I Hate Green Briars!

[flowerbug]

i think sheep will eat that too? but you know for sure that goats will.

 

[baymule]

i think sheep will eat that too? but you know for sure that goats will.

My sheep ate them as far up as they could reach, but the briars went to the tree tops. We machete chopped the bottoms and dragged them out of the trees. Once on the ground, the sheep swarmed all over them. The young sprouts are actually quite good, I used to snack on them, but there aren't many left here now. LOL I have even gathered the shoots and saute'd them in butter, taste like asparagus. But I don't like them enough to keep green briars around for snacking on. Overall, I HATE THEM!

 

[baymule]

I tell you what I'd hate to fight.. kudzu.

At least we don't have kudzu here.

 

[catjac1975]

We just had a brush hog come in to clear some very thick pine seedlings. It alsomade briars into nothing. I have no idea what it cost, and I think I may not even ask may husband. That is a machine I wish I could afford to buy. After all the years of clearing with small tools....what a lovely tool.

 

[flowerbug]

i think i have the best of it here @catjac1975 as the neighbors have one and he said he'd come back anytime we need it done. we don't have enough property to justify owning such a machine. renting one for $100 every five years is perfectly acceptable to me. at first he only wanted $50 but i gave him $100 because i was so happy with how much work he did and how much work it saved me. when he was done brushhogging what he could get at with the deck he had another neighbor go over to his place to get the backhoe and then came back and knocked down and removed some of the large honey suckle bushes that were growing in and along the banks of the ditch. that saved me a ton more difficult work (working the on banks of a clay slope). we waited 20yrs to have it done the first time. i was surprised by what he was able to do with just running over things with the tractor and brush hog.

the gadget that @baymule had those people run over her brush covered areas is even more impressive. pretty much instant mulch...

 

[catjac1975]

i think i have the best of it here @catjac1975 as the neighbors have one and he said he'd come back anytime we need it done. we don't have enough property to justify owning such a machine. renting one for $100 every five years is perfectly acceptable to me. at first he only wanted $50 but i gave him $100 because i was so happy with how much work he did and how much work it saved me. when he was done brushhogging what he could get at with the deck he had another neighbor go over to his place to get the backhoe and then came back and knocked down and removed some of the large honey suckle bushes that were growing in and along the banks of the ditch. that saved me a ton more difficult work (working the on banks of a clay slope). we waited 20yrs to have it done the first time. i was surprised by what he was able to do with just running over things with the tractor and brush hog.

the gadget that @baymule had those people run over her brush covered areas is even more impressive. pretty much instant mulch...

I am certain the full day's work will be rather expensive-not $100. But you are definitely correct about the cost of the machine. That was just a rich woman's dream. And I not a rich woman. haha

 

[seedcorn]

To me, what is worse, if you don’t use a machine often, they seem to fall apart. Most people don’t use specialty equipment enough to warrant owning it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think it has to do with it getting lubricated regularly. Seals tend to dry out. Fuel can dry out and leave a residue behind. That's why I own some electric stuff, not gas powered. I don't use it enough to keep it working correctly.

 

[baymule]

I let be my tractor! We used it today pushing up some of those wood chips into swales to stop erosion.

The horses have a trail down the pipeline and the 5 1/2” of rain we had last week cut a rut. Power line crews have brought us 12 loads of chips and we dumped front end loads on the horse trail to fill the rut.

 

[flowerbug]

I think it has to do with it getting lubricated regularly. Seals tend to dry out. Fuel can dry out and leave a residue behind. That's why I own some electric stuff, not gas powered. I don't use it enough to keep it working correctly.

in a meandering mood...

it is always a good idea to run some things once in a while even during the off-season to make sure the gas/lube gets circulated.

my AC for the car, i ran once a month in the winter. when i sold the car 22yrs later the AC worked as well as it did when i bought the car and it had never needed service.

the house AC i run once a month in the winter too. we had the first service call for it last spring after 23yrs. the tech said it was one of the best units made at the time and that the coolant was fine and in fact a bit overcharged. i asked him if that was good or not and he said leave it alone. the only thing we needed the service call for was to fix some wires and a capacitor that mice had destroyed. i don't know how that thing ran as it did when he took that panel off and all that crud fell out along with all the chewing that had happened. wasn't that bad of an expense either considering i was thinking it was done and only ran a few hundred instead of the 1,500 i figured it would run. so i have extra funds in my budget for a change. kinda weird...

i'd pull the cord on the lawn mower once a month too if i could get to more easily. it starts up ok in the summer when we need it.

i suspect the weed wacker we have stuffed down in the crawl space may not start again, but it wasn't used much...

hmm. i think that's all the unused/sorta seasonal gadgets we have around here. Mom's car gets used enough, including the AC, so should be ok... hmm....