At Home In The Woods

[clemsonfor]

Its still an organic and technically could attract termites, but i really have never seen termites in just pine straw. Im a forester here in the south and see a lot of it and deep in some places. The only termites i see in areas is if there is a stick there or big hunk or bark.

The down side to straw is its pricy depending upon where you are and its lasts one year. Make sure you get long leaf pine straw (some call it long-needle) its more expensive, but has more of a russet color, lasts longer, not as brashy(is defined as breaks easy) as loblolly, and Longleaf holds its color way longer than loblolly that will literally turn grey in half the time. Much you can go every other year to apply it. My friend owns a landscape biz so i buy straw off her at wholesale as she has an 18wheeler parked at her place. I think then its still $3 or $3.50/bale.

 

[tony Cecil]

Pine needles catch fire way quicker than bark, although I personally like needles better...Tony

 

[Obed]

Its still an organic and technically could attract termites, but i really have never seen termites in just pine straw. Im a forester here in the south and see a lot of it and deep in some places. The only termites i see in areas is if there is a stick there or big hunk or bark.

The down side to straw is its pricy depending upon where you are and its lasts one year. Make sure you get long leaf pine straw (some call it long-needle) its more expensive, but has more of a russet color, lasts longer, not as brashy(is defined as breaks easy) as loblolly, and Longleaf holds its color way longer than loblolly that will literally turn grey in half the time. Much you can go every other year to apply it. My friend owns a landscape biz so i buy straw off her at wholesale as she has an 18wheeler parked at her place. I think then its still $3 or $3.50/bale.

At my last house in North Carolina, I found some pines along the roadside and just backed my pickup up and filled it with pine needles off the ground. It just took a few minutes to fill up the bed of the truck. I may keep my eyes open around here to see if I can do the same.
Obed

 

[Obed]

On Saturday I went driving around pulling my small trailer looking for pallets for my firewood. After driving behind 3 strip malls without any success, I passed a pool supply store and saw some pallets behind the shop. I stopped and got permission to pick up their pallets. The pallets were in great condition. I picked up all of them but one broken one, 20 in all. That made me very happy.

I unloaded the pallets up the hill from the house. You can make out the house in the background through the trees to the right of the pickup truck. I put 9 pallets on the ground. I plan to make a round cylindrical firewood stack like has been done in Europe for centuries. The pallets will keep the wood off of the ground.

 

[clemsonfor]

Depending upon where you were in NC it may have been Longleaf. In my opinion, if i had to rake it up (not from a pile on the road) i would not waste my time on loblolly, its that inferrior. Longleaf, if i had access to easily rakeable clean straw i would do it, it dose not take that long.

 

[ruralruss]

Obed,

If you have any brick left over put them on there side and put them under the corners of the pallets. They will last longer.

 

[Obed]

We've been struggling to get the yard mowed due to lawnmower issues and rain. We have been getting afternoon showers everyday. It's like living in Hawaii.

The fescue grass was tall enough to make hay. I had to make two swipes with the mower to cut it. It was so tall, much of the grass got pushed over instead getting cut so I had to make a second pass in the opposite direction.

The steep part in the back yard was a challenge. I can mow it by going straight up the hill and back down. It is too steep to drive the mower sideways to the hill.

I found a nest of wild turkey eggs in the back yard! I just happened to mow over them without breaking any.

After cutting the grass in the yard, I then went over it again to blow the loose grass away from the house and into the woods. I mowed the last 10 minutes in the rain as we got another shower. I still need to trim the tall grass I couldn't get to with the riding mower.

 

[radioman]

looks like you need a rear finishing mower or bush hog soon. :laughing:

 

[Verticaltrx]

Just wanted to say I'm enjoying the 'homesteading' aspect of this thread as much as the actual home building. Keep up the good work and keep the pics coming. :thumbsup:

 

[dstig1]

Newly seeded lawns are always like that. You don't want to mow too soon, so it gets hay-like. No biggie. Now that you knoced it down, you can start keeping on it more like a normal lawn. Just don't mow it real short. Leave it longer, especially for the first year. It pays to run lawns long even after that, but you can be a bit more reasonable.

Hey - approaching 4k posts here!

 

[clemsonfor]

We've been struggling to get the yard mowed due to lawnmower issues and rain. We have been getting afternoon showers everyday. It's like living in Hawaii.

The fescue grass was tall enough to make hay. I had to make two swipes with the mower to cut it. It was so tall, much of the grass got pushed over instead getting cut so I had to make a second pass in the opposite direction.

The steep part in the back yard was a challenge. I can mow it by going straight up the hill and back down. It is too steep to drive the mower sideways to the hill.

I found a nest of wild turkey eggs in the back yard! I just happened to mow over them without breaking any.

After cutting the grass in the yard, I then went over it again to blow the loose grass away from the house and into the woods. I mowed the last 10 minutes in the rain as we got another shower. I still need to trim the tall grass I couldn't get to with the riding mower.

I think you need a bush hog. You sure thats fescue and not winter wheat?

 

[ruralruss]

Obed,

If the turkey eggs are anything like guinea eggs they would support the tractor!

 

[PAGUY]

Obed - Are you going to incubate those turkey eggs? That would be neat.

 

[Obed]

Last week my wife saw a tree company clearing brush underneath the powerlines in our neighborhood. She stopped and asked them what they were doing with the mulch? They said they would dump it somewhere so she asked them to dump it at our house.

When the truck came down our driveway, they turned around where the driveway splits to go to the basement. That spot is tight and I didn't want that big truck trying to turn around there for fear they would run over the end of our culvert - which they did. They also made a 1 foot deep rut in the wet dirt for 30 feet along the side of our driveway that I then had to fix. All they had to do was drive the truck to the house where there is plenty of room to turn around.

Sometimes "free" isn't "free".

 

[Obed]

looks like you need a rear finishing mower or bush hog soon. :laughing:

No kidding!

 

[Obed]

I think you need a bush hog. You sure thats fescue and not winter wheat?

It's fescue. We did have some wheat come up in the front yard from the straw but didn't have much wheat come up in the back yard.

 

[Obed]

After my wife saw a turkey come sit on the eggs in the open yard the day after I mowed the grass, my wife decided to stake up some grass clippings around the nest to give the turkey some privacy.

When the turkey saw the grass clippings, it circled the nest about 10 times before finally sitting on the eggs. The turkey has been coming each day for a couple hours around noon and has been laying an egg a day. If you look closely, you can see the turkey's head sticking up out of the nest.

 

[Obed]

Obed - Are you going to incubate those turkey eggs? That would be neat.

I've actually been thinking about omelettes!

 

[Obed]

Just wanted to say I'm enjoying the 'homesteading' aspect of this thread as much as the actual home building. Keep up the good work and keep the pics coming. :thumbsup:

Verticaltrx,
Glad you are enjoying the thread. For me, this part of the project is much more fun than the house building part. It's definitely less stressful.
Obed

 

[Tororider]

So Obed, how was your Easter omelette?