|
Thanks for all the options! The drain pipe things sounds like a good idea here. Now off to find the official TFR Beaver Hunting thread or w/e.
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 13:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 09:31 |
|
|
For every one you see theres about six you don’t. Also, you will almost always catch them swimming, so your target is just the head above the water. And you only get one cold barrel shot, because they will den up immediately when they hear the gun. Its not target practice. I had a hard time with it and I was a teenager with a 30/30 and plenty of opportunities.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 14:27
|
|
|
My step-FIL just shoots beavers lots. He's the unofficial beaver hunter of his area. He's, uh, quite a guy.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 15:09
|
|
|
angryrobots posted:They do create new habitat, but sometimes their dams are a hazard by not allowing water flow in areas prone to flooding. Often, the bypass pipes I posted about earlier don't attempt to completely drain their pond, but just mitigate the flood hazard. That makes a lot of sense! Thanks! calandryll posted:
You’ll get better advise from someone else, but if it’s mostly weeds you may consider round upping everything and starting over. I just reseeded around a fence, and I used a mix of annual Ryes and perineal Fescue (midwest), and a bit of bluegrass seed interspersed. I garden raked and loosened the soil, sprinkled seeds heavily with a hand shaker, shook straw over top and watered everything in. Rye came in within a week and it’s looking good! Depending on how much dead grass there is, you may consider de-thatching the existing grass and aerating the soil, that way the plugs can break down over the winter.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 16:05
|
|
|
Does anyone in here know if those electric chippers are actually usable at all? There's a bunch on the market like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/WEN-15-Amp-Rolling-Electric-Wood-Chipper-and-Shredder-41121/305094298 which I figure are all basically the same but are they capable of doing anything other than really light work? I've got a pretty sizeable buildup of brush now from a bunch of work I've been doing the last year or so, and later in the fall I'll have more after I cut down a bunch of overgrown euonymous to rejuvenate them. I've actually got a proper wood chipper promised to me but it's become a whole thing around it being buried in the back of a shed and the owner of the shed not wanting to get around to unearthing it and not taking my offers to dig it out for him, I think it'll eventually materialize so I don't want to spend money on something bigger but I want to start making a dent in this pile of crap sooner rather than later. There's nothing particularly thick in the pile, it's just a huge volume of stuff in the 1/2 - 3/4" range to go through so I'd think overheating would be the failure mode I would hit. Would this be viable in the sense that I could maybe get through most of my pile before burning out the motor, or is it just going to give up as soon as I try to do more than shred leaves and twigs with it? Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2020 21:42
|
|
|
fralbjabar posted:Does anyone in here know if those electric chippers are actually usable at all? There's a bunch on the market like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/WEN-15-Amp-Rolling-Electric-Wood-Chipper-and-Shredder-41121/305094298 which I figure are all basically the same but are they capable of doing anything other than really light work? I've seen some pretty bad reviews
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2020 05:20
|
|
|
I had this one for a while and it did the job well enough. The plastics on it did get beaten up / cracked pretty easily and you had to feed it pretty slowly to keep from jamming it up, but it did the job at reducing the volume of my yard debris. I have a dedicated green waste barrel now and got rid of the trees that were making the bulkiest debris (some on purpose, some by storm loss) so I got rid of it by giving it to my mom.
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2020 18:46
|
|
|
We rent, and have a small bermudagrass lawn that is becoming mostly weeds. Zone 8a. There are wild birds who hang out on the lawn, and we try to keep the lawn bird/bee friendly as much as we can while renting. When we pull all the weeds, the yard will pretty much be dirt. Does bermudagrass seed have a coating/fertilizer that would hurt birds if they ate it? Any ways to put down seed in a bird-friendly yard that won't just be me feeding the birds?
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2020 18:56
|
|
|
Ghost Cactus posted:We rent, and have a small bermudagrass lawn that is becoming mostly weeds. Zone 8a. There are wild birds who hang out on the lawn, and we try to keep the lawn bird/bee friendly as much as we can while renting. You need soil tests first. Correcting your soil ph and nutrients is going to be more important than trying to overseed, and will lead to successful seeding. When you put down seed you should add straw/straw matting to keep the birds from eating it and also to retain moisture while it germinates and is very small and weak. If you have a serious weed problem that would be attended to before overseeding. If you have lots of broadleaf weeds something like Surge should take care of them. It can be largely a one time application if you do it right and then establish thick healthy grass that displaces the weeds. Edit: contact your county ag extension for inexpensive soil tests
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2020 22:39
|
|
|
Motronic posted:You need soil tests first. Correcting your soil ph and nutrients is going to be more important than trying to overseed, and will lead to successful seeding. When you put down seed you should add straw/straw matting to keep the birds from eating it and also to retain moisture while it germinates and is very small and weak. If you have a serious weed problem that would be attended to before overseeding. If you have lots of broadleaf weeds something like Surge should take care of them. It can be largely a one time application if you do it right and then establish thick healthy grass that displaces the weeds. Very practical advice - thank you!
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2020 02:23
|
|
|
So I wanna lay down a large (24'x24') concrete pad that I could park on in my alley-adjacent yard in Southern California. I've excavated the area down about 6" and have had a few companies come out. Two told me they'd just fill the whole area with concrete and another told me they would level it with sand to 4". Is that enough depth for concrete? Isn't sand bad as a subgrade material? Would it be better/cheaper to fill with some kind of road grade fill to 4" and compact it? There isn't a frost factor to deal with, but it's there anything else I should look out for?
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2020 03:39
|
|
|
Ghost Cactus posted:We rent, and have a small bermudagrass lawn that is becoming mostly weeds. Zone 8a. There are wild birds who hang out on the lawn, and we try to keep the lawn bird/bee friendly as much as we can while renting. How much area? You might have more success/faster recovery with plugs instead of seed. Feed heavily and mow low starting next spring/summer to encourage rhizome spreading, and the bermuda plugs should quickly expand to fill in the gaps. E: also, I second getting a soil test. It can't hurt. Another thing to be aware of is bermuda is really light hungry, so if you've got shade you are going to have trouble keeping it thick there.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2020 14:14
|
|
|
Glass of Milk posted:So I wanna lay down a large (24'x24') concrete pad that I could park on in my alley-adjacent yard in Southern California. I've excavated the area down about 6" and have had a few companies come out. Two told me they'd just fill the whole area with concrete and another told me they would level it with sand to 4". I don't know if this is a regional thing or not, but there is no way we'd use sand for that in the northeast - even though we have ready access to it real cheap. This is something that would typically be formed out, then filled with a couple inches of 3/4" clean stone and compacted. 4" of concrete on top of that is fine for a parking pad.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2020 16:05
|
|
|
Motronic posted:I don't know if this is a regional thing or not, but there is no way we'd use sand for that in the northeast - even though we have ready access to it real cheap. This is something that would typically be formed out, then filled with a couple inches of 3/4" clean stone and compacted. 4" of concrete on top of that is fine for a parking pad.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2020 20:56
|
|
|
wesleywillis posted:Just curious, why wouldn't they use sand? Aside from gravel probably being more suitable? Is it a drainage thing? I would consider sand more difficult to work with to rake level, heavier and....not sure if it matters, but won't really key into the pour in the same way that 3/4" clean would. That last one probably isn't very important, but the first two sure are.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2020 21:39
|
|
|
Hubis posted:How much area? You might have more success/faster recovery with plugs instead of seed. Feed heavily and mow low starting next spring/summer to encourage rhizome spreading, and the bermuda plugs should quickly expand to fill in the gaps. It’s pretty small - 20’x25’ maybe. I didn’t even know plugs were an option. I’ll look into that. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2020 03:40
|
|
|
Jerk McJerkface posted:I wanted to give an update on this. Just wanted to post a thread update and thanks for the help on this:  It came out pretty good. The grass came in well and the kids are back out playing. Just a question, there's a few bare patches where the new grass didn't come in. I'm located in Northern New Jersey, so I think the time to plant has passed, right? Probably in the spring I'll sort it out. Also can the thread recommend a winter fertilizer to prep my new fancy grass?
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 14:39
|
|
|
Hello DIYers! We have a new forum/mod feedback thread and would love to hear your thoughts! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3944213 Get ready to read this message 15 more times in every thread you read!
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2020 01:31
|
|
|
What are people's thoughts on starter fertilizer for planting grass? I just had my property totally regraded and irrigation went in today. Seed is going down either tomorrow or Monday depending on rain. I know I'm really cutting it close with the end of grass planting season in New England so I'm wondering if some sort of starter fertilizer would be a good (or bad) idea. I had a fertilizer service likely overtreating the crap out of my lawn this season, so there might be still be something in the soil. But some parts of the lawn had the grade taken down by a foot and there is 2" of fresh loam on top everywhere, so maybe not.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2020 01:26
|
|
|
mcgreenvegtables posted:What are people's thoughts on starter fertilizer for planting grass? Starter fertilizer is a thing sold to people who haven't had soil samples taken so that they know exactly what inputs they actually need. This isn't the 50s. Soil samples are cheap and common. Call your county ag extension.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2020 01:51
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Starter fertilizer is a thing sold to people who haven't had soil samples taken so that they know exactly what inputs they actually need. Ok, I will send in a soil sample, but I doubt I'll get the results back fast enough to do much about it. But given I don't have all the hard data is it better put down something, or nothing?
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2020 15:17
|
|
|
mcgreenvegtables posted:Ok, I will send in a soil sample, but I doubt I'll get the results back fast enough to do much about it. But given I don't have all the hard data is it better put down something, or nothing? That would depend on a lot of things we couldn't know about. Like what was growing there before, was material added (if so what exactly), how did things grow there before, etc. If you don't care about the cost and potential runoff throw down whatever. There aren't too many things in that type of fertilizer that you can really put down enough of that it will harm new grass. That doesn't mean it had enough for that particular soil. So you still need to test (after) for doing it correctly next year if you're trying to do this up. If you're happy with a standard weed patch that gets mowed you can safely ignore all of this.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2020 16:16
|
|
|
Motronic posted:That would depend on a lot of things we couldn't know about. Like what was growing there before, was material added (if so what exactly), how did things grow there before, etc. If you don't care about the cost and potential runoff throw down whatever. There aren't too many things in that type of fertilizer that you can really put down enough of that it will harm new grass. It was grass before, typical northeast blend. We had generally good luck with the lawn, with exceptions for pretty significant crabgrass and clover spread. Pre-emergent pesticide that came with the fertilizer service this season helped some but not completely with the crabgrass. Clover and other weeds were easy to manage with mowing when the grass was growing, but not when we had a lot of dormancy and some die off this summer. I do want to put some effort into maintaining correct nutrients next year, but for now I just want to give the grass the best chance of success with a) limited information as you said and b) really pushing it by planting in the tail end of the season. The lawn area isn't big enough for cost to be a huge issue, so if there isn't a chance of real damage maybe I'll just pick up a bag of something generic at the hardware store and put it down.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2020 18:47
|
|
|
Good friend of mine runs a landscaping business and he's warned me several times that I will regret it if I get an electric mower instead of a gas one. Then again, I don't think he's looked into the issue in a while, and my understanding is electric mowers have come a long way. His main complaint was that if you have to wait too long, the longer grass will bog down the battery life or stall the motor, and I would have to pay more to get new batteries down the line, costing me more in the long run. What's the general consensus here? I'm currently using a borrowed gas powered self propelled Honda, and that thing is a beast. I love being able to just run the thing on the sidewalk and clear out all the debris. Have any of you switched from gas to electric or vice versa? I have a pretty small lawn- like less than 5500 sq ft, so I don't think run time is an issue, and I don't think a small residential lawn will need the same things as a commercial business. I am looking at the Kobalt 80v, and the Honda HRN216. I think I'm leaning towards the gas powered, just because I just love the feel of a gasoline powered engine. Bioshuffle fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Oct 17, 2020 |
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2020 23:27
|
|
|
Bioshuffle posted:Good friend of mine runs a landscaping business and he's warned me several times that I will regret it if I get an electric mower instead of a gas one. Then again, I don't think he's looked into the issue in a while, and my understanding is electric mowers have come a long way. His main complaint was that if you have to wait too long, the longer grass will bog down the battery life or stall the motor, and I would have to pay more to get new batteries down the line, costing me more in the long run. I really like the electric leaf blower, edger, hedge trimmer, and string trimmer I have that use the same batteries. I don't use any of them for long enough to run into battery issues, and its nice not to have to deal with all those gas engines. But for a mower, if you have a decent amount of grass and "love the feel of gas" maybe stick with that until battery tech gets a little better.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2020 23:40
|
|
|
mcgreenvegtables posted:I own a Ryobi 40V electric mower and all those concerns are definitely real. I probably have <1/8 acre of grass and I usually cannot do the whole thing on the included 5ah battery, but switching to a 2.6ah is enough to finish and do some string trimming. If I let it get too long there is zero chance I can do the whole lawn across my two batteries. Also, the 5ah battery failed at about 1 year, though Ryobi did replace it for free. And batteries are crazy expensive. A replacement 5ah battery is $160 and I think I paid $230 for the mower+battery. I replaced my Ryobi 40v mower because of the same reasons, .12 of an acre and if I let the grass go for a full week in the summer, I'd have to do the front, charge the battery, then do the back. I replaced the 5ah battery at 2 years, and it failed again 18 months later, so I replaced it with a gas mower.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2020 23:50
|
|
|
If you have more grass than you can do on one battery then gas is probably better. If you can do all of your grass on one battery, electric is amazing. My battery on my electric I used in my old in-town house was just on the fringes of long enough. I'm goign to bring it to the acreage so I can do the spots the riding mower doesn't easily reach.
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2020 00:42
|
|
|
Just as a competing data point, I've got the non self propelled EGO battery mower and have had absolutely zero issues with it bogging or needing multiple batteries for my 1/3 acre worth of mixed weeds and some grass. When I moved in in 2018 the lawn hadn't been mowed for the entire spring, so was probably 16-18" tall by the first week of June, and that battery mower was able to plow through even that on a single battery. It is of course twice the price of the Ryobi and about the same price as a good gas mower, but as far as I can see it's just as capable as any gas mower and I don't have to deal with maintaining yet another small gas engine.
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2020 00:46
|
|
|
How are the 60-80v electric ones? I've heard they've addressed a lot of issues. Yearly maintenance isn't too bad on the gas powered ones, right? What is it, add a fuel stabilizer, and change oil and air filter annually?
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2020 01:05
|
|
|
Bioshuffle posted:
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2020 01:37
|
|
|
I just bought my house a few months ago, and I haven't had a chance to do any soil samples or anything like that. This is on my list of things to do. A part of my lawn is a mix of Bermuda and st. Augustine, one part is just Bermuda, and another is all st. Augustine. The mixture has made it confusing for me to find a weed killer that won't harm my lawn. There are some parts of my lawn that have been taken over by dollar weed. Do I just need to use up a weekend to tear it all out manually? I've heard mixed reviews about spot treatment sprays. The previous owners left behind some weed control pellets, but it says not to use a handheld dispenser. Am I supposed to rent a machine just to use it? I just feel like I'm at the point where I could end up spending a lot of money on stuff that I don't need because I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2020 15:59
|
|
|
Bioshuffle posted:Good friend of mine runs a landscaping business and he's warned me several times that I will regret it if I get an electric mower instead of a gas one. Then again, I don't think he's looked into the issue in a while, and my understanding is electric mowers have come a long way. His main complaint was that if you have to wait too long, the longer grass will bog down the battery life or stall the motor, and I would have to pay more to get new batteries down the line, costing me more in the long run. Just like with EVs, quite a few people aren't buying them for the cost savings, which is good, because there rarely is any in the near term, particularly when including the purchase price. Electrics are about convenience, and noise and air pollution, or lack thereof, mostly. My 20+ year old MTD and it's sidevalve B&S just keep going, with minimal maintenance, so I can't really justify the expense of a brand new electric, but I am tired of feeding it gas and oil, and having to wear earpro to use it. Plus, most of the electrics fold up and stand vertically to store, which would be nice in my crowded shed. Add in a matching cordless string trimmer, and happiness is within reach. I switched from a 2-cycle gas trimmer to a Ryobi that uses the 18V tool batteries, and I haven't regretted a minute of it, other than it doesn't use the quick-link accessories, so I can't use my blade edger attachment. Their 40V one does, though... and I bet the edger would actually work better with the electric, due to torque available. The little gas engine had to be revved to heaven to get it to work properly, and even then, the centripetal clutch liked to not stay engaged when the blade speed dropped a bit. Darchangel fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Oct 19, 2020 |
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2020 22:00
|
|
|
Twoish months ago Lowes put their 80v brushless Kobalt push mower on clearance for 250 so I snapped that up to replace a 20 year old craftsman I’d been limping along for the past six years. Bought that thing at a garage sale for 10$, fixed it up, and kept it going. I’d already given away a self propelled Honda HR215 because I have a small lot and the drat thing was too heavy and push bar too low so it just caused a buncha back pain for me to navigate obstacles while bent over and prying it up to turn. I don’t have enough positive things to say about the upgrade—the 80v brushless has enough oomph to hit long neglected grass or wet grass, mulch leaves, and the 5AH battery lasts 3+ full mows for me. One touch deck height adjustment, steel deck, good build quality, stupid quiet (no more earpro), instant easy start. I love it so much I recently snapped up the Kobalt 80v blower for 115 so I could get a spare battery. The push bar height is also easy to adjust and works great for me a 6’4”, and it’s light enough to push and turn without any effort. Also folds up for small storage, though I just took it into the garage because I’m lazy. Part of this love could be new mower envy, since I’ve completely disassembled and fixed used mowers for myself and friends for years, but it’s a fantastic machine and I have no qualms recommending it. I was torn between the Kobalt and the Ego, but the sale price was just way too good for me to pass up. That was my last gas tool, gone. Chainsaw is electric makita, trimmer electric makita, I couldn’t be happier. If I’m already doing chores I don’t want more work maintaining something or fighting to get it started. The future of batteries is now imho. Plus 80v is excellent, motors are just way more efficient at those voltage, and brushless just means they’ll run longer.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2020 23:35
|
|
|
I'm definitely interested in a yard tool system. Mower, trimmer, and chainsaw at a minimum, and the "quick-link", ClickLink" accessory system on the trimmer head would be useful. I already have the edger attachment, as I've noted, and I just noted that a pole saw attachment in that system exists. That would be of use for me. Maybe a blower, or blower attachment. It looks like Ego have their own modular system. I'm not firmly wedded to the universal accessories, but it would be nice not to have to buy the edger again.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2020 00:57
|
|
|
OSU_Matthew posted:Twoish months ago Lowes put their 80v brushless Kobalt push mower on clearance for 250 so I snapped that up to replace a 20 year old craftsman I’d been limping along for the past six years. Bought that thing at a garage sale for 10$, fixed it up, and kept it going. I’d already given away a self propelled Honda HR215 because I have a small lot and the drat thing was too heavy and push bar too low so it just caused a buncha back pain for me to navigate obstacles while bent over and prying it up to turn. For example, here's a video of someone who chose to return their EGO in favor of the Honda. Then again, the Youtube community isn't the brightest. For example, here's a guy who complains about the EGO trimmer while using the thing to basically mow his entire yard. I feel like I'm a perfect candidate for electrical mowers owing to my small lawn size, but the potential of having to dump a couple of hundred dollars every 4-5 years is a bit daunting.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2020 01:10
|
|
|
18650/21700 cells used in power tool batteries are pretty damned reliable and durable in general. You should expect in the range of 300-500 full discharge/charge cycles on a pack before they start losing much performance.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2020 01:27
|
|
|
Bioshuffle posted:Do you have any concern about the batteries needing to be replaced in a few years? If I have to end up buying more batteries in a few years, that would be a couple of hundred dollars I'd have to keep investing into the mower, as opposed to a gas. I feel like if I get a decent gas mower, that thing would keep going as long as I do my due diligence. ^^What IOwnCalulus says. Say I charge it every other mow, that’s 2-4x a month, used 8 months out of the year, conservative back of the hand math says roughly 10ish years, assuming capacity degradation after awhile. 300-500 cycles is where I’ve seen noticeable degradation on consumer electronics. I’m still using the original pair of 3AH batteries on my makita portable tools after 6 years, and they churn just fine, though the casings are starting to get beat up. Also, watch out for sales—I just got an 80v kobalt leaf blower and extra battery + charger for 115$ on end of season clearance. Also apparently a bunch of the lawnmower batteries are compatible with a slight modification of the case so they slide in. I think the majority of people buy cheap gas mowers, run them 2-3 years until they don’t start in the spring because of neglect, and then buy a new one and repeat. I could be wrong and it’ll die on me in six months, but we’re well past early adopter territory and I think this tech is fairly well proven
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2020 04:29
|
|
|
Thanks for all the good info! I need to get down to the local lawn mower store and get some prices. I have a patch of dollargrass weed. This means I need to use post emergent herbicide to kill it, right? Once I've done that, do I need to use pre-emergent herbicide afterwards and some fertilizer to encourage my regular grass to take over? I am having a difficult time because my lawn is an unholy combination of St.Augustine, bermuda, and what I believe to be zosiya grass in the side. I am thinking about nuking the infested zones with some boiling water or failing that, just digging out the whole area and re-seeding.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2020 21:05
|
|
|
I just want to note that I've found lawnmower youtube to be a bit of a strange place idk why it seems that way to me but it's bizzare seeing videos that are like "Ok last week I was out here with a John Deere E110 42 inch deck and we timed how quickly we can mow an acre and now I'm out here with an E160 and a 48 inch deck and on the same acre..."
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2020 21:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 09:31 |
|
|
Have you come across the "how to DOMINATE your neighbour by making SICK LINES with your push mower" yet? I love turf care but bored suburban dads kinda take it to a new level.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2020 23:07
|
|
