Poison ivy can **** off. It lives outside the chemical truce.
Acreage tips from the Fanatics
- Thread starter cdnlngld
- Start date
I 'inherited' some 40v greenworks (leaf blower, chainsaw) and liked them so much I bought a 80v trimmer. Honestly can't tell the difference in battery power and the 80v is really heavy. Wish I would have stuck with 40v so they are all the same. But the trimmer does have the interchangeable end so I could put a pole saw on it. Currently just have the string trimmer and a metal blade 'trimmer' i use for thick weeds and small trees.
If you need to trench in anything or dig a hole, you should call 811. EXCEPT, they do not locate power lines on your side of your meter. They do not locate LP gas lines. They do not locate natural gas lines if you do not live inside city limits. That is fine. BUT they do not tell you that if you talk to a person. I waited 2 weeks to find out they do not locate LP gas lines. It would be nice if they could communicate that information to people . They are going to kill somebody some day.
OP here.
Have a box plow for the 1025. I have used it for planting corn, repairing the barnyard(got a loader stuck in it this winter) maintaining the driveway and scraping up scrap hay from the dry pasture.
A bit of an update on the farmstead.
We did start a boarding buisness in the fall and have had 3 horses with us since Oct. It has been alright. we got a horse of our own (3 YO gelding dutch X 16.1 hands)) and started lessons to get him trained (and us). One of our boards left for Ohio this spring, but we currently have 3 openings. Brown Family Stables is the buisness, so if anyone knows someone in the ames area that needs a place to board, let them know. We are on FB.
Since we moved in, we got a ton of landscaping done, converted an old pottery shed into a chicken coop with a large run. I find the farm life hard work but very rewarding. We have had to bring the lawn mower(cub cadet ZRT 54) in several times(i would not recomend). I have had to have the fuel system flushed and a hydro trans replaced(cost almost half of what is it worth). I love my JD 1025R, but almost wish I had something just a little bigger(loader height is low, and I cannot move large round bales with it). We bartered for an old JD brush hog, and found a bale spear for cheap. The ZT mower has made mowing palatable. good thing is, i don't have to mow the pastures as the horses do a great job of keeping the grass low, and keeping weeds down around the fences.
I am trying to keep weed control in check without spraying, but that is proving to be a bit of a challenge. One of my pastures had some bare spots that are quickly being taken over by bearberry. Thistle is getting tough to controll, but we have been pulling and spraying with vinegar/salt/dish soap mixture.
I love the abundance of wildlife we see on a daily bassis, and we have all kinds of birds!
All in all, I am glad we made the move!
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to echo this, locate generally only marks from street to home. outbuilding power & water (to barns, septic, sheds, etc.) is on the homeowner to identify. my post hole digger when RIGHT through the power for my septic super easy, I was lucky I missed the sanitary PVC by about 2"
It's clearly marked on the Homeowners tab. Took less than 30 seconds to find on their website.
Do installers typically run tracer wire on LP gas lines like they do on city supply? Can they even detect LP gas lines if they wanted to?
side note. I've had my backyard marked a couple times and they missed about half the lines on the second go around. They missed a couple of my neighbors lines that run through my yard to the boxes behind my fence. I just remembered where they were in relation to mine from the first marking. That could have been really bad.
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Mowing and spraying milkweed just pi**es it off. RAGBRAI had people spreading seeds as they rode across Iowa.
My line make a couple if 90 degree turns and it identified it. I am not 100% sure how it works. I think it may put a very small electrical current through the line and use a meter, but not sure about that.
When it gets clipped at both ends there is a electrical current that the sensor can follow.
Just a thought, but I would look into sub-contracting the horse operation. You might be able to lease the stalls, arena and pasture to a trainer instead of covering everything yourself. I would guess most boarding/training people in Iowa charge between $600-$2k a month depending on what they do. You can then negotiate mowing, stalls, arena care and etc while still making some extra cash without the expenses and stress. They would then have to cover insurance, although you would still want to have some coverage as well. ISU has an excellent equine program, if you contact someone there they may be able to give you some ideas and maybe place a student or two in some type of internship program.
