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flowerbug

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I don't wear jeans any more I wear Dickies canvas pants they don't rip or tear and last longer they are priced around $30 but they last way longer

for my rough gardening tasks i have some heavy cloth pants that were given to me as hand-me-downs. the fabric is near canvas quality and very heavy (which makes them hot to wear in hot weather), but they'll last me the rest of my life at the rate i'm using them. five pair for free. had to shorten the legs but otherwise they're good. big pockets and extra pockets... a definite score.

a few weekends ago the person who gave those to me came over for dinner and he was admiring my jean shirt and so Mom had an extra one she gave to him in return and he was very happy. :) i love how things can work out... :) it was too bad though that we'd already passed along about a dozen more of them to some other people as he'd have taken a few more of them and put them to use instead of them being used for quilting or whatever...
 

farmerjan

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I have posted over on BYH in my journal about the fencing that was taken down at a rented place... owners wanted all new fence along the road and up one side... the road fence was good woven wire and the fence builders just pulled it all out with the bobcat and it was smooshed into piles. The fence along the woods did need replacing but over the years my son and I have pounded in MANY T-posts to reinforce it etc. It was smooth high tensile fencing that was not on insulators and barbed wire mix.... When I saw the piles all on the dump trailer I told DS it was such a waste... he knows the guy so had him bring 4 dump trailers to the farm and I am slowly trying to "unravel" it to get the posts out. I have saved over 20 T-posts and 20 big wood posts... at nearly $20 for each wood post, and at even just $5 for each T-post, I have managed to reclaim about $5-600 of posts already and I am not halfway done. It is a TEDIOUS job to cut wire and then when I get the posts free, to pull them out and then pull all the staples out of the wood posts. I just cut the wire as it is too mangled to deal with, but it is going on the trailer for scrap metal... The last trailer of scrap metal DS took was worth $9.50/100 lbs... scrap metal is way up and he is loading another trailer full with all sorts of junk around the farm that was there when we bought it; plus he will take the "dump stuff" from when VDOT replaces pipes under roads and stuff and gets it dumped at the farm... all those metal pipes and stuff that are bent up etc goes on the scrap metal trailer...
I have a hard time with people that have more money than sense because they want something to look nicer... and because in these peoples case, they have forgotten some of the hardscrabble life they grew up in and now are very very comfortable.... I would have gone through and taken much of this apart before it got yanked out if there had been sufficient notice... we had moved the steers there into another section and they said they were having the fence replaced... happened too fast when we were busy with other stuff...
Oh well... on nicer days I go up and work on it for an hour or 2 at a time, then DS will take the skid loader and slide the forks into the tangled wire on the top parts and "shake it up some" to loosen the way it is mashed down so I can work on more.... I pile the posts off to the side in piles and go at another section. With my new knees I have to be a little careful as I do not have the same sense of balance as I had with "my own" and it is easy to lose my footing while trying to maneuver into/on the edges of the pile.
 

farmerjan

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In my life I will never have $$ to overwhelm my salvage ethics. 😁 Hey, maybe you'll use some posts at your house to fence!! You worked it -- DS gets scrap $ and you the posts!! Think about that. I am.😊
Totally agree... these people are nearly my age and grew up with next to nothing... he was/is a nuclear physicist or something... very very smart...high paying job... and she grew up poor also and canning and all that...worked for awhile too.... she still cans and grows a garden... but I just don't get the whole fence tear down the good stuff along the road... the side along the woods did need replacing.... and yes, it is alot of work and maybe I don't put myself into it for hours and hours at a time... but GEEZE Louise....
Yep, the idea is, posts for here, the little bit of scrap metal for his trailer load... some of these posts are the bigger 6+ inch ones you use for corner and brace posts... too heavy for me to just lift up... so where ever they are needed they can get used... and I am keeping count so that I can get an equivalent # here from these or from a bundle of his.... I am thinking I will use T-posts inbetween wood posts... just to cheapen the cost some and still give it plenty of strength... or just T-posts for the garden fence and interior sections of fence,... wood for perimeter fence.
 

CrealCritter

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Finished clipping barbwire to t-posts with some old school clips from the 70's still shinny even. They are more heavy duty than the ones that come with t-posts. With farm babe's help, we hung the 16 foot gate. Just need to move the feeding trough and stock tank to the middle pasture. I'm going to use a 55 gallon blue plastic barrel cut in half longways for a feeding through and the other half for waterer. Build a wood frame to support both, kind of like a cradle comes to mind and mount to pallets. This should be good enough to corn finish a steer. And I can just fork them around if I need to. I suspect I'll have to fill the waterer daily. A big steer can drink upto 20 gallons of water a day. But he'll be in the freezer by the time heat from Texas rolls in. I'll top off water when I grain him daily anyways, so hopefully it'll be enough. If not there's always rural king for a new stock tank 🙄

I'll tell you a short story. I had to move the cattle out of the new pasture to the back pasture while I was pulling barbwire. I think you know why, cattle getting hung up in barb wire while I spooled it out with the tractor. Not an adventure I want to go on. No one was around to help me. So I grabbed the white bucket I feed them with. Jumped in farm truck. Held the white bucket out the driver's side window. Yep sometimes my ideas work well and this one went off just as I thought it would. When I passed by them they seen the white bucket and head me hollering "hay" and followed that bucket to the back pasture where I closed and locked the gate. I believe this is what you call bucket trained 😂 I'm pretty sure they would follow a white bucket just about anywhere 👍

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸
 
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farmerjan

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Yep, ours mostly all do the same... see a bucket and you call 'em.... and I can get several to follow the car now without even the bucket... they know where I am going and next thing I will be putting the feed in the troughs, and here they all appear over the hill.... I can go out here when they get out the crummy fence on the next door to me, rented pasture... and come up in my lawn to eat... and take the car down towards the gate to the road... quick close the gate to the big field and just open the road gate into the catch lot and they are already there coming across the lawn to the car... knowing I have feed for them... I might get pretty p.o.ed at them getting out... but I always reward them for coming when I call or they see the car etc....
 

farmerjan

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All we do with the 55 gal barrels we cut longways, is to screw a couple of 2x6's to the ends like feet... not underneath but to the ends... stabilizes the whole thing from tipping over BUT is lighter and easier to move and tip over to clean with just 2x6's on the ends... couple feet long
 

CrealCritter

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All we do with the 55 gal barrels we cut longways, is to screw a couple of 2x6's to the ends like feet... not underneath but to the ends... stabilizes the whole thing from tipping over BUT is lighter and easier to move and tip over to clean with just 2x6's on the ends... couple feet long
Thanks for that, sounds easier than what I had thought of. I was gonna check the internet pictures later this evening. Try some different searches like 55 gallon drum farm animal feeder or something similar. If I have a picture I can pretty much make something similar.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸
 

CrealCritter

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People are ingenious... Lots of ideas for 55 gallon plastic drums. All internet pictures.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸
 

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