What Homesteading Activity Did You Do Today?

[Dewdrop]

I finished taking down an old grape arbor to replace it. Luckily I had plenty of help to assemble the new grape arbor with a 'cattle panel' into an upside-down U-shape (like an arch) and some metal t-posts.

[12540dumont]

I love hog and cattle panels. The make awesome squash, and bean arbors as well.

[synergy]

Right now I am chomping on the bit to get some 16 foot livestock panels but no one around to haul them here that I know. I put some feelers out for transport since the company here that sells them is an hour away and they do not have any delivery service . I can only drool at pictures of panel arches and greenhouses made out of them and temp fenced areas for my goats and chickens etc. Today I am stealing taller panels from other areas to fence in chickens in an area for them through summer .

[12540dumont]

Hiya Synergy, we couldn't find anyone to haul them. Leo said you need a car trailer. So, with our small garden trailer, we bent them almost like arches to get them in the trailer. You need to help. One to hold onto the bend, and one to tie the rope. For safety, everyone stand on the open side. Just in case it gets away from you, These will smack you silly. Once you get them home, be careful untying that rope! I attached them to the ground with hairpin rebar.

[reed]

I can't haul the 16 foot ones and I also don't like handling them so I have the store cut them to 6' and 10' foot sections when I buy them. I use them for all those same kinds of things.

My grape arbors are locust posts with electric fence wire as the vine supports.

[diane]

Do you electrify the wire?

[reed]

No it isn't electrified. The wire is just easy to work with, strong and very long lasting. I run a strand from the top down to a couple feet off the ground for each vine to use on it's way up and then run it around and across the top for the finished supports. Once the vines get all the way up and attached good, it looks pretty neat the grapes hang down under the leaves. An arbor that you walk under isn't really the best way to grow grapes, I'v been told. That's the way I'v always done it though and I like it.

[synergy]

I managed to get the cattle panels with a friends three horse trailer but have been using them to keep goats grazing brush along a fenceline . I dragged one up to the garden to do a trellis but I am not strong enough to bend it by myself I have the tposts so next time I have some men over I will entice them to do a 5 minute job while I pour them some mint lemonade . I also have about 5 filled half barrels I need pulled into the garden that are too heavy for me to even drag so I may need to provide an entire lunch. Goats are kidding and I need a safe zone so I am carting assorted materials to tie around the fruit trees in my summer chicken pen as it could use a hard browsing by the goats for a few days . I have a broody hen so I need to clean the coop and set up alternative nesting boxes for my layers today .

[Dewdrop]

Great to hear that you finally got some cattle panels synergy!  

Edited: I did a little sewing.  I had a hole just above the knee, but since it was only 1/4" I 'cheated' and used embroidery thread to cover and protect it rather than to sew on a patch. 
I just realized how I might have better matched the colors.  The denium at the knees was blue but fading to white, mebe next time instead of only blue embroidery thread I'll twist together some blue and white embroidery thread before mending the jeans.  At least the garden won't mind.      

[synergy]

I am planning a kind of walk under/mow under grape trellising system too, like the ones you see in Japanese videos so I can mow or run ducks or geese ? assorted mini critters under them .

Reed, as long as the top is not too high, just above your head , is it very hard to prune ? The slope my grapes are on is steep enough to make mowing tricky but not impossible . I have yet to install the trellis yet but suspect the frame will be some welded bars attached to high heavy tposts and wire to help with structural strength .

[steev]

In my grape arbor, It's a bit of a PITA pruning the center, but I manage it with a ladder outside, reaching in with a 6' long-reach clipper; Japanese-made; don't recall the brand, but I could find out; it's light enough that I can use it one-handed, arm extended, and I've not nearly the strength I once had.

[reed]

I don't really mess with pruning mine too much, but it's not hard. It isn't so high that it's hard to reach and using just single strands of the electric fence wire there isn't much in the way.

[flowerbug]

planted some melon seeds and continued working on the project i'm trying to finish so i can get all the rest of the gardens planted. most of them are already done and planted - i fill in all the rest with beans.

[Dewdrop]

Mended a small tear in a shirt and finally weeded out my section of the garden.

[mnjrutherford]

Long time no type... Lot's of stuff going around here. We are building a 32' x 40' chicken coop. We sell eggs, less than 30 dz per week so we don't have to report to anyone and they are delivered! Thanks to owning a Prius, it's affordable to drive an 80 mile route, once per week.

I've been planting since January with a lot of stuff on my newly built front porch. Mike built it last June and soon after we loaded it with PV. We are grid tied at the moment, but working towards off grid. We are getting a Tesla Wall in about a month or so.

We are building a tower garden in the back of the house, but other projects are getting in the way of completion. I believe it will be ready for our winter crop and that will be huge for us.

I'm wondering if loading photos are still as difficult as it once was....