Digging Kraters- What to do with all that dirt

Digging Kraters- what to do with all that dirt

A big factor to consider when doing dramatic earth works is what you are going to do with all of the dirt, wood, etc you create by doing it. If you are clearing trees to create a silvapasture, do you have a plan for those cleared? Hugukulture beds to create? When digging 35 acres worth of kraters around three feet deep that is a lot of dirt excavated out. What can you do with so much dirt?

That largely depends on the situation you are in and what kind of dirt you are excavating out. We have various types of earth being excavated from our kraters at the moment and three methods of dealing with them.

Pond Clay

The black earth we excavate out is piled up and moved to the area where our natural swimming pond is being made as it is a great water holding clay. We appear to have more of this clay than I expected so perhaps we’ll be building a few more ponds in the future.

Gravel

The gravel we excavate out is piled up and moved to our road and drive way which are in deplorable condition. I don’t know if we’ll ever dig up enough of this to fill our need.

Everything Else

Everything else is piled in one big pile and moved to our dam site. We have been building up the dam for awhile now but it has a long way to go before it will be sufficient to hold the amount of water we desire.

 

The top soil is scraped off before hand and piled up to be put back into the krater when excavation is complete.

 

I hope this look into our earth moving practices helps.

Krater Digging 2016

Krater Digging 2016

Will be done by small hands, smaller shovels and tiny dump trucks!

I kid. I’ve begun Krater digging with the usual meth0d, front bucket of our Kubota tractor. This land is a bit more special though. It is what I call “dead” land. Land so over grazed and compacted that practically nothing will grow on it.

Dead Land

Lots of bare spots and tiny plants here. Most of our property is this way with few exceptions.

Alive Land

This is one of those exceptions. So lovely!

Top Soil Removed

I removed the top soil with the bucket but I was completely unable to do any more than that. I have four Kraters mapped out with plans for a full 10 at the least.

Kraters in the Making

As you can tell it’s a few inches deed at the moment. I piled the top soil in a communal pile in the middle for re-application later on.

Extremely Compact Land

As you can tell the clay here is thick and HARD. Rock hard.

Ramsey

This would have been a particularity good photo example of that except every time I tried to get a picture our new puppy would run in the way. So, enjoy the puppy pic!

I am sure the excavator will be able to dig this mess up. Unfortunately the battery is dead. It’s in the process of charging. Eventually I’ll be able to get out there and dig my required Kraters.

 

Corn Problems

What is up with corn around here? Could it drive me any more crazy. I’m not even sure why I would even want to plant it after this failure. Last year the corn suffered from pollination problems. This year I planted it close, and I do mean really close.

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I can’t even see the ground through it so how on earth did it suffer from poor pollination this time?

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It is gloriously tall and each stalk has two ears of corn on it. Some of it looks quite nice, others are awful.

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I just don’t even….

Goings on

What Just teaching the kids to dust bathe in your garden.

Life has been moving quickly around here. I’ve began digging mini-kraters for fall seed planting. It has not been going well as the ground is hard as a rock. I’ve began making the new kitchen island butcher block. It’s going poorly to say the least. Hopefully it turns out well!

The animals are all doing well. The babies are growing. Unfortunately at least half of the baby chickens are roosters and will be culled this fall. The ducklings and peachicks genders are still indiscernible.

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Mama pea has been buys teaching her children how to break into the food and how best to tear up my garden for dust baths.

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We got a new puppy. He is a great pyr/Anotilian shepherd. He is adorable and prefers to be outside. Can barely keep him in the house. He is learning to like the poultry, though he was initially terrified.

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We named him Ramsey after our two favorite people, Dave and Gordon.

Ramsey

If he’s like his mom he’ll be a hyper guard. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not yet.

Prince is losing his tail now that mating season is over. I’ve been collecting it from all over.

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We rescued all the tadpoles we could from shrinking water puddles. They are non-existent puddles now but the tadpoles are doing well in their swimming pool.

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Our oldest is starting school in a week and we have been busy preparing. Life, it is busy!

 

Rabbits and Permaculture

Permaculture is all about coming to peace with nature and it’s rhythms, at least to me it is. I haven’t had peace as far as the various pests we have are concerned. Rabbits are a big problem for me. They are for pretty much our entire region. The obsessive hunting of coyotes could have something to do with that. I’m not free of guilt there either. I’ve lost a lot of birds to coyotes and I wouldn’t think twice if someone was killing the ones in our area. Still, I do my best to close the gate to the barn and if anyone is left out..well good luck.

Rabbits in the Orchard

I’ve had trees eaten. Plants eaten. Everything has been eaten by rabbits around here. They are thick on the ground, protected somewhat by the presence of our LGD’s who are far too unintelligent and slow to ever catch one.

Rabbit digging filled with seeds

I couldn’t help but notice a few things this year though. I noticed rabbit digging in the kraters and the swales. I noticed seeds and other debris filling up these rabbit made holes. I also notices rabbit droppings thick on the ground, happily feeding my lacking sad little kraters.

Another rabbit hole

Rabbit Droppings

 

Seed Collection on the Farm

Seed collection on the farm

Our plans for future orchard expansion now include pre-planting of Kraters far in advance of tree arrival. For this we need seeds, lots of seeds. Luckily I’ve been purchasing and tossing out seeds for ages. Collecting specimens for the new Kraters is a breeze. All you need is a bucket, some willing hands and guard dogs in case you should come upon…..well nothing, they’re useless.

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So far collected specimens include: Sainfoin, sweet clover, alfalfa, asparagus, various grasses, bachelors button, vetch, various other clover varieties and odd plants I find along the way and simply throw into the bucket. Those plants include flowers, herbs and vegetable seeds. We’ll see what happens to grow from this cacophony of seeds. I’m hoping everything.

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I’m feeling pretty good about this move. As I’ve said in a previous post, things aren’t working quite right as they are now. I think a big step is preparing the kraters ahead of planting. I have every hope it will make a big difference. Only time shall tell.