so I can find new ways to have to use the string trimmer. I just love using the string trimmer.

Rick "following Redhead orders most of the time" Denney

 

[rwdenney]

I had one of those PTO augers previously. Just don't get them caught on a root, even possibly on a rock, and have them cork-screw into the ground. Without reverse on the PTO that can cost you a lot of time getting it unburied. Opted for a front end loader mounted hydraulic auger. Reverses and easier on the neck. With horses we've spent too much of our life digging fence posts.

Fencing off our garden is on my immediate to-do list. Deer. Rabbits. And later this summer, construction workers as we start the new house build.

The wild life is nice to watch, but I'd rather the deer didn't use our fence line along our yard as a path between wooded areas. In addition to the challenges with the garden and any small trees planted, it makes for a constant battle with ticks in the yard. We're not in the worst of areas for it, but lyme's disease is possible around here.

Lyme Disease is at epidemic levels in Northern Virginia, and the medical profession, bolstered by the CDC and the insurance industry, generally can't be bothered to take it seriously--a bad combination. Ask me how I know.

But I learned something from the new neighbors: Chickens feast on ticks, and a bunch of free-roaming chickens will do well to keep the tick population down. I can't bring myself to raise chickens, though--too much work. The neighbor's chickens provide a nice warning when there is a fox nearby, and I don't mind the occasional neighborly gift of fresh eggs.

I also engage a long-term battle with the explosively growing Russian olives that are native to the area--bushes that I have to rub against when mowing are sure-fire ways to pick up ticks. It's not that bad of a problem for me--I've only had to go through the antibiotic treatment a couple of times in as many decades. My wife, though, had Lyme badly for a long time, and adopts a substantial anti-tick protocol, which often involves a longer yard-work to-do list for me.

Rick "mice also carry deer-tick nymphs in the first year of growth as dangerously as deer carry adults" Denney

 

[WobblyHand]

They don't call it the Granite State for nothing.

Same here in Virginia--and anywhere along Appalachia. If rocks and poison ivy were cash crops, I'd have a nice, new KBC mill like Abom's.

And it's Wild Kingdom here, too. Deer aplenty (too aplenty) and rabbits, ground hogs, turkeys, foxes, coyotes, the occasional bear (nearby we hear but never within view of the house), bobcats (by sound only), voles, vultures, owls, hawks, cardinals, bluebirds, black snakes, a bunch of other kinds of birds, at 1.498 bazillion different kinds of biting or stinging insects. All of those are seen or heard routinely.

The foxes tend to keep the rabbit population down, but the coyotes are too few to take on the deer population.

A few years ago, I wandered out into the yard with a chain saw to cut up a pine tree that had toppled in an ice storm, and there was a colony of rabbits--at least 50 of them--foraging through my side "yard". As I approached they wandered along, not particularly afraid. Strength in numbers. The Redhead loves rabbits so they are untouchable, not that I'm tempted anyway. I have a live-and-let-live relationship with the Wild Kingdom but I don't accommodate them. Except for mice, which bring out the Dealer of Death in me.

Protecting gardens from rabbits doesn't necessarily require trenching your fence below the surface, but you can take your rabbit wire and fold it horizontal and bury it just a couple of inches down for about a 18-24" band on the outside of the garden. They usually can't figure out how to start their digging that far away from the fence. Foxes will dig into gardens, too, and this works for them as well. And the fence doesn't have to be so tight. Those rocks that keep growing in the soil would probably help keep that flat part from coming up by stacking a row of rocks around the garden's periphery, on top of where the horizontal mesh is buried. I end up following orders and using the rocks to line my gravel driveway, just so I can find new ways to have to use the string trimmer. I just love using the string trimmer.

Rick "following Redhead orders most of the time" Denney

Waiting for the farm store to open up and get more fencing stuff. Need to buy more chicken fence, or something cheap like that. I accidentally ran my snowblower into the fence last winter, oops. Chewed a big wide opening in a blink of an eye. Knock on wood, the bunnies here haven't figured out digging below the fence, so I put up the fence the same way. Seeing as it will be 92F today, I see no need for digging today.

 

[koenbro]

Trammed my mill. Got to 3 thou over 17 inches and I called it good. Now if I can only prevent it from getting out of tram from just looking at it…

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Trammed my mill. Got to 3 thou over 17 inches and I called it good. Now if I can only prevent it from getting out of tram from just looking at it…

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Good looking machine, did you check the tram on the column and the head nod?

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Lyme Disease is at epidemic levels in Northern Virginia, and the medical profession, bolstered by the CDC and the insurance industry, generally can't be bothered to take it seriously--a bad combination. Ask me how I know.

But I learned something from the new neighbors: Chickens feast on ticks, and a bunch of free-roaming chickens will do well to keep the tick population down. I can't bring myself to raise chickens, though--too much work. The neighbor's chickens provide a nice warning when there is a fox nearby, and I don't mind the occasional neighborly gift of fresh eggs.

I also engage a long-term battle with the explosively growing Russian olives that are native to the area--bushes that I have to rub against when mowing are sure-fire ways to pick up ticks. It's not that bad of a problem for me--I've only had to go through the antibiotic treatment a couple of times in as many decades. My wife, though, had Lyme badly for a long time, and adopts a substantial anti-tick protocol, which often involves a longer yard-work to-do list for me.

Rick "mice also carry deer-tick nymphs in the first year of growth as dangerously as deer carry adults" Denney

Guinea hens will also take care of ticks along with ants, fleas, mice and snakes....

 

[GT-6 Racer]

Guinea hens will also take care of ticks along with ants, fleas, mice and snakes....

They make sooo much noise. My neighbor had a flock of them running about. They are a good alarm system though.

 

[rabler]

Rick "mice also carry deer-tick nymphs in the first year of growth as dangerously as deer carry adults" Denney

Yep, mice are the actual source carriers of Lyme. Deer just spread the ticks far and wide.
I have thought about keeping some chickens/guinea hens at the barns, primarily for fly control. My wife goes through eggs by the dozens so that would be beneficial, but free roaming chickens around here would quickly become free dinner chickens for the coyote population, so it would mean some sort of shelter and management. That sounds like more work.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Yep, mice are the actual source carriers of Lyme. Deer just spread the ticks far and wide.
I have thought about keeping some chickens/guinea hens at the barns, primarily for fly control. My wife goes through eggs by the dozens so that would be beneficial, but free roaming chickens around here would quickly become free dinner chickens for the coyote population, so it would mean some sort of shelter and management. That sounds like more work.

If you want to get a fly problem under control try Fly Parasites. My wife and I had a feed lot for about 10 years before returning to Houston, we would have up to 30 bulls on the 5 acre lot and the flys would get atrocious in the summer until we found the site that is linked here. You buy a bag of pupa/eggs from them, I always bought 2, and put them where the problem is, about a week after placing them there wasn't a fly to be found of any type and we never saw the predators, they are very small. No poison nor traps, we also use to buy preying mantis egg sacks from them as well to put around the house to control grass hoppers, crickets and wood roaches, works like a champ. Anytime I can avoid chemicals and poisons I do.