I know I am being optimistic here because spring has not sprung. It is a nice day out and I've been able to finally spray the driveway and the weeds. I did hear on the news this morning that it was -46 in Minnesota this morning. The coldest I've ever been in was 2. Never minus anything. I can't even imagine it that cold or how you prep for something like that. Daughter said once it gets to a certain cold temperature it doesn't really matter how cold it gets. Well enough said but I don't think she's ever been in the minus degrees either.
We are finishing up the chores from last weekend. Last week I told them to pile all the brush up into a large pile in the middle of the garden. I had them tarp it to dry it out a little bit and I figured that we'd burn it all in another week or so. Last week the neighbor came over to tell us that air quality control board just popped him with a $500 ticket for having a burn pile. You see in this part of California you can't burn. Very few of the farmers are allowed to burn either. You have to hire a chipper to come in. We don't have enough brush to hire a chipper but the amount we do have is too much for the little Craftsman chipper that I bought 15 years ago. We usually pick a good foggy day and light the pile. By the time the fog lifts the air pollution patrol can't catch us because it's all burned up.
The other day I was on the web and one survival site led to another which led to another and I found one called Survival Thoughts by Survival Chic.
The grandkids think I've lost my mind. You see, on this site she wrote about making a hedgerow barrier along the property line. I started this as well. I planted some non-inviting plants along our road frontage, including some whitethorn, which isn't doing well, and some berries, which are very happy. Survival Chic wrote that she used her brush cuttings and piled them in rows and then planted berry plants along the edges. The berries are going to grow over the cuttings. What a great idea! Berries, when left uncut, will make their own hedgerow, but this makes it happen so much faster.
Now I'm having the grandkids pick up the branches and other cuttings that are piled in the garden and move them to the front of the property. They are being placed on the street side of the fence. We have cattle panels going across the front with t-posts every 8 feet. This only makes the fence 4 1/2 feet high and the front of the property is very open to the road. Once the berries start growing they won't overtake my pasture because the animals will eat it down from the inside of the fence. The berries can grow out towards the road and all I'll need to do is mow some of the new growth down each year if it's blocking my view of leaving the driveway. On the other hand, if we get into a SHTF scenario, the berries can overgrow easily and block much of the driveway as well.
Google hugelkultur for some more ideas!
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