Today I started long needed chicken pen maintenance that turned into fence building. This year I’ve only had 4/5 chickens. That’s not enough to keep the weeds eaten down in the main pen. I used to run 40+ chickens in this pen.
Back in the spring I lost a couple hens to raccoons. I wasn’t up to making repairs/maintenance to the main fence. So dad (who’s been taking care of them), has been keeping them in the fort knox coop.
I took the riding mower down and opened a large panel to get it inside the pen. It doesn’t look like it now but the weeds were as high as waist deep in spots, knee deep in the rest, mostly lady’s thumb, perilla and sida.
I put the lawn mower in first gear and cut all of them down at the highest deck setting. Then lowered the deck two more time… no weeds left now but the chickens loved all the seeds.
While I was doing this I noticed my grtnephew’s cows were out again, actually inside the barn eating hay. The electric fence was shorted. Around the outside of the chicken pen and hay barn the weeds were almost shoulder deep. Every time we get a shower of rain or a weed falls over the fence shorts out and the cows get out. I’ve been hinting to him for 2 months that the electric fence needed rolled up and then he should bushhog around everything. He didn’t take the hints.
Dad happened to walk down and saw the cows were out again. He was more than just annoyed… So, he and I rolled up all that fencing and I bush hogged everything into the ground.
My nephew came by just as we finished putting back up about 150ft of fencing. He needed to take the weedeater and power saw to another 100ft section and this problem would have been completely solved until next spring when weeds came back up. This was the easy part. He could have finished it in 20 minutes.
Did he do this? No, he wanted to sit on the porch and talk until dark. Was dad impressed? Not by a long shot… he’s 85 and I’ve been in and out of the hospital for 3 months yet we had to spend 1/2 a day cleaning up most of the mess. This 19yrold kid couldn’t take 20 minutes and finish this for good? The real work was done! I hope I have the energy tomorrow so I can going to finish this… I’m tired of finding cows out every time I turn around.
You really can’t tell from the photo’s but when I bushhog or mow weeds… I grind them into the ground. I also got fresh hay into the laying nests for the chickens. The cows were hoping I'd let them get to the hay again.
[ For those who might not know... a bush hog is - http://www.bushhog.com/ It’s a name brand of a farm implement company. Over the decades this brand name has become the generic term for all implements of this type in the south. It’s a really large lawn mower pulled by full size tractors to cut down brush, small trees etc. I’ve seen them 4ft wide to 30ft wide. ]
Back in the spring I lost a couple hens to raccoons. I wasn’t up to making repairs/maintenance to the main fence. So dad (who’s been taking care of them), has been keeping them in the fort knox coop.
I took the riding mower down and opened a large panel to get it inside the pen. It doesn’t look like it now but the weeds were as high as waist deep in spots, knee deep in the rest, mostly lady’s thumb, perilla and sida.
I put the lawn mower in first gear and cut all of them down at the highest deck setting. Then lowered the deck two more time… no weeds left now but the chickens loved all the seeds.
While I was doing this I noticed my grtnephew’s cows were out again, actually inside the barn eating hay. The electric fence was shorted. Around the outside of the chicken pen and hay barn the weeds were almost shoulder deep. Every time we get a shower of rain or a weed falls over the fence shorts out and the cows get out. I’ve been hinting to him for 2 months that the electric fence needed rolled up and then he should bushhog around everything. He didn’t take the hints.
Dad happened to walk down and saw the cows were out again. He was more than just annoyed… So, he and I rolled up all that fencing and I bush hogged everything into the ground.
My nephew came by just as we finished putting back up about 150ft of fencing. He needed to take the weedeater and power saw to another 100ft section and this problem would have been completely solved until next spring when weeds came back up. This was the easy part. He could have finished it in 20 minutes.
Did he do this? No, he wanted to sit on the porch and talk until dark. Was dad impressed? Not by a long shot… he’s 85 and I’ve been in and out of the hospital for 3 months yet we had to spend 1/2 a day cleaning up most of the mess. This 19yrold kid couldn’t take 20 minutes and finish this for good? The real work was done! I hope I have the energy tomorrow so I can going to finish this… I’m tired of finding cows out every time I turn around.
You really can’t tell from the photo’s but when I bushhog or mow weeds… I grind them into the ground. I also got fresh hay into the laying nests for the chickens. The cows were hoping I'd let them get to the hay again.
[ For those who might not know... a bush hog is - http://www.bushhog.com/ It’s a name brand of a farm implement company. Over the decades this brand name has become the generic term for all implements of this type in the south. It’s a really large lawn mower pulled by full size tractors to cut down brush, small trees etc. I’ve seen them 4ft wide to 30ft wide. ]
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The final result of all your labors looks fantastic! So glad you are feeling better, but Jim is right.....take it easy. You deserve a nice long break now for sure. Your dad sounds like a work horse.
