Making A Pasture

[YourRabbitGirl]

This is about a one acre pasture in the front with road frontage. It does a fine job of growing my nemesis, green briars. We are cleaning it up to prepare for planting pasture.
Before pictures.



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I believe you're already done cleaning it by now... I bet it looks absolutely fabulous.

 

[Beekissed]

@thistlebloom ....thought you'd get a kick out of this and a light would go on. I live where the term "redneck" originated and those roots run DEEP.

 

[thistlebloom]

@thistlebloom ....thought you'd get a kick out of this and a light would go on. I live where the term "redneck" originated and those roots run DEEP.

That is so hilarious! Now I get it, why didn't you say so first?

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

This picture was taken 3-15-2015, a month after we moved in. To the left is a gatepost, there was no fence yet.

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That looks so great.. very roomy, I cant wait to see what your plans for it. that looks perfect for rice and vegetables. and some animals to raise. I cant wait to see the results.

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

15 minutes to 1:00, inside now.
This is the same skyline as the picture taken 3-15-2015. Note the gate post on the left.

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Panning right... That's the garden fence on the right.

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This is the same location pictured above where the sheep were enjoying themselves immensely on the green briars. This is where the ewe above was standing on a dead tree branch stretching to reach more snacks.

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Panning right....

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This is the fence by the road. Green briars once filled this entire area. We took down the old barbed wire fence and bush hogged with the tractor, then put up the new fence.

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I walked down the road last fall with my wagon, digging Bermuda and Bahia that escaped under the fence from the wide pasture across the road. Then I sprigged it here. The pigs rooted up and ate all the Bahia rhizomes, there might be one or two very small ones left. The Bermuda enjoyed all the pigs rooting and took off. DH just mowed it. Naturally, the sheep don't want it. I'm so damned proud of this teensy patch of Bermuda and the dadburned sheep don't want it? Before it was mowed, it was almost knee deep. Oh well, I guess I'll go dig some more Bahia.

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That is extremely spacious... Im really imagining what type of animals I can raise there. I can imagine horses, goats, chickens, chicks, pigs, and even rabbits.

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

A huge difference that "Time, Energy, Labor and Animal assistance" can make....sure glad the neighbor boy was prepared....Love the bandaid....

hahahaha.. yeah the band aid actually did it. I admire your resilience... I hope I have that space to clean. sure do have a lot of plants in mind..

 

[Baymule]

We have gotten 5 1/2” of rain over 3 days. There was flash flooding in some areas, but we are high and dry here. Some places got up to 7” of rain! It finally quit yesterday so we walked around on our horse pasture that we are preparing for planting grass in. Our wood chip swales and waste sheep hay are working! VERY little run off and I had to hunt for erosion! This is the biggest washout I found.



We are happy with the results so far. We have more areas to rake up the mulch and make swales, then cover the soil with waste hay.

Of course, when Prince saw us walking around, he came running! He was at the hay bale on the pipeline. He ran for the gate, then ran to us, nosing around, wanting attention. You can see Joe in the background, he’s dirty from rolling in wet dirt.

 

[Baymule]

We constantly fight erosion here. The sand is loose and water moves it right along. It’s an ongoing project.

 

[Bruce]

You need a flash flood that deposits REAL dirt on your sand

 

[Baymule]

You need a flash flood that deposits REAL dirt on your sand

Surrounded by sand, I don't know where it would come from. Right down the road is the red dirt that is prevalent here, I'd rather have the sand. We had some erosion on the pipeline, the horses trail to the hay bale is washing out. Since the power line crew is back in the area and bringing us wood chips again, we are going to have them dump several loads on the pipeline, then we'll spread them with the tractor. I'm not going to try to plant grass on the pipeline this year, trying to build up the soil first with the waste hay around the round bale and the abundant horse manure. The wood chips will help hold the soil and add humus. There is an earthen swale, built in 1934 by the C.C.C. that goes across the pipeline, but horses hooves have made a cut in it. Time to fill it in and pack with wood chips. LOL LOL