"Bigger than a Bread Box..."

The title used to be a common way to describe the size of something.  My parents might have had a bread box at some point when I was growing up, but I didn't really know how big one actually was.  I visualized something about the size of a loaf of bread.

When I moved into the new house, I realized I might have a need for one.  When I bake a loaf of bread, I usually leave it out for about a day to harden the crust.  I realized that with the possibility of mice--I have caught them in the house before--I needed a better plan than letting it sit on the counter unprotected.  I have never had anything go after my loaves while they have been sitting out--here or at my other house--but finding a loaf with bite marks and rodent droppings on it would not be welcome.

So I hopped online and started looking.  I was surprised that they were somewhat large-ish, certainly bigger than a single loaf.  Shown above is the box I got with one of my standard two-pound loaves.

Somewhat visible on the lid are a bunch of ventilation holes.  A tiny bug could get through them, but nothing larger.  What I have found is that the box does a good job of keeping bread fresh--maybe a little too fresh.  When I stick a loaf in there, it softens the crust a bit.  I don't store bread in it long-term; I just put it there (sometimes) on the day I bake it. Then the loaf goes into the refrigerator; that's a solution that works for me and keeps bread usable longer than just a few days.

The box is also big enough to hold a bag of potato chips, bananas that aren't fully ripe, or other items that are vulnerable to predation (not necessarily all at once).

Garden Carts

I have a nice wheelbarrow.  I got it at Lowe's 20 years ago and it still serves me well.  For some tasks, like hauling dirt or other dense, heavy items, wheelbarrows are optimal (though for truly heavy loads, one with dual tires would probably be better than my model).

However, for other things they leave much to be desired, such as hauling brush.  I have a long driveway and keeping the privet, wisteria, and other plants hacked back during the growing season is a chore.   Recently, I did some trimming along the driveway.  I used a garden cart instead of the wheelbarrow--I got mine at Carts Vermont.  Its capacity is nominally only about double the wheelbarrow, but because of the box shape and the handle, it can hold far more plant cuttings.  I was able to pile brush high on the cart and balance it for the walk back up the driveway, towing the cart behind me.  I don't know if it was effective or not, but I cut some lower-stem pieces and stuck them into the stack vertically to try to hold it together.  One way or another, it worked, and nothing fell off on the walk.  Most of the cart is privet, although there was some wisteria and a few oak or pine saplings (very fortunately, there's no poison ivy in the area I was cutting).  Before loading, I trimmed everything to be about 4-6 feet long so that I could still get a decent grip on the handle.  Here's a side view:

When dumped into the truck bed, before stomping the load down, the one load from the cart looked like this:

I'm impressed with its hauling ability.

Volunteer Pines

In the south, pines are weeds.  There are some varieties that are nice, and all are useful for lumber or pulp, but for a homeowner with land, they're just a pain.  When I bought my house a few years ago, it was pretty clear of volunteer pines.  The house had been vacant for a while, and the upkeep was limited in some respects, but the approach to the house and the back yard were in relatively good shape.  A few years later a number of pines had grown up, and I cut a lot down with my clearing saw.

Fast foward two years, and the ones I didn't get last time have grown up (in some cases they were too small to cut with the saw (the stems just bent away from the saw blade)].  Then others have grown up as well, and some of the ones I cut two years ago coppiced (small shoots grew out from the trunk below where I cut, in turn growing taller themselves).

So I went to work.  One area was dense enough that I was able to make pretty short work of them with a pair of loppers.  The stems were so soft that I could cut even fairly large ones easily.

Based on size, these were probably up to about four years old.  Most were probably a couple of years old, which sounds about right given the last time I cleared the area.

A few were as large as 2" in diameter near the base, but most were  1.5" or less.  Probably a third of them were slender stems with plants that were 18" to 2' in height, just 1-2 years old.  And there were some sprouts, which I just pulled.

After about an hour of work, the area above looked like this:

Most of them are on the ground and stacked in the foreground of the photo. You can still see additional standing pines to the left and more up near the house.  After another hours' work, the lower ones are all gone and about half of the ones up near the house have been felled, as well.  They're all loaded on the truck now for a trip to a mulching place.

Before hauling them, I'll strap them down to hold them in place.  This is probably 300-400 trees.

After this, I have plenty of other pines.  There are some in an overgrown pasture that are now over 10 years old, so they're pretty large.  And I have others that are 5-10 years of age, plenty tall in their own right.  The older ones have some value as firewood, but the stems in the truck above are too small to make that worthwhile.  Stripping the side branches and cutting the stems to length wouldn't be worth the effort.

Still More on Thistles

Here's a case study on thistles gone rogue.  This is a picture of a field, not someone's yard:  But they haven't mowed during thistle blooming season for the last few years and now have a problem.   It's hard to see how this field will produce much but thistles in a few years.

At one time it was a field of purple blooms, but there's nothing attractive about this.

Update on my own thistles: I mowed them down as noted previously, and they haven't sent up any more vertical stems.  However, they haven't died, either.  I expect them to be back next year.

I'm fortunate that I don't have any thistle growing in inaccessible or far-flung areas.  I could use my scythe or weed eater to take care of them almost anywhere, but it's better not to have to worry about it.