Cody Haynes

yeah I'd seen that one. Just got in touch with them and they sent me to Peter Hirst.

Where are any of yall findin detailed Adam Retort designs?

Lol I love hickory smoked bacon

yeah a lot of our land features are what logging left behind so I'm having to plan carefully. And think about if I wanna reverse it in the future.

But speakin of smoking wood we got access to the neighbors hickory thicket. An acre of hickory 3 inches in diameter and clearing n collecting them for smoking til a couple dozen specimen are left to thrive.

Oh it's really a mass of gnarly trees with little value to me. I understand the sentiment tho. But they just wind up as a mulch right where they are.

But we have gone through n flagged about 300 keepers, oaks, Cypress, honey locust.

Also on another forum they said to French drain to the creek. We already planned on damming it low as a reserve so I might go that way.

know, it's a blessing as much as it is a curse.

We're in East Texas. Forget about what you know about the rest of Texas. We're way more of the Louisiana swamps. Bald Cypress in the creeks n bottoms. All that stuff.

Anyway we got 5.5 acres after Harvey, it had 8 foot of standing water for a week. Had some soil hydrologist tell us that water isn't gonna penetrate the soil right for ~6 more months. But the land floods in parts every year due in part to poor logging practice about 20 years ago. Which also needs thinning now.

In the 5 acres of woods I'm trying to get a forestry mulcher to clear 3 acres of brush (thin tall trees that aren't doin much for the woods in any way) keeping almost all trees above 6" in diameter. And gettin a 30ft pole saw to open up the canopy to get light to the ground to help some grass come back n regulate soil moisture.

I'm planting probably a quarter acre in the back to Napier grass for deer bedding and hoping to dry out a bottom. I'm even considering planting rice to dry out ~2 acres and just mow it before seed sets.

I know a lot of us are trying to harvest as much water as possible but can yall give me any tips to dry some land out.

Far into SETX. Just got at least 8 ft from Harvey in fact.

We reliably get at least 3 inches of rain per month though. Also digging with post hole diggers I can hit what I assume is the water table with the top of the handle flush with the ground.

I've tried searching to no avail but..


We get 60" of rain on average n we're flat river bottom with creeks.

So should we fuss with swales at all? Or try something else?

Bryant thank you. exactly the info I'm looking for.

If ya dont mind double checking me on this though.

This is still assuming 600 layers.

So 22,000 sq ft is about a half acre.

And for a paddock to have 32 days of rest I'd need 4 acres split into half acre paddocks and 4 day rotation.

East Texas, zone 9b.

I'm wanting to run 600 chickens on an acre of hay field.

So the idea is 600 layer hens in a 45'x20 pen at night.

During the day they would forage four days on each paddock or 5,500 square foot (~9 sq ft per hen).

I'd be feeding them as well.

So 32 days before they're back to the first paddock.

Shoot this idea full of holes so I can work it out.