It's hard getting on this computer this time of year with so much outside work to do and the nice weather finally here. I have a couple of projects that I've been working on that I wanted to share...
Still working on the hugel beds. I need about 4 more loads of dirt, but it's till too early to plant most veggies here so I've got a couple of weeks on this yet.
I took down some hackberry logs to get milled last weekend.
It's a portable mill but it's easier to mill at the owner's place than my steep ground. I haven't figured the actual board feet that I got out of this but I got two nice stacks of wood about 4' high filled with 1 1/4" thick boards 8 - 10 ft. long and mixed widths, and a 17' long 3"x5" beam.
I already have too much walnut, but I wanted the hackberry so that I had something different to work with, I needed the beam, and have been thinning my pig pasture.
Hackberry has a great wildlife value, though I'm not sure if the pigs will eat the berries in the fall. I imagine they will. Either way, it's a really pretty wood. Kinda looks like hickory. This started as a project of diversifying my pig pasture to provide more crop trees with more diversity. Following the adage of no more than 10% of a species, 20% of a genus, and 30% of a family. I've got a lot of white and red oaks, and black walnut, and too much hackberry. I'm going to be adding apple and pear in a sunnier part of the pasture and incorporating shagbark and pignut hickory, pecan, and hazelnuts. I'd like to find some of those hardy blight resistant chestnuts, too, if anyone has a good source. I know I saw something on this forum about them... gotta look into that.
Also built this new pig feeder:
I got the idea from a university of something or other website. It's basically scrap 2x12's at 90* angles, with some plywood on the ends and some small holes drilled to provide drainage. I really like it because it has cut the feed waste down to nothing.
"Knowledge is power. Arm yourself."