Benedict Bosco

Kara Ann wrote:Hey Benedict - thanks for sharing that! It encourages me to think that maybe I do NOT need to gather and haul all this....

And a few years ago, you were making some hedges (prior post).  Would you like to give us an update on how yours turned out, what you decided to do with your dead hedge (with limited materials) and your steel fencing and any live hedge progress? Pictures? Lessons learned?

I don't have much for pictures, unfortunately. I try not to keep my phone around, and my camera's long dead, but I can share what I've learned. The brush pile fence was very effective as a temporary barrier to keep small children and the dog within the yard. It was less effective at keeping sheep off of some newly planted pine trees - they just climbed in. You really need a tall pile with steep sides to keep them out.

You need a lot of material to make a meaningful fence. You also need an ongoing source of material - it does break down pretty quickly - given my lack of pictures, it's hard to say for sure, but I think mine is down by half already. I was working with mostly pine branches; I expect other species would last longer. It does direct animal (sheep) traffic, but I would not trust it to hold them somewhere. It helps create a visual barrier in addition to the hard barrier of the fence as well.

As far as my living hedge plans go, I haven't made a lot of progress. I've been planting things along the fenceline - lilacs and pines and elderberries and some transplanted boxwoods, but it's still a far cry from anything resembling a hedge. I've also attempted to plant willows and hazelnuts. Probably less than half of what I've planted has actually survived. I really do need to do a lot more weed control, whether by fabric/mulch or mowing, otherwise the grass just grows up faster than the plantings and choke them out. I think I may try to get some willow cuttings and do a landscape felt + mulch and see if I have better success. I also want to try osage orange, but we'll see.

If the seeds are already burst and scattered, I doubt it's going to hurt anything to add them to the hedge. Whatever's left in them will probably be knocked out by collecting the branches in the first place.

Anything with undesireable seeds present (burdock mostly in my case) gets added to the burn pile.

If the thorns are as nasty as people say (I've never seen them in person), I expect not much of anything is going to want to push through that top section. I wonder if the bottoms died off, or they pruned them to have that space...

I've also been thinking about planting one of these hedges (TBD when I have time to actually plan and plant it)...what is this book by Caldwell you reference?

I found a DOT photo of somebody’s Osage Orange hedge, somewhere along Route 52

https://fhwaapps.fhwa.dot.gov/bywaysp/photos/60792

We recently acquired a grain mill (KoMo Fidibus XL for those curious), and have started grinding our own flour for our sourdough bread, waffles, pancakes, and other such (usually fermented) baked goods. We have found that the flavor is much richer, but the rise isn't there when compared with conventional ground white flour. What is interesting, though, is that even though the dough looks/is "flat", it tastes nothing like the dense block that you get with store-ground whole wheat or a bad rise from white flour.

Something we have found is that while we can see the bran in the flour, our sifter doesn't seem to take it out. I don't know if this is a quality of the sifter issue, or a too-fine-of-grind issue with the flour, or what. Supposedly the bran interferes with the gluten chains forming, which contributes to the lack of rise. Some things I've read suggest sifting out the bran to make the dough, and either mix it back in at the end (as you would raisins or other "extras"), or use it to dust the loaf/pan before baking. Does anyone have suggestions on effectively sifting the flour?

The second thing is that we're trying to learn the differences between hard and soft, red and white flours (before we start branching out into spelt and einkorn and other more traditional grains). So far it seems like the soft flour does not lend itself to a structured anything - even the sourdough starter ends up a strange grainy consistency - and the flavor is generally off from what we like. The hard wheat has been much better in this regard. I'm not sure if there's really a difference between the red and white. Does anyone have insights on flour types? (Ancient grain suggestions welcome as well, we're going there sooner or later)

Ned Harr wrote:
I think a Transit is an interesting choice for a build-out, given the lack of 4WD options (if I'm remembering right) and Ford's notorious mechanical and electrical issues (at least in my experience & observation--I drive a Transit Connect for my work van) though I do consistently like the ergonomics on Fords if you exclude the area under the hood. I'm sure some people get lucky with Fords. Curious how you've fared with the Transit and what are your thoughts about the other van options.

The new Ford Transits do have a factory 4WD option, which is a selling point for them. They also have a more modern cabin. Lots of electronics and stuff to break, though. The Chevy/GMC vans are more robust and more easily serviced. You can get 4WD on those too, but it's an aftermarket mod and it ain't cheap!

They make hand cranked corn shellers that make fast work of a pile of cobs, but otherwise yeah, just grab the cob and twist like you're wringing out a cloth. Apparently the crank ones are still being made and can be purchased online for around 50 bucks...not sure of the quality of those, but that seems to be the general price point. You might find an antique one for cheaper that's probably better made if you look around.

A few of things I've learned:
- it's a good idea to exercise all shutoff valves (open and close them), both the whole house and at individual fixtures, on a regular basis, probably at least once a year. If they don't move, they tend to corrode internally and stick, and may not work when you need them. I had a valve handle I was trying to close break off because it was too badly stuck - thankfully it wasn't something I needed off urgently, but would have been bad otherwise.
- have shutoff valves at each fixture. This isn't necessarily an emergency thing, but if you're trying to fix or replace a faucet or appliance and you can't shut off the water there and have to shut off the main, it's a bigger production that has to be done now, instead of being able to take your time with the fix. Exterior faucets especially should have their own independent shutoffs.
- if you shut off the main for any reason, you probably want to go through the house and remove aerators and run the faucets until they run smooth (i.e. once the air is out, run a bit longer). The pressure drop/rebuild tends to knock sediment loose in the pipes, which clogs up the aerators and makes them flow poorly.

Judith Browning wrote:
The 10 square feet per tree is really a 3 foot circle of bare dirt around my tree to try to deter peach tree borer larvae...squared off to 3 foot by 3 foot is 9 square feet but for my math I thought calling it 10 square feet would be close enough and I'm not up to figuring out square feet of a circle.

You're welcome! Bonus formula for you - the area of the circle is pi times the radius squared 3.14*(1.5^2) - so it's roughly 7sf

Here's the math...


  4 lbs              16 oz/lb                 64 oz
-----------   *  -----------------     =    ------------  
 1 acre         43,560 sf/ac          43,560sf

=>

  64               x
---------  =  ----------
43560          10

=>

64 / 43560 * 10 = 0.015 oz per 10sf

that's not much...fraction of a tsp, probably.