M Winters

You mentioned chickens - right? If this is something you are planning to add at some point and know where you plan to put them you could cover that area with a thick mulch of your hay (perhaps seeding a cover crop there first). As the hay breaks down and the cover crop (and hay) sprout and grow you will be creating a chicken nirvana to put them into. Might be worth getting some meat birds to run through there just to take advantage of this boutny. Thats how I prep paddocks for my birds about 6 weeks before moving them onto them. Its a great way to build soil and grow free chicken feed to boot.

Late to the party - but I'm now in for $75. Looking forward to hearing the full beauty of the english language and learning about swales, etc.

Casey - what I like to do in my wood-core beds is use a mix of woods of various ages, dryness and stages of decomp. The wood I pull from a pile out in my woods thats gotten very "punky" from exposure for 8 years comes with a bunch of mycelium already built-in and acts to innoculate the newer, "cleaner" stuff that its layered with in the beds. This makes the beds last longer (as the half rotted stuff doesn't stick around long) and not sink as much in the first several years. The mix of different woods promotes a mix of different mycelium - kinda like what happens in the forest.

As for wetting the wood - I let nature do this for me. I pile the wood along the side of the bed as I dig it - which takes about a month doing it on weekends and workgin around the weather, etc. It gets rained on a few times and wood in the bed gets soaked the same way. Slow and small solutions (diggin by hand is slow - and good exercise).

Peter - good point about the N+ fixers. I do this too when I plant new fruit or nut trees primarily using moringa as a nurse tree and to provide some supplemental N+. I usually include a couple of comfrey crowns, some alliums and some marigolds as well to bring in pollinators, repel harmful critters and mine some deep nutrients. I've not come up with a specific guild for specific trees yet but this basic guild has been working well to get the new ones started.

Additionally, as I protect the new plantings with a cage of field fence (to keep deer and rabbits at bay) I plant my sugar snap peas around the base of this cage and they use it as their trellis when they grow. These legumes also provide a little N+ to everyone and protect the young trees from sun scald (and taste pretty good to boot). YMMV

Richard - if you are talking about establishing a new tree in an area that is NOT already a heuglebed and burying some wood with the planting to act as a sponge, etc. Remember that in the first year of establishing any type of heugle the "sponge effect" works in reverse. Meaning - the log you bury could take moisture away from your young tree and would certainly tie up some nitrogen that your tree needs to get off to a good start. A lot would depend on your soil, your rainfall and climatic factors but I would use caution trying to get the beneficial effects of a mature heugle from a single log in the first year of burying. JMHO

We are raising chickens for the first time in a long time this spring. We ordered day old chicks - 15 layers (Red Stars) and 15 cornish rock crosses for meat birds. I raised these babies in our dining room for 4 weeks until they were big enough to go outside to their new coop and yard. In those 4 weeks I handled them almost daily, looked them over for signs of illness, made sure they were warm enough and had clean water, even washing their little butts when some of them pasted up. By the grace of God and my hard work I didn't lose a single one.

After a few weeks in the coop I could see that my meat birds were growing uncomfortably large (I won't be ordering Cornish crosses again for this reason) and the time had come to put up or shut up. I approached the processing like I had approached getting the birds int he first place: reading everything I could, watching YouTube videos, and mentally going over the proceedure in my mind. It helps that I'm in the medical profession and have spent a fair amount of my life in the ER and OR. I prepped for processing day the same way I prepped for a new procedure in the OR. And in the same way I struggled to find a place of clinical detachment that would allow me to approach the act with respect and confidence and competence.

The first bird went into the calming cone (we don't call it a killing cone), and as the bird relaxed so did I. We thanked it for the sacrifice it was borne to make on behalf of our family and expressed hope that we had made its short life as comfortable and enjoyable as a chicken's life could be. We went slow and stepwise and I found that my wife and I grew closer though the process and through talking about our thoughts and emotions while doing it.

It is not for everyone. It may not be the right time for you guys to do this yet. If you cannot do it yourself at least hire it done (the processing that is) and raise your own meat if you plan to eat meat. Your family will advance along the path at your leisure. We found that by going to a friends and helping with their processing it was WAY easier for us to do it ourseles knowing the process better. YMMV

The problem IS the solution! I WISH I could grow raspberries like that! Is there some pressing reason you have to move the pile? If not, enjoy the berries.