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Post by FrostyTurnip on Mar 3, 2023 20:52:50 GMT -6
Thanks, woodeye. On your rabbit proofing, I think it a good idea. They get through my chain link all the time.
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Post by rdback on Mar 4, 2023 10:31:30 GMT -6
I'm not a chicken wire expert, so I'll ask. Is galvanized an option? Years ago I used regular ole chicken wire around a small garden. It lasted for several years, but eventually rusted away, especially the buried part. I'm wondering if you might should consider a galvanized or aluminum type product. Dunno. Just something to consider.
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Post by woodeye on Mar 4, 2023 11:51:41 GMT -6
Rick, the chicken wire I'm getting is galvanized, but as cheaply as chicken wire is made nowadays, galvanized doesn't mean as much as it used to. I know it will rust away fairly fast underground, I just need a quick fix for a year or two and then hopefully install some better wire such as 1/2" mesh hardware cloth...
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Mar 4, 2023 11:53:25 GMT -6
That’s a legit question, rdback. I’m not an expert, either. I do know that one cannot place a mineral spool in contact with 16ga galvanized bun bun wire. The minerals start the oxidation immediately and that’s without moisture.
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Post by woodeye on Mar 6, 2023 8:31:09 GMT -6
The final total cost of the chicken wire was $120 with tax. That is for one roll of 150' x 3', and one roll of 50' x 3'. It's enough to go all the way around the sides and the ends.
Another option when the underground part rusts through is to just buy the 2' chicken wire and add on another layer all the way around. The 2' is cheaper now, but by the time I need to replace any of the chicken wire, inflation will have increased the price so that the 2' of tomorrow will cost just much as the 3' of today.
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Post by woodeye on Mar 17, 2023 14:52:35 GMT -6
This is a dirt work update. iWeatherNet showed that I got .55" of rain yesterday, so I snapped a couple of pictures of the results.
This picture is the south end, it washed a ditch but there is no water standing, so that part works right. I'll move the pipe and stuff out of there and push that pile of dirt to make the corner of the berm that will turn the water to the left. (northward) I'll cut the swale so that the water will continue to flow north. (to the left)
This picture is of the west side. Some water standing here, but will need a heavier rain to see exactly what will happen. At least there was not any new washouts in the garden itself.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Mar 17, 2023 18:29:12 GMT -6
That’s great that the dirt work you’ve done so far has already done some good protecting your garden. I actually like seeing those puddles there outside the fence because I can imagine them slowly trickling down and helping to keep your garden moist.
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Post by woodeye on Mar 18, 2023 9:26:40 GMT -6
That’s great that the dirt work you’ve done so far has already done some good protecting your garden. I actually like seeing those puddles there outside the fence because I can imagine them slowly trickling down and helping to keep your garden moist. chrysanthemum, when I saw that the runoff water had washed a rut in the first picture, I thought of all those rocks you have on your property just laying around everywhere. That rut would be an excellent place to put a few rocks to reduce the washout factor. I have zero rocks here on this place, I've looked. The rocky terrain starts further south of my property, it's rock-free here. One reason may be that on a place farther west of me, there are some huge rock walls that were built around a pond on that property. It could be that all the rocks from this place were scavenged for that...
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Post by macmex on Mar 18, 2023 11:14:11 GMT -6
If someone came and scavenged all the rocks on my place we'd have a ten acre POND
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 18, 2023 14:14:21 GMT -6
Woodeye,
Looking at those photos of the water draining away from your garden reminds me of the years that I worked as a Plumber's helper. I was told, "There are only two things you gotta know here ... Water runs downhill, and payday's Friday." Looks to me like you got half of my education requirement licked already.
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Post by woodeye on Apr 5, 2023 18:02:55 GMT -6
I have not had much time to work on much of anything lately, but I did manage to get the dirt work done out at the Iron Curtain a couple of days ago. The picture is of the east side of the Iron Curtain. I have it ready to test in the event I get enough rain to create some runoff, then modify it if necessary. The berm on the left is the soil that I dug out to form the swale. (how's that for saying berm and swale like I know what it means, FrostyTurnip?)😉 I'd scoop a load, back up the tractor to the north end, then drive back and dump it along the side so that it is built up higher and hopefully keep the water from washing over it. I built up the southern corner lots more so the water will turn and run back north. Just hope it works. The onions are growing a bit, I watered them today and noticed that some have as many as 6 blades on them now, and each blade is an onion ring. If I remember right, I had some that had 13 or 14 blades a few years ago and that means they are pretty big onions...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 5, 2023 20:50:04 GMT -6
Woodeye,
I was just now looking back through the well-presented photos of your Iron Curtain project and noticed the square cut edges on some of the swales there... You might want to round those square edges off some to prevent head-cutting, from water gushing off a taller point and free-falling during heavy rain, to the lower point, as it cascades-off the higher plane taking smaller bits of sand and gravel with it. The splash created by falling droplets causes them to undercut the bank below the point they fell from, which causes the point above that to collapse and fall off into the undercut. The whole process repeats itself until the entire watershed has sought the same level over time, similar to what's happening at Niagra Falls.
My shop building used to be built on a big mound of compressed red clay and gravel, but twenty years of the water dripping off the foot-wide concrete skirt that lies beneath the doorway has caused the clay and gravel there to recede and wash away until there is about a foot-tall step up to get into a building that was originally only 4" inches higher than the compacted soil it was poured on top of.
Erosion from undercutting is beginning to become a big problem there because of the years of neglect.
I have the same situation going on where I poured a concrete slab across the little creek behind my house across an old fording place. The slab used to be only a few inches higher than the gravel on the downstream side of the slab. Now, there is about an 18" to 24" inches drop-off there from what would become head cutting if the slab were not concrete and can't cave off into the washout below it.
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Post by woodeye on Apr 5, 2023 21:46:04 GMT -6
I'll see what I can do about that, heavyhitterokra. I'll try my old adjustable blade hooked to the rear of the Kubota first. If that doesn't work I might be able to do it with the front loader...🤔
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 7, 2023 18:46:56 GMT -6
A blade ought to be good enough. Anything that knocks the peaks off so water can't fall very far before it splashes.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Apr 8, 2023 4:20:44 GMT -6
My place is on, "Camino de Conejo", which I'm told translates to, "Rabbit Trail". True to its name there are many rabbits, of at least 3 different species, maybe more. You can see them nearly anywhere and everywhere, in our vicinity, no matter the time of year or time of day. Our place is surrounded on all four sides by chainlink fence. I can't remember how many times I've chased them and watched, as heavyhitterokra and others have mentioned, they seem to pass through the chainlink without it even seeming to slow them down.
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