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[Beekissed]

I want to stop using wood chips. The problem is that I have a lot of rice straw which I use for my nest box. I don’t want to buy hay when I already have straw even though it may not be the best thing. Seems wasteful and that straw is going to last me a long time. I also don’t have a place to store hay.

Mary

I'd use it, then! That's what I'm all about too...why buy, struggle and try so hard to maintain a mulch covering when something you have on hand will work well? Hay is very cheap around here, especially mulch hay. When I was studying up on the BTE and wood chips, they never mentioned just how difficult it is for some people to get the chips...seems like only urban or urbanite dwellers can access them easily. Out in the sticks ain't no one doing any tree removal that requires chipping up the mess.

The same guy I bought a few round bales from earlier in the year for $10 ea. is now offering the rest of those rotten bales for free. If he still has them later on I'm going to go try and get them....I can put them over by the woods and use from them as needed or I can put them on their end in the yard and plant directly into them.

So far, I'm liking the hay already...I can walk in there and not get a bit of dirt on my feet, I can kneel on it without getting chips imbedded into my skin, and I can see a weed coming up anywhere out there, no matter how tiny and can drop a clump of hay on top of it to head it off at the pass. I'm already seeing some dandelions poking through, so I know where my hay needs more depth.

 

[ninnymary]

Bee, can you get a hold of that guy and tell him you'll take those old bales? Have him hold them for you. Now you know what to do for next year. Buy a few and tell him you'll take old ones when he has them.

I'm going to do the straw mulch on a couple of the beds.

Mary

 

[ninnymary]

Oh, honey....don't aim so LOW. I'm only smart enough to know I'm not smart!

See, I wouldn't have thought of that response. It's perfect!

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, can you get a hold of that guy and tell him you'll take those old bales? Have him hold them for you. Now you know what to do for next year. Buy a few and tell him you'll take old ones when he has them.

I'm going to do the straw mulch on a couple of the beds.

Mary

Yeah, I was kind of waiting until all the snow and ice was gone and the mud had dried out a little. This guy is ancient, moves like Tim Conway's oldest man character on The Carol Burnett Show...don't know if you remember that. He's had a stroke, I can tell, so I don't want him out in bad footing trying to get on his tractor.

Cutest thing you ever saw...this old, old fella and a brand spankin' new red tractor, which he drives in first gear, sort of like he moves. You could do a comedic video on it if it weren't so soul wrenching to watch. Eli had to direct/help him maneuver the bale fork in such a way as to get it on the truck...not sure his eyesight is any too good either. Eli was thinking he'd ask if he could do the loading for him but I told him not to suggest it...that old guy is holding onto farming with his last fingernail and I wouldn't hurt his pride one iota by letting this younger man offer to do his job for him.

 

[henless]

Thank you Bee! When I grow up I want to be smart like you.

Mary

I feel the same way Mary. I try to find/read as many of Bee's post as I can. Seems like I always learn something.

 

[Beekissed]

I feel the same way Mary. I try to find/read as many of Bee's post as I can. Seems like I always learn something.

You girls are embarrassing me! I don't feel smart at all...I make a lot of really stupid mistakes...all the time...truly.

 

[Nyboy]

Yes Bee a smart person learns from their mistakes, a dumb person doesn't

 

[flowerbug]

Bee, I have a question for you. You know how chips sometimes leach nitrogen from the soil. If I change to straw will I have the same problem?

Mary

if you don't mix it into the soil itself almost any top mulch should be ok. it will only interact at the place where they are in contact.

 

[flowerbug]

Oh, honey....don't aim so LOW. I'm only smart enough to know I'm not smart!

as you get older you get rather amazed at how much you've forgotten already... we call mistakes cheap entertainment. hang in there bee!

 

[Beekissed]

as you get older you get rather amazed at how much you've forgotten already... we call mistakes cheap entertainment. hang in there bee!

I think that's why wisdom sometimes come with age...you get smart enough to know you don't know much.