Homesteading and Hobby Farm/Ranch

Kiroy said:

I feel like you’re doing good if you’re only losing one chicken to random death every quarter.

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Results. Izo can you interpret this? I think maybe it’s blood clots in the liver?

Sludig said:

I have a pond that is a little leaky on the back end, i'm not sure if it's good that it's holding a fair amount back or bad that it then kinda slow releases a bunch. There's kinda like 2 broad paths of water that reach the back field but they are rather wide, so I think I'd have to do some pretty precise sloping to try and get everything into one narrow channel and go out the back.

First post think I said, I'm on a pretty good hill where it flattens a bit with some properties before continuing downhill. As such we get a lot of runoff. Like 12 hours after a storm there's still water flowin in the road and I stay soggy for a longer time than most would expect say in town.

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You should look into using earthworks to harvest your runoff. I just started reading Brad lancaster’s books on rainwater harvesting and liking them so far

Sludig said:

I was just trying to kinda show yall what I'm working with. I am kinda curious if I could landscape a bit and try to get it going thru like one little culvert in the field with like a drive over ramp w/ a drainage pipe without uprooting too much of the field doing it. I mean sure I could pay thousands and some land company, but I know they;d tear it up and not really worth the kind of money. Basically my tractor myself and trying to do most things cheap as possible.

Donkeys running rampant last 48 hours. Got into a bag of trash, flipped whole porch table and the grill on top, keep partially tearing down a improvised wall dividing off my cranky geese from my laying good ones. And now have learned they are strong enough to drag open the 6-7 foot wide wood and wire fence into the chicken pen to go terrorize them.

I'm almost ready to accept wifes demand that if I sell the donkeys she gets a cow. Not sure how much upkeep one needs beyond her wanting an expensive mini. (How much food, how much routine medical/hoof care etc vs just let it roam the field eating shitty grass and just watching for foot lameness and abscesses etc. I'd hope it'd ignore the goats mostly, now whether the emu's would leave it alone is another matter.

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Trying to understand - so is that a river that overflows and water goes to multiple areas you’ve drawn?

Have you considered rain gardens? Planting trees, shrubs, grasses etc that are super thirsty?

My concern with you pulling it all into one drainage pipe and then culvert is

1. if you don’t do the math on the watershed drainage correctly and size the culvert/drainage adequately you can screw things up. Think for instance the culvert backing up, water pressure increases, water coming out of culvert becomes a blaster that erodes the drainage ground (if not using pipe connection at culvert) on the other side of culvert. The book I mentioned earlier by Lancaster goes over this.

2. It sounds like you may have a great opportunity to harvest rain water here. It seems like you need the correct earthscapes and vision. It sounds like you want the current area that’s flooding to be a field for your donkeys(?) If so I’d look for a gentle way to divert the water to trees/plants that produce food. The best way to control rain water is right where it falls, I.e. not tying it all into one drain making a giant river. If you can find a balance here it may be ideal.

Again, you really should calculate your watershed numbers. The book I recommended goes into detail on how to do that in order to size your earthworks.

Sludig said:

Need a chainsaw for collecting random trees people have for free. Probably trying to find something running used. Any non foler/burns hyper autism Wikipedia replies on anything I should look or avoid? I've heard various things about a lot of brands names being shit now. I just want what's going to be the easiest reliably/ maintenance over the most power/ convenient.

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Uhhh ok. Just get a stihl 261 c-m on a 16” or 18” guide bar and call it a day. It’s a buy for life chainsaw.

Borzak said:

Buy chaps if you don't have a lot of experience with a chain saw which if you do you probably already own them.

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The amount of times chaps have saved my nuts from popping a chain due to making a return cut is greater than the 5 fingers I still have on one hand. Also recommend helmet with face guard.