Benedict Bosco

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.

I haven't used an e-ink display except on a Kindle that I haven't turned on in a great many years, but I'm interested to see what others have seen or tried.

The smaller form-factors (i.e. tablets and the like) are going to suffer from a dramatic drop in serviceability and longevity compared to larger, more modular desktop-type options. Depending on what your exact needs are, you could potentially build up a laptop-esque device running a small board (Raspberry Pi or the like) that you could use for fieldwork, and have the monitor be something you could plug into a desktop PC when at home for larger or more computationally intensive projects - one display for multiple computers.

You can also disable Autoplay in the browser (this is Brave, which I highly recommend; it's Chromium based so Chrome, Edge, and the rest should have the same option). You can get to site-specific settings from the left side of the URL bar > Site Settings. The global setting is in Settings > Privacy and Security > Site and Shields Settings under "Additional Permissions"

I've found myself aggressively using the "Do not play this artist" button on Spotify, for the same reason. If the recommendations start playing something AI, it just runs down that rabbit hole until you've blocked enough "Artists" to find real people again.

Good pasture and hay are the best. You can get alfalfa pellets that make a good supplemental feed/treat that isn’t quite so rich as grain.

Elena Sparks wrote:I am gonna send you a PM with info on milking abilities and fleece of the Icelandics so it doesn't get lost.

Can I get a copy of this too, please?

Sam Potter wrote:So electric has a good chance but not a 100 percent chance of keeping them in. Il take your advice and run electric on the inside but not as my main on the outside. I had to go take a proper look to see what it currently is. It is 4 foot woven cattle fencing with some loose barb wire that will need removed. I plan on getting the sheep in the spring. And the grass has all gone to seed. Is it better if I mow that now in the fall or in the spring? I did goats as a way to clear brush so the pasture care is new to me.

Yes, electric is a psychological barrier, not a physical one. It only works if they don't think they can/want to go through it. You'll want to train them to it before expecting them to be contained by it. Sounds like that fence is good, and removing the barbed wire is also good.

As far as mowing - you wouldn't _have_ to mow it at all. The winter will break some of it down and they'll eat or trample most of what's left. If you do want to mow, I guess I'd go for the doing it now, so you get the old stuff started decomposing over the winter and you don't disturb the new growth in the spring with the mowing. By the time things have dried out enough to mow in the spring, you'd probably end up cutting a decent amount of new growth.

This year I decided to mow the pasture mid-summer after they'd been through a couple times, to knock down the stuff that they weren't eating as well. It wasn't a lot to cut, but it leveled things out and pushed the less palatable stuff back down to the same level as stuff that had been grazed.

Honestly, pasture care is an art form; there's many ways to do it and always more to learn. If you don't already, I'd recommend getting a subscription to the Stockman Grass Farmer...lots of good stuff in there about pasture management.

Where are you located? Your local weather and pasture conditions will dictate your stocking rate. They should be similar to goats, and roughly 5:1 compared to cattle.

They aren't hard on fences in my experience. I run 4' woven wire on the perimeter, which is probably overkill but I may get into larger animals and I'm not taking chances on them escaping. Internally, I rotate them with 2 hot wires, which usually works but it depends on the individual animal. I had to rehome an ewe that decided she didn't care about the electric fence anymore. Last winter I had them in the garden with electric on the front and 4' chicken wire on the back, and the only escapes were through the electric.

If they have enough to eat where they're at, they don't take much to contain. If they get hungry, the fencing needs go up. Trying to keep them on hay in the spring as things start to green up but before you want them out is challenging.

I have friends with Icelandics that have (iirc) 5 or 6 strand high tensile that isn't electric, which mostly works but they do get out once in a while. If it was electrified I'd expect they'd stay in pretty well.

Pay attention to your gates (and fences) when you have lambs, they are much more prone to wandering off and slipping through smaller gaps that normally aren't a problem.