No significant updates, what with still being three weeks from closing.  I've mostly just been doing all sorts of homework on various planting strategies, along with the usual new-house stuff -- we're going to need to get a little dirt brought in to go around the foundation to take care of some drainage issues, but otherwise it's mostly just going to be paint and that sort of thing.

Oh, yeah.  Just remembered, I did have something slightly more worthwhile than babbling on about nothingness to post.

When we initially visited the property, I noticed that they had a row of about 14 trees planted off on one side of the property.  I assumed, from the manner they were planted, that they were some sort of fruit trees.  When we were back for the inspection, things had finally started to leaf out, and I realized they were ash

I'd like to get rid of those and replace them with something productive, and do it sooner rather than later.  What've you folks planted that you've had good luck with?

Apples always do well. Cherry trees, pear trees, nut trees if you want the long investment. Sugar maple if you want to make syrup.

Ah, dangit.

There should be subsidies for feel goods and the purr effect.

If they planted staggered ash trees, they probably did that for a reason.

Is that where the wind comes from?

Windbreaks, in prairie states, are not to be sneezed at, from what I understand.

Of course, maybe they didn't know about the Emerald Ash Borer at the time.

Or maybe those trees are a resistant species of ash...

I will say this, as a property designer....any established trees are not to be sneezed at.

They're... sort of planted in the direction from which the wind comes?  They're directly north of the house, while the prevailing winds are generally out of the northwest, but they're also planted in between two rows of conifers, which (at least to my understanding) are going to perform better as a windbreak than an ash, particularly once the ash gets some height to it.

They're certainly new enough to have been planted after EAB was well established in Minnesota.

May have been planted for privacy? If they are to the north, they are *sort of* helping with the prevailing wind, but you are right, that is out of the NW, or at least the stuff you want to stop.

If its the same variety of ash I have here, they grow almost as fast as Siberian Elm, so I can see how they may be attractive to plant.

There aren't any residences on that side of the property for... well, a long distance

I did find a few references indicating that "best windbreak practices" involve three rows of trees, of which ash is one of the recommended varieties for the center row.  I'm loathe to take down good trees regardless of what they are, but that extra space would sure be nice for something more productive

My advise: don't take those trees down until you have something with a grapple bucket to deal with brush.

ETA: yeah, those thoughts of multiple rows of trees, including evergreen, can get to be 75+ feet wide, taking up a LOT of otherwise productive land.

OR

You could leave it all up and put pigs/chickens in there. Both do GREAT in woodland settings. Better than pasture settings. Add low brush type plants for more chicken/pig goodness.

My advice would be to wait on taking anything out.  Give it two or three years--maybe four.  Learn your property.  Learn the weather patterns to the extent you can--stuff like where the water runs, where the snow drifts, where you wish like all hell it didn't, etc-- even though you can NOT learn the weather cycles in that area because those take longer to play out.

PLUS...You're not going to use all the space you have the first few years.   You're probably full of ideas right now, but life will happen and you'll expand into it slowly.  Some thoughts about this..

* If the ash are the center row, you won't be taking out the evergreens probably, so that's not going to be your garden space.  You could potentially fence that area and run chickens under the trees, or any number of other possible uses where shade  outside the yard could be advantageous.

*You may find that the area sheltered from wind by the windbreak (since it is to the NORTH, that's hinting at this) is the perfect area for your veggie garden, and if you want corn or anything that grows up, that windbreak may be how you manage to grow those things.

*while your macroclimate wind may come from the northwest (just guessing?) SOMETHING made those owners site the windbreak where it is.  You won't know until you live there for a couple of winters.

You may end up taking them out.  But don't be hasty.

It's hard with a new property because everyone is excited and you want to get started.  But figuring out what's there, how the weather works in YOUR microclimate, and what the previous owners were thinking when they did something (or not thinking, in some instances) is worth the time.

The only thing I suggest to do right away for anyone  is to plant long-lived shade trees like oak, maple, etc, around the house,  and any larger nut trees like hickory or walnut, as soon as possible once you figure out how you think you want to use your space.  Careful with siting the nut trees.  Put them at the edge of existing woods or at the perimeter where you don't plan to do ANYTHING else, because nut trees make a mess and tend to prevent your ability to grow some other species within their root zone (which is much larger than the drip line)

ETA:  And...not to be sneezed at, especially since you are a sportsman and appreciate wildlife.....you will have a mini "woodland" with those rows of deciduous and needle-leaf trees.  That's habitat.  Sorely lacking  in farmland areas around here, and maybe so in your area too.  Nothing is better for kids (or adults, if they take the time) than woods to run in and wildlife to look at.  

The more I think about this, the more I think I should just send you a diagram of the place and let you run with it

All excellent points, as usual.

Finallllllllllly took possession yesterday.  Got locks changed out last night, and we'll start the move this weekend.

First project is going to be some fill and grading around the house foundation.  There was a bit of water (1/8" or so) in one corner of the basement, where the grade is no good and there's a poorly sealed window, after some pretty heavy rain over the last few days, but the rest of the area around the house needs to be brought up some anyway.  So, that'll be the top priority.  After that, we get to move on to putting up some fence for the dog.

I'll take some pictures of the property and post them soon

Threw together a real quick layout of the place this afternoon.

Oof.  We're finally (mostly) moved in.  I still have some guns to finish moving, along with the Library at Alexandria, but that's no immediate hurry.

We found that we've got asparagus growing where the old garden was.  According to the guy (who happened to be the guy who hooked up our internet connection yesterday) who owned the place before the woman from whom we bought it, there was also rhubarb and some berry bushes growing in there.  Those don't seem to have shown themselves, so I'm assuming they got killed off, unfortunately.



Also, the black trees on my little map up there are all apple trees.  I did a horrible job with my map, since I was just looking at the satellite view when I did that -- there are actually eight apple trees in there.  Most of them are baking apples, but the previous previous owner mentioned that a couple of them are "pear apples," which I'm assuming are Asian pears.

Discovered some mulberry trees back in the wooded area behind the machine shed, along with what I suspect are elderberries.

The dog's been having a grand old time tearing about his brand new great big huge yard, but is discovering that his endurance needs a little work



Saw a fawn standing the ditch along the driveway when I pulled in the other day, and heard pheasants making a racket yesterday morning while I was sitting on the deck.  I've seen a good number of rabbits around, but not so many squirrels -- though I suspect they're there, just not spending much time around the house since there's food in the woods and not closer in.



Found some coyote shit in the driveway, so I'll be keeping an ear and eye peeled for them.

Was just in the process of uploading

Had a good view of the storm that rolled through on Wednesday morning, too.



And one of the previous occupants (who was a descendant of the family who originally homesteaded the half section this house is on back in the 1860s) left a present in the garage.  His name is on the bottom of the sign where it's blurred

Has the "I'm FREE!" feeling sunk in yet?

On that pic of your driveway:

MAKE SURE you cut that ditch grass down at least in the fall before snow, otherwise you will have drifts across your driveway like mad. DO NOT put up a snow fence right there. Since the driveway is a high point, snow will naturally blow over the top of it.

Not quite yet, but it's getting there

Thanks for the driveway tip  I'm assuming it just needs to be short at the point that's level with the driveway?  I'd like to get some prairie grass and such going in the ditch itself, so I don't have to mow it.

Shorter the better on the whole ditch for winter. The grass will act as a snow fence (and fill the gaps between the blades of grass to a solid brick of snow), which will build up snow higher than your driveway. Then you plow. Then there is a 90 degree step UP from the driveway to the top of the snow. It will the proceed to drift over EVERY SINGLE DAY for the rest of the winter.

We found our rhubarb the other day, which is currently fighting a battle royale with the massive bunch of day lilies around one of my incoming power poles.

And, since they've started blooming, I've also discovered that I'm up to my armpits in thistle

CUT THE THISTLE DOWN NOW!!!! If you let it seed, it the problem will only get worse.

Thistle can be a PITA. Easy enough though if you want to use Roundup.

You need one of these: Stihl Professional weed eater along with the tri-lobe brush blade. I have that exact model. I use it for clearing heavy duty weeds and light brush (and you can get a saw blade for trees up to 3-4 inches). Runnings can get you setup, and I think they carry this model on the shelf. Its almost too big for regular touch-ups from those bits you can't mow. For that, I actually bought a battery model which works fine.

I'm never going to be able to afford a damn tractor

I suspect Roundup is definitely in the cards...

ETA:  Will 2,4-D nuke thistle, without killing off all the grass and other stuff?

I suspect the NAA will end up a garage project some day in the future when I'm bored

I've been researching tractors the last few weeks, primarily waffling between Kubota and NH.

I'm out of the loop with chemical weed killers, so others will hopefully chime in. But, it depends on the "grass", but typically if it kills thistle it will kill grass. Know your species, read the label.

24-D will kill all broadleaf anything.

Spray when there is no wind.  NO wind.  Meaning the flag is limp and dead still.

Otherwise you will get drift (and you may get it anyhow since technically, "drift" is not related to wind.  Don't even ask.  It's stoopit.)

Sspray when it's dead still, and it will not kill grass species.  Only anything broadleaf, which is 2/3 of the planet.

Okay I should ask...what kind of thistle?

I know I already posted but...

I use a grubbing hoe to get thistles, and avoid the need for the herbicide.  Twice a year works for me because I generally don't let it get to the point of infestation.

Wear heavy pants and heavy boots (NOT tennis shoes, kay?)  and step sort of forward and sideways near the base, pushing the thistle back with your heavy boot.  One strike with the grubbing hoe to the root, just below the soil surface, will cut it.  Then it's into a tub/garbage can, and burned or bagged (heavy gloves and you'll still get stuck some) and sent away with the trash.

Here's a trick for you.

If you absolutely can't get them dug, go around to the ones that are in bloom with a bucket and decent size pruners.  Snip the stem down below the bloom and let the bloom head fall in the bucket.  You MUST bag these heads and get rid of them immediately.  They will go ahead and seed out in that bucket.  No lie.  Thistles are survivors.

Do not let them get to the point of "fluffy" because you'll spread seed no matter what.  And they go from that pretty pink bloom to fluffy in about a day.  If you stay on top of it you'll soon eradicate the population and won't have much trouble.

Kitties+

Bump

We are past due for an update on the Puck homesteading adventure I think.

@sjuhockey10

Oh dear

I'll try to put together something today.

Great thread, in for update.

Whoof.

Well.

Thus far, I think the biggest thing I've learned is that, no matter how much you budget for "random occurrence that costs you money," you're going to end up needing about eight times what you budgeted.  I'm fairly certain that's irrespective of how much you budget

Between a complete propane refill, some automotive things, and a few other unexpected expenses, it's been a tight few months and we really weren't able to do nearly what I had hoped to get done before winter set in.

We did have a pretty successful crop of apples.  We've got at least four different varieties (there are three trees which didn't fruit this year), most of which are later apples.  All the trees need to have some pruning done, but everything seems healthy and very productive.

In August, we adopted some chickens.  22, to be exact  One of my old coworkers was getting rid of theirs, so we took them in.  A mix of Cochin and Brahma, along with a couple halfsies, due to the Brahma rooster (who must be the coolest rooster on the face of the earth -- I haven't even had to threaten to punt him across the run).  I still need to do some finish work to the coop, but on the whole, we have a mess of happy chickens.  One died a few weeks back from what we suspect was an impacted crop, but otherwise things have gone well and we've been generally up to our armpits in eggs.

I'll add to this later on, after I'm home from work.

There's a reason it's called the "simple" country life.

Cuz ya ain't got money for complicated when ya live in the country.

That's the truth.  We've just had a cascade of maintenance stuff with the house lately, but I'm hoping we can start making some progress.

Behind the garage, adjacent to the shooting range

It takes a while, sometimes a lifetime to get the place "just right". Usually just in time for the kids to sell it off and keep the money for themselves

I suppose I owe you all more pictures

No shortage of soybeans around here (don't worry, the corn is on the other side of the property).



The chickens seem generally happy, along with our relatively gregarious rooster.



They even don't mind the snow.  I also have this big honkin' machine shed, with which I don't really know what to do



Sherman and I really enjoyed the fact that we had enough time to go pheasant hunting after work on the weekdays early in the season, and I like that I only have to drive 10 minutes or so to find places to hunt.



We live right by a Christmas tree farm, so on Sunday, Mrs. Puck and I went and got our first Christmas tree.  Canaan fir, which is new to me.  I also made a point of prioritizing the opportunity to enjoy my first Tom & Jerry in the new house

On a more conversational/update-y note, we've been having a long week around here.

Mrs. Puck learned how to set mousetraps on Sunday  I was fully expecting to have to deal with mice, so I'm not terribly surprised, but it's been a little more difficult for her, since they've obviously been very active in the kitchen.  So, there was lots of cleaning of cookware and silverware yesterday, along with some insistence on obtaining a cat.

We had our first substantial-ish snowfall on Saturday, which I'm still working on sorting out.  There was only about 3" worth of accumulation, but we had some really bad drifting across the driveway -- up to 7-8" in places.  It was relatively wet and heavy, which I quickly discovered was more of a job than our snowblower was up to (I've been planning to limp by on that until funds free up for a tractor or skidsteer), so I'm trying to figure out what the short-term solution for snow management is going to be.  Our neighbor who owns the tree farm expressed some interest in bartering tree+cash for some of my storage space, so I might see if I can negotiate that into tree+skidsteer use for storage space.

I'm trying to kick the depression/anxiety can down the road and remind myself that, once some of these big up-front expenses are out of the way, we'll have more to work with, and that spring will roll around (some time way, way off over there in the future ) and we'll have weather and daylight to get more work done.  I've been busy looking at the seed catalogs and playing around with my overhead views of the land, trying to figure out where things are going to get planted.

Only five more months til spring

Oh, also, I learned a valuable lesson a couple weeks ago.

When starting out in a house that runs on propane, it's a good idea to check the tank regularly while you get an idea of how quickly you use it, rather than learning by means of sitting in the house after work and saying "gee, it seems cold!"

Thankfully, I was able to smugly conceal this misstep by saying "see, this sort of thing is exactly why I was so excited when I saw that this house had a supplemental wood-burning furnace!"

Also, I need to learn more about how the thermostat for the wood-burning furnace works.  By the time the propane folks came to fill the tank the following morning, it was 78 degrees in the house

Pickup mounted snow plows are amazingly expensive, but any means on snow removal is expensive unfortunately.

Sounds like things are coming along though.

Oh, the machine shed will fill up in time, don't worry about it. Keep the roof in good repair.

Ended up doing that as soon as I talked to the propane company, so we don't have to worry about that in the future.

The driveway is the high point, which is part of my surprise at how bad it's drifted.  Snow fence isn't an option, unfortunately, since the driveway's on an easement.

Did you get all the grass knocked down around your driveway?

I did, but I'm suspecting I should've taken it down further than I did.

Yeah, I didn't get mine down this fall. Technically not too late though, just don't have time during daylight to do it any time soon. Just more digging out for me this winter I guess.