Devonviolet Acres

[Devonviolet]

Last night we went to visit our next door neighbors, and took them some goat milk, goat milk kefir, butter and Beautyberry jelly. We hadn't seen them in a while, so it was nice to catch up. In return they gave us FIVE pounds of Eland (as in African Antelope) hamburger, and Eland Serloin steak. They also have us two pounds of grass fed hamburger, from steer that his son raised.

Their SIL went to Montana, to shoot the Eland, on a game preserve, set up specifically for wild game hunters who either couldn't, or didn't want to travel to Africa. It turns out since Eland is endangered in Africa, the a Umited States government shut down the operation, here,in the states. So, they were allowing people to hunt down the herd, for a discounted price.

So, this morning our neighbor came over, with his Bobcat, to level the ground where he tried to level it, so we could put the barn there. It turned out the ground was wetter than we realized and his Bobcat sank in, making it impossible to level it. It left a rutted up mess of the dirt, which would have taken a LOT of work, trying,to level it with shovels and rakes. Since we have only gotten 0.10" of rain in the past 6 weeks, the ground has dried out considerably, so he managed to do a great job smoothing things out.

The dogs HATED that loud machine!

Here he is leveling the ground where the barn was supposed to go originally

Next he took the Bobcat into out side yard, and moved dirt around, to level the area where we are planning to put our vegetable planter boxes. It was sloped and very uneven, with two mounds of dirt, which would make It hard to place a 16' planter box.

Before he started. The mounds don't show up well in this photo, but it would have caused problems

Here is another view

Here he is pushing over the tree stump of the 1st we felled
Before

During

Success!

Okay, I think I've reached my limit for number of photos I can post. so I will have to start another post in a while.

More to follow . . .

 

[CntryBoy777]

That sure is looking Good....and what a time and Back saver that is for y'all. How did the stacked up sod work out for ya, that ya did last Spring with the sod cutter?...I've been meaning to ask ya about that....

 

[Devonviolet]

How did the stacked up sod work out for ya, that ya did last Spring with the sod cutter?...I've been meaning to ask ya about that....

Actually it didn't work out. we got about hall of the cut sod lifted and put elsewhere on the property, to fill low spots. We are so disappointed, 'cause the Bermuda grass all grew back.

That's why we decided to do planter boxes. The plan is to build three 4'×16'×20" boxes, to start.

We can buy 50/50 organic soil/compost, to fill the boxes. We can buy it by the cubic yard, loaded on a tarp, on our trailer. I can't remember how many cubic yards or cost. But, $150-200 sticks in my mind. We will also mix in the beautiful compost, that we have been collecting for the past year and a half, plus Azomite, to increase minerals.

 

[Bruce]

That is one convenient neighbor! Now you can move the barn to the originally planned location

 

[Bruce]

It turns out since Eland is endangered in Africa, the a United States government shut down the operation, here,in the states.

And that helps the Elands in Africa HOW? I'm not exactly in favor of "big game hunting" for the sake of saying you killed something and less so for those raised in "preserves" for that purpose but I think the gubmint plan doesn't do anything for the Eland population in the world. I ASSUME the US "preserves" were self repopulating, that they weren't importing Eland from Africa to restock.

 

[Latestarter]

Don't know if you're having issues with this, but I am... When you build your planting boxes, you might want to staple hardware cloth to the bottom before you fill it with dirt. This will prevent gophers/moles/shrews from burrowing underneath and up into your garden killing the plants. I have fricken tunnels and piles of dirt everywhere here from the danged things. You might also consider lining the inside bottom, above the hardware cloth, with landscaping fabric to prevent that danged bermuda from growing up through from underneath.

 

[Devonviolet]

Don't know if you're having issues with this, but I am... When you build your planting boxes, you might want to staple hardware cloth to the bottom before you fill it with dirt. This will prevent gophers/moles/shrews from burrowing underneath and up into your garden killing the plants.

Yes, we do have gophers & moles. Not sure if we have shrews. In fact, when our neighbor took one of the first cuts, I saw that he had dissected a mole run. Those things drive me crazy.

So, yes. We are planning to put 1/2" hardware cloth on the bottoms of all the boxes.

We have been saving paper feed sacks to put in the bottoms of all the boxes. If we run out, we also have a decent size roll of landscape fabric.

 

[Devonviolet]

And that helps the Elands in Africa HOW? I'm not exactly in favor of "big game hunting" for the sake of saying you killed something and less so for those raised in "preserves" for that purpose but I think the gubmint plan doesn't do anything for the Eland population in the world. I ASSUME the US "preserves" were self repopulating, that they weren't importing Eland from Africa to restock.

My thoughts exactly! According to my neighbor, there were more Elands in the US than in Africa. Me thinks someone in Africa got their nose pushed out of joint & put pressure on the US gov't. to shut things down states side.

And yes, I'm pretty sure the US herd was self populating.

 

[farmerjan]

I also don't see the reasoning behind shutting down the hunting here if the animals are not being imported. As far as the big game hunting, nearly all preserves here in the US that do hunts for different animals, have an on site processing facility and the animal hunted, is processed for the hunter to take home.. So they get the benefit of the "trophy" and the meat. Many often donate the meat to hunters for the hungry just like those that hunt in the wild. Many of these places also do the breeding and help to perpetuate some of the rarer breeds; in the case of that preserve, someone who would never be able to afford, or even to be too worried about the state of the gov't etc., in some of those countries, can enjoy the hunt. No it is not like out in the wild, but they are not put in a pen 100x100 and shot like shooting fish in a barrel.

We raise white Texas dall sheep; the rams we raise for their "horns" and heads and sell to a couple of hunting preserves. One also raises white-tail deer and breeds for the genetic oddities---non-typical--- heads. But to our sheep; they are not real friendly, the rams are not raised to be friendly, and it takes 3-6 years to get the heads/horns to meet the standards to sell for trophy heads. In the meantime, they fight just like bighorns and will break horns, tips, etc and greatly diminish the value of the heads. Any that do not grow good horns as lambs are sold as feeder lambs like normal domestic sheep. We have 3 different bloodlines that we are using, trying to develop a more parasite and foot-rot resistant animal. One line has fantastic heads and is very prone to foot rot and horrible feet, one line has size and has okay heads, one line seems to have next to no foot rot problems and has mediocre heads. So we are doing some cross breeding over the years to try to get a bigger bodied ram with nice heads and little foot-rot problems. We eat some of our own lamb although it's not my 1st choice of meat, but we sell the lambs for many of the ethnic holidays and they bring good money.
So don't judge the hunting preserves as a place to just get bragging rights to a "trophy". There is alot of money tied up in them, they support several other "farming" operations/breeders, like us, and they give a guy who enjoys hunting a decent place to get away to for a few days or whatever...no different than guys going off on a fishing trip or football game or anything else. It is a sport, but you do get to eat the end product. It is no more cruel to shoot one than it is to take one to the slaughter house. And they are well taken care of until they are harvested which is more than can happen out in the wild.

 

[Devonviolet]

I promised more photos. So here they are:

This is the final product. Our neighbor is heading home.

Here, DH is digging out rotted roots, from a tree stump covered over by the previous owners.

Here the neighbor is just getting started.

Just another shot of the Bobbcat in action.

After he finished here, our neighbor went home & put the "stump bucket" on the Bobcat and went back to the other side of the goat shed. There he pushed & dug two stumps, of trees that we had cut down, to make room for the barn. It took a while, but he got the job done. I didn't get any pics of that, because I was working in the kitchen.