Homesteading and Hobby Farm/Ranch
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Goatface
Avatar of War Slayer
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looks like this is one of the extensions for FL, but the nematodes link doesn't seem to go anywhere, but soil link works
smallfarm.ifas.ufl.edu
our local Cooperative Extension office used to be active, holding seminars and stuff, but not seen them offer anything in a while (before covid even). only bring that up as i remember they did one on water and soil and got discounted testing at the end.
Small Farms and Alternative Enterprises Program - Diagnostic Services
The Small Farms Program offers diagnostic services to help with the identification of insects, soil compounds, diseases, and more.
our local Cooperative Extension office used to be active, holding seminars and stuff, but not seen them offer anything in a while (before covid even). only bring that up as i remember they did one on water and soil and got discounted testing at the end.
Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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Any university with an ag department will have a place to pick up the bags to use and they will do soil test. Same for any ag extension service for your county or whatever.
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LachiusTZ
Rogue Deathwalker Box
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Might go ahead with the garden at our house . . . prolly 20x20, or 20x10. Not huge, but something to put in and do etc.
Anyone have a good written hard copy resource (like twist of the wrist for motorcycles) w/ the crop rotations, what to plant to maximize yield etc?
Prolly gonna do garden OR chickens, not both. And since I might sell the house in the fall, a nice garden set up would give a harvest, wouldnt have to fuck w/ moving it, and would be a selling point for the house (I think).
So prolly garden.
Anyone have a good written hard copy resource (like twist of the wrist for motorcycles) w/ the crop rotations, what to plant to maximize yield etc?
Prolly gonna do garden OR chickens, not both. And since I might sell the house in the fall, a nice garden set up would give a harvest, wouldnt have to fuck w/ moving it, and would be a selling point for the house (I think).
So prolly garden.
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Asshat Foler
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See if you can find something specific to your state. If you were in florida id have recommendations.
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My experience is the same. They should last 20 years unless you are chewing them up with heavy tracked equipment.
Are you not using pressure treated lumber? Maybe you're getting dry rot fungus or something.
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Asshat Foler
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Yeah weird. I was doing research on forums and kept coming across people bitching about steel rusting to pieces and wood rotting (neither has been my experience).
Maybe they’re just buying shit ass trailers? Dunno.
Asshat Foler
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Any you guys do composting? I’m planning from food forest and want to have a compost bin. This three bin setup seems like a good idea. Any feedback?
www.goodhousekeeping.com
How to Build the Ultimate Compost Bin
This three-crate system will churn out rich soil in a fraction of the time.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Skid steers and mini excavators usually weigh about 8000 lbs although there are bigger ones. My trailer is a 22 foot PJ and I believe it's rated for 14000 lbs. I think it cost about $12k but that was 5 or 6 years ago.
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Foler
what's the towing capacity of your vehicle? Don't overdo it with your trailer. For example, I know someone who had an older truck, a smaller one, and they bought a covered trailer. The trailer itself was nearly the towing capacity of the vehicle, so they could load almost nothing in it. Dumb move. Figure out what you're most likely to tow. For me I periodically tow my tractor around, and it's about 3,500 pounds, which is the limit of my trucks towing capacity unless I got a trailer with brakes of its own. Then I can tow up to 7,500 pounds. So I'm golden. You might want to be looking for a trailer with brakes of its own so you don't have to update your vehicle.You can look at something like this:
Big Tex Trailers 70PI (7' X 16') Tandem Axle Utility Trailer with brakes on BOTH axles and 7K GVWR | East Coast Autos & Trailers | Wilmington NC Trailers and Storage Barns
The 70PI-X Tandem Axle Pipe Top Utility Trailer comes standard with a generous 83-inch width. Ideal for hauling compact trailers, small equipment and other farm & ranch applications. We order all of ours with brakes on BOTH axles so that you can confidently leave the state of NC as the laws in s
www.eastcoastautosandtrailers.com
I don't want a flat trailer, as I often move dirt/mulch/gravel/firewood or whatever. Its super helpful to be able to put up my 20 inch plywood walls in the trailer (I made them easy in, easy out, and that's not hard to do). You can haul a lot more of anything like dirt that way.
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Asshat Foler
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Not concerned about towing capacity. I have a 2500 diesel truck I used to tow a 16k lbs boat. Trailer did have hydraulic brakes but I did tow it with no brakes once when fluid had leaked… Amazing how much these modern diesel trucks can tow. Can tow pretty much anything I’d imagine I’d use.
You can look at something like this:
Big Tex Trailers 70PI (7' X 16') Tandem Axle Utility Trailer with brakes on BOTH axles and 7K GVWR | East Coast Autos & Trailers | Wilmington NC Trailers and Storage Barns
The 70PI-X Tandem Axle Pipe Top Utility Trailer comes standard with a generous 83-inch width. Ideal for hauling compact trailers, small equipment and other farm & ranch applications. We order all of ours with brakes on BOTH axles so that you can confidently leave the state of NC as the laws in s
I don't want a flat trailer, as I often move dirt/mulch/gravel/firewood or whatever. Its super helpful to be able to put up my 20 inch plywood walls in the trailer (I made them easy in, easy out, and that's not hard to do). You can haul a lot more of anything like dirt that way.
ditto on your last paragraph - love the idea of being able to tow dirt/mulch/gravel - good idea on 20 inch plywood. Big Tex also seems popular - I see them around a lot.
Only concern is as we’ve been discussing is that this trailer will live outdoors in florida - hence the primary benefit of aluminum was longevity. Also with aluminum you’ll usually get a higher payload capacity because the trailer itself weighs less when on the same rated axles as a steel trailer.
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lurkingdirk
surprised you don’t own a hd diesel truck. You should snag an old ford (pre 6.2L iirc), duramax or Cummins for around the farm. Then again as I wrote this last sentence I remembered how expensive even a 15 year old truck may be right now. Bleh.
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Asshat Foler
2024 FoH Asshat
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When you have an entire forest to do it almost becomes religious.
Bought myself a nice Stihl ht 251 pole saw for those monster cypress vines.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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It's horrendous right now. The engine went out in our '06 F-250 V10 and it's $8500 to put a new engine in it and there's no used engines available or if there are they want $500 under the price of a new one for it. I figured I could get a pickup at least as good as that thing for less than $8500 and move our bale bed onto it. Holy shit was I wrong. Pickups with from the 90's with 250K miles on them are going for $15k. That '06 just has a little over 100k on it so if it ran good would probably be pushing $25k. Insane. $8500 engine it is. I really dislike that V-10 and it chaps my ass to pay that much for one but I don't know what other option there is.
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Asshat Foler
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Wow that blows. Yeah, not a fan of the v10… Really hard to go back to gas for towing after having diesel. Don’t think I could stomach putting a new 8500 v10 in an 06 Ford F-250..
Yeah I’d go diesel in the future - just be careful on the engines. I think it was fords 6.2L sometime around 06-09 that would get fucked up and to fix it they had to take the truck off the frame to just get to the part of the engine so I heard. I’ve had great success with duramax/Allison.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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We do have an '01 dodge 3500 dualie with a 5.9 cummins and a 6 speed manual that we pull trailers with quite a bit. The ford is our backup bale pickup so I really don't want to put tons of money into it and I'm planning to buy a new pickup this year sometime but I really don't want a bale bed on it so I need to keep the old ford going as a backup to our feed pickup. My stomach isn't liking this plan either, but it seems like the alternatives are paying twice as much for a worse pickup or 3 times as much for something similar to what I would have with a new engine. It would probably cost $3k to get someone to move the bale bed from one pickup to the other as well so there's that.
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I've had a diesel truck in the past. I just don't have any need to own anything with that much towing capacity right now. I like my little truck, and it fits inside my garage.
One thing to think about with diesel in Montana is that they suck in the cold. I had my diesel vehicles gel up when it got to -35 or colder. My solution was to throw a heavy tarp over it and run the caterpillar heater under it for a half hour. What a pain in the ass.
One thing to think about with diesel in Montana is that they suck in the cold. I had my diesel vehicles gel up when it got to -35 or colder. My solution was to throw a heavy tarp over it and run the caterpillar heater under it for a half hour. What a pain in the ass.
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