Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Mike CHS]

I might have to go back and read again but I don't remember what your short term goal is. With as much acreage as you are working you can make a full time job of getting it all under control and never making goal or you can more reliably pick an area that you can make exactly like you want and get it done without killing yourself. I had our almost 20 acres looking great by mowing once a month but when I started adding fence and animals to the plan it became harder. Of course, that once a month mowing was because I was only here a couple of days a month and I was mowing and spraying 2-4-D twice a year to get the grass winning the growing race.

 

[goatgurl]

@Senile_Texas_Aggie I knew I had that creepy feeling that someone was watching me today. I hope I didn't put you to sleep reading about my world.
first I vote that you spend a chunk of money and fence the perimeter of your property and go find you a herd of meat goats. give them the run of the place and in a couple of years they will have all your little trees and greenbriers cleaned up. then sell them at a tidy profit and enjoy your nice clean property. after they have it cleaned off its easier to keep tidy. your going to hurt yourself with that tractor if your not careful.
definitions: FF = first freshener, a goat or sheep that is having its first offspring. next comes 2nd, 3rd freshener, etc. as they give birth year after year. wether = a castrated male goat or sheep. I usually castrate/wether the males I keep for my meat supply. they are a whole lot easier to deal with. testosterone poisoning is a bad thing. LGD = livestock guardian dog, many of us have them and we all think that the breed we have is the best, lol. we just agree to disagree on that point.
chickens: slw = silver laced Wyandotte. glw = golden laced Wyandotte. rir = rhode island red. bo = buff orphington. ss = speckled Sussex. ba = black australorps. ee = easter eggers. br = barred rock. I could go on and on with chicken breeds but you get the picture. do you have other abbreviations that have you puzzled?

 

[Latestarter]

Since I'm assuming that you have no "formal" lumberjack training, please be careful with that chainsaw. If you have any questions as to its capabilities, there are several movies that give pretty good representations of what they are capable of... specifically from your previous, my present, state of residence...

I agree with what others have said and what you alluded to... one bite at a time. If you can use the shredder (bush hog) to knock down what's knock down-able to start, then this fall/winter you can go back through systematically and remove the trees from the pastures. I'd start with the easiest areas and those closest to your home first and move outwards from there.

 

[greybeard]

If it's trash trees, start with any trees big enough to drop seeds.
That was a lesson I learned the hard way here.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Regarding

I don't remember what your short term goal is.

my initial goal for the land was to grow hay on the 80 acres of good pasture and let someone else mow and bale it. But with it having such poor production this past June that plan didn't work out so well. I also wanted to get the overgrown south pasture back in better shape. That is one of the biggest reasons I wanted to buy a tractor. Now that the tractor is out of commission at the moment, then that will get postponed for a bit. But I plan to get back to it once I get the tractor repaired.

Regarding

I knew I had that creepy feeling that someone was watching me today.

sorry to creep you out, Miss @goatgurl ! But it was innocent on my part, because I am looking to all of you, since y'all know what the heck you are doing, at least a lot more than I do! And thanks so much for the definitions you provided. It helped demystify a lot of what I read.

As for

first I vote that you spend a chunk of money and fence the perimeter of your property and go find you a herd of meat goats. give them the run of the place and in a couple of years they will have all your little trees and greenbriers cleaned up. then sell them at a tidy profit and enjoy your nice clean property. after they have it cleaned off its easier to keep tidy. your going to hurt yourself with that tractor if your not careful.

I can certainly believe I can hurt myself with the tractor, as I definitely wasn't careful when I drove into that oak limb in 4th gear at the PTO 540 RPM speed! . As for fencing the perimeter of my property, I decided to make an estimate of what that would cost. Using Google maps, I estimated the length of the perimeter of my entire place at 13,464 ft. If I am going to fence the entire perimeter, then I want it to be horse and cow proof, or at least resistant (Mr. @greybeard and Miss @farmerjan, please weigh in here as to whether using this type fence makes sense), as well as goat and sheep proof, so I priced 2"x4" 4 ft x 200 ft no climb horse fencing at Tractor Supply's web site, which was $250.00 per roll. That means it would take 67.32 rolls (assuming no overlap at all, which is not the case). That works out to be $16,380 for the fencing rolls. T-posts (8-ft long) spaced 10 feet apart would be $8,735, for a subtotal of $25,155. I can use oak or cedar trees here on my property for the anchoring posts, so no extra expense there. If I do all of the labor, then no extra cost there. However, I have NEVER put in fencing, other than minor repair to chain link fencing for a suburban setting, so I would need A LOT of adult supervision, at least at first. (I really wish Miss @farmerjan lived close, as I would sign a 20 year lease with her in a heartbeat, as she would do the fencing -- and the haying -- right! Alas, she is about 950 miles away!)

If I simply fence in the south pasture, where the current overgrowth is, then that would be a more reasonable distance of around 4000 ft for a cost of around $7500. So I will give that some thought, as that makes a good bit more sense. But I will have to do a LOT more learning about goats and their care before I do anything.

Regarding

Since I'm assuming that you have no "formal" lumberjack training, please be careful with that chainsaw.

,

wise advice, @Latestarter. When we were about to set out for the pond this morning, I planned to use the new chain saw, but my wife convinced me that I should learn a lot more about chainsaw safety, so I did not take it with us. So I will do some research on chainsaw safety and usage. While I am on the subject, how do you folks sharpen you chainsaw teeth? I have dulled the teeth on my pole saw and they need sharpening really badly, and I am sure the Stihl chainsaw will need sharpening once I start using it.

Thanks again to all of you for your comments and suggestions as my wife and I continue on this wonderful journey from city slickers to country folks.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[greybeard]

I use a chainsaw file. You can get them just about anywhere that sells chains but you need to get the right size file.
A good chain will have guide marks on each cutting tooth--that's the correct angle to hold the file at. #1 in the following picture:
https://blog.stihl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/160125_STIHL_Blog_Rundfeile_Service-undVerschleißmarkierungen.png

Your bar may also have the angle in degrees stamped on it...if not, consult your saw's instruction manual.
You can also get a chain file guide if you want to...they're pretty cheap and have the information on top of it what angle to use it at.
I've used them..just didn't like them, as I like to rotate my file on every other stroke and it's hard to do when the file is clamped in the guide but lots of people do use them. They look like this.
http://www.popscreen.com/p/MTU5MjI0...hainsaw-Sharpener-for-Stihl-Dolmar-Husky-Echo

There's all kinds of fancy things to use to sharpen them nowadays. I just get out my file and sharpen mine on the saw with it (and me) sitting on the truck tailgate. It should just take a couple of strokes of the file on each cutter to bring it back sharp once you master the process.

http://theprocutter.com/chainsaw-sharpening-guide/

 

[greybeard]

If I am going to fence the entire perimeter, then I want it to be horse and cow proof, or at least resistant (Mr. @greybeard and Miss @farmerjan, please weigh in here as to whether using this type fence makes sense), as well as goat and sheep proof, so I priced 2"x4" 4 ft x 200 ft no climb horse fencing at Tractor Supply's web site, which was $250.00 per roll. That means it would take 67.32 rolls (assuming no overlap at all, which is not the case). That works out to be $16,380 for the fencing rolls. T-posts (8-ft long) spaced 10 feet apart would be $8,735, for a subtotal of $25,155. I can use oak or cedar trees here on my property for the anchoring posts, so no extra expense there. If I do all of the labor, then no extra cost there. However, I have NEVER put in fencing, other than minor repair to chain link fencing for a suburban setting, so I would need A LOT of adult supervision, at least at first.

Not something I would do for cows or horses or any combination of the 2 but there's plenty of goat and sheep people here who would tho most of them don't have but a fraction of the acreage you have. There a lot of difference in fencing in 6-20 acres for goats and fencing in 100 acres, both in cost and labor.
Where to start....
You'll be spending mid 5 figures on fencing the whole property before this is done so you will naturally expect it to last the rest of your life.
Do not use living trees for corners or anchoring.
1. You'll kill the trees eventually if not in short order.
2. What happens, when your anchors blow down? That corner is the life of the fence..it is IS the fence, meaning if the tree blows down, you no longer have a fence.
3. Tree sap is corrosive even to galvanized HT wire. It will eventually rust and again, you've lost the fence.
4. To pull any HT wire tight, you will be putting slow but constant strain in one direction on the tree trunk. It will eventually lean in direction of strain which means your fence wire will get loose.

You need to include gates in your costs--they average $90 here for a 14' tube gate.
You will have to include the 4 posts that support and latch the gates (unless your gates are all adjacent to a corner).

IMO, you can beat TSC price and quality by buying from other places....I know I can here.

Oh..using Google maps, since you already have found your property on that website, there are several 'fence planners' you can access for free to get a good idea what your materials will actually be.
https://myfence.mysalesman.com/?partnerCode=d2a41c2ba6fe#Start

https://www.farmfencesolutions.com/fence-configurator/

https://fencing.bekaert.com/en/fencing-calculator

Others just use linear ft and number of turns (corners)

 

[Mike CHS]

We only have a little less than 19 acres and knew that by the time we got finished fencing, the entire property would be have a perimeter fence and cross fences. We first built a small 2 acre sacrificial dry lot for our first 10 sheep that also had a handling area and shelters for lambing if we needed them. We had just started so made allowances for confining them as well as access and control for handling them.

We next built a 3 1/2 acre paddock in the line where it would join with another paddock of the same size. Each subsequent paddock no matter the size would have at least one side already up and gates installed to be able to serve either way. That way I was able to work for a couple of weeks at a time and have plenty of pasture for our sheep. I planned it so as to have my largest paddock finished by the time we had our largest lambing cycle since chores don't go away while you're building fence so that way I was able to do those "bites" you mentioned and still be able to enjoy life. We had as many as 50 sheep out there for a bit till we starting taking to market and doing individual sales. I spent probably a little better than a year building fences but I always had enough grass by controlling breeding cycles and never having more than I can feed with resources on hand. You can run a lot of goats on 20 acres and still be able how much you want to be fenced. If I let the 40 sheep we have run around uncontrolled, every piece of green that they like out there would be dead. By rotating them I always have enough grass for the next rotation and the parasites have time to die while the sheep aren't on those paddocks.

We are doing two more breeding cycles this year but we will only have half of the ewes lambing at the same time so there will always be enough grass. We have made allowances for dry weather also but if push comes to shove the trailer will be full and going to auction except for the prime animals.

I was 66 when we started building infrastructure and that included a whole lot more than fences and since we really are retired, I wasn't going to go out and kill myself doing a day full of building and then animal care after/before that. Like I said, the chores don't go away while you are building fences and a few hours a day between chores makes life a whole lot more enjoyable. It takes longer to get it done but we never allowed the number of animals to get beyond our ability to affordably keep them with on site resources available.

 

[Bruce]

I bought my file when I bought my chain saw. It is the one that has the wood handle and the file held in a flat plate that has 30° angles marked on it. When you file, keep the line on the plate parallel to the saw bar and file only to the outside direction of each cutter. And .... there is a green link in the chain. If you start with that near the body of the saw, you will know when you have done each cutter when it gets back to that point. You can buy replacement files. I usually file every 2 tanks of gas. Unless I hit hidden rusty old barbed wire in a tree

BTW, I followed your lead on protection (head). Bought the integrated hardhat/face shield/hearing protectors when I picked up my repaired saw today. Not a big issue when I was only cutting the ends of delivered firewood that was too long. Bigger issue when I'm out in the woods cutting down trees, most of which hang up in other trees instead of dropping to the ground.

 

[Baymule]

Not going to "like" your near death experience! Next time pay attention to the sign on the tree telling you the height clearance

Bruce you are such a smart ass. I love it!