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Yeah, this is great. I bought my first house 2 years ago on a 0.16 acre lot and I really wish I had more land to work with, even just 5 acres. How far are you from anything else, like your workplace? Are you concerned about all the rock when it comes time to drill a well?
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Nov 20, 2012 23:59
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apatite posted:I love to drink it right from the tree, but it sure isn't syrup You seem pretty handy building stuff. Have you heard about rocket stoves? That might be a cheaper way to boil it than propane.
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Feb 27, 2013 22:04
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We often end up with more sap than we can boil due to terribly small scale inefficient boiling methods, and have resorted several times to drinking pretty much nothing but raw sap for a while (well and maybe some beer on my part...)
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apatite posted:Is anybody out there or are you all doing spring like stuff instead of being inside? It went back to winter here so I'll post some pics rather than letting this go to the archives or whatever happens to threads that people don't read or post in or whatever. I spent the better part of last week pruning about 45 very neglected mature fruit trees, out in the wind and rain. Had to get it done because the pears were already breaking buds and I only had that week off work. I've got probably 20-30 yards of pruned branches piled up around the orchard waiting to be dealt with too. We didn't have any snow this winter so I enjoy seeing it here. What's the maple sap situation? How much longer will you be able to harvest it?
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Mar 21, 2013 20:40
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apatite posted:Very cool on the tree pruning, we've got a LONG way to go before our orchard is at that point The original plan was to chip the branches and use them as mulch around the trees. I got as far as purchasing a used chipper and sharpening the blades. I'm not sure it's going to be up to the task since there are lot more branches than I expected and it's only a 10 HP model instead of one of those giant towed-behind-a-truck models. I'm also not sure I want to spend several long days feeding stuff into a chipper either. Worst case there is a landscape materials place just down the road that might come pick them up, maybe even in exchange for some wood chips.
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Mar 26, 2013 21:39
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What do you do with the branches once pruned? I've been thinking of renting a chipper to get rid of a lot of these tree tops and saplings that have been piled up everywhere...
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Rufus En Fuego posted:Hugelkultur is very interesting! If laid out correctly they could probably help with drainage and erosion control, too. Imagine them stacked up horizontally along a ridge! Terracing and swales are permaculture techniques like that which have been used very successfully. Check out Sepp Holzer's work for some examples. Dude grows citrus at like 4000 ft elevation in Austria. For building soil on rocks you can look at sheet mulching/lasagna gardening/Ruth Stout-style deep mulching. It will take a while but as long as you bring in and pile up some organic matter for the initial plants then you just use their waste to keep building up soil. Artichoke and cardoon are commonly used because they make a lot of biomass with their big leaves. I'm doing a hugel mound at my mom's place this year with branches I pruned from her ornamental trees. I'd do it with the orchard prunings but I've read fruit tree wood takes too long to break down, the orchard doesn't belong to me and it's more time than I want to invest in it. Anyways, keep posting. Some day I'll get land like that once I've saved enough. Prices around here are starting around $7k/acre.
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Mar 27, 2013 18:18
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I love my pick mattock for digging up big rocks and roots, but it can still be a hell of a workout to get some of the deeper roots out if you're trying to dig a bigger, deeper hole for planting new trees.
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Apr 17, 2013 19:57
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If you have some bigger stumps that don't need to be gone right away you can look into growing mushrooms on them. You'd have to check for compatibility between the wood and mushroom species but the process is basically drilling holes and pounding in short lengths of inoculated dowels. The mycelium will spread through the stump and consume it, leaving you with some nice soft spongy stuff, but it might take a few years. I wish I'd known about it before paying someone to grind out 3 stumps in my yard.
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Apr 18, 2013 17:47
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That's great and the axes and other woodworking tools are reasonably priced considering they're handcrafted. It reminds me a lot of the Jarvi bench video. I've been stuck inside with a headcold this week and stumbled on the diary/blog of a guy who's been trying to do a back to the land thing since late 2004 in Eastern Washington. He's definitely got more of a tree-hugger approach to it but it's been very interesting reading so far and I'm only up to 2009. Here's the background: http://ranprieur.com/me/land.html And here's the first entry: http://ranprieur.com/land/04sepoct.html
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May 3, 2013 06:09
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The Hairy Bikers (UK TV chefs) recently did a series on the best of British food. One of the recipes is Honey-glazed guinea fowl with pomegranate and pineapple. The video probably won't load for non-UK people but it looked drat good. As for tool sperging... Pick mattock (pick on one end, adze or adz on the other)  Cutter mattock (cutter instead of pick)  Pulaski (big axe head and adz)  I love my pick mattock for digging in the yard since there are plenty of old tree roots and huge rocks in heavy compacted soil.
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Jun 24, 2013 16:30
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The wire basket type is OK but beware the prongs will probably poke a number of apples and they won't keep very long that way. I got the Twister Fruit Picker last year and it works pretty well. It's pricey at $40 but I'm sure you could improvise something that worked the same way given enough time.
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Jul 10, 2013 00:19
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apatite posted:OK "Cpt. Fancy Pants" have it your way... Space age polymer fruit pickers, I see how it is Anything on the tips should help. It's common on some of the more expensive wire basket pickers to have a plastic covers on them. The proper apple picking motion is to lift and twist the stem so it breaks off cleanly without removing the spur it's connected to. The twister picker helps with this because of the grip on the apple. You can sort of do the same thing with basket picker where you get the stem in between the tips and lift, then the apple falls into the basket. I'm sure most people just try to hook the apple and yank down with them though.
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Jul 11, 2013 22:19
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Reverend Zero posted:After a lot of discussion and excited planning we decided we wante to find our own piece of secluded land to call our own and become homesteaders. We're still in the early planning stages, tightening our budget and shedding belongings while constantly searching for land (5-10 acres somewhere out in the lonely country) but hope to be living on our land full time in the next 5+ years. I wish I had started earlier! We're in Charlotte, NC so we're hoping to lean on the enormous amount of free scrap, firewood, metal and other materials to do a lot of our building/hoarding. Anyone thinking about going down this road should get a copy of Finding & Buying Your Place in the Country.
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Sep 18, 2013 16:22
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Kurt_Cobain posted:My ideal would be something like this As someone currently living in a somewhat rural area in Western Washington and looking for 5+ acres I can confirm that particular property is really cheap. The areas I've been looking at are typically starting around $10k/acre and only getting down to $2k/acre when you're buying 40+ acres and are still 2 hours away from civilization. The problem around here is pretty much everything is owned by timber companies. Nobody gets to use the land for anything because in 10-20 years the wood will be worth millions. I'm living as cheaply as I can and saving as much as I can right now while learning and practicing useful skills on my city lot. Hopefully in the next few years I'll have enough saved when the right piece of property pops up.
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Jan 10, 2014 00:04
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Blistex posted:I usually set up one of these when cutting the little stuff. Those are called sawbucks. I one made to cut up a lot of large fruit tree limbs last year with a bow saw and it was incredibly helpful.
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Feb 25, 2014 06:07
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