I Failed!! And I Think That's Ok... A Lesson In Homesteading
Homesteading, permaculture, regenerative agriculture, sustainability....all of these things are what we live for, but sometimes the learning curve is what is most important.
Ok, so this is hard for me to admit, but I messed up. Now in my defense I did put it at a 50/50 that it would fail and wasn't fully confident, but regardless, it failed and it's all on me.
What's He Rambling About?
So, 4 years ago, we moved to our homestead. It was just completely covered up in woods and there was just enough cleared land to fit the house. So, priority #1 became to clear land so that we can have pastures, a garden spot, etc etc. Out comes the chainsaw!
Now I'm fortunate enough to have purchased a portable bandsaw sawmill. Small trees are really just a pain to deal with, so all of the larger trees that I cut, I put on the sawmill to be cut in to lumber. Unfortunately, trees about 8" in diameter, we had a ton of and those are simply not efficient to put on the mill. Our house was not set up for a wood burning heat source, so I had tons of logs (white oak especially) that I didn't want to see go to waste, but wasn't sure what to do with them, but knew that I was going to need tons of fence posts.
So, Google and I became real close as I researched all the different trees that would be suitable for fence posts because I didn't want treated wood in our ground. Science or whatever may tell you that the chemicals won't leach in to the ground, but I just didn't want to have to worry about it and I wanted to be able to use what the land could provide for me. Cedar, locust, bodark (osage orange); these were all great options, but we don't have any of those growing around here. What we do have that kept popping up every once in a while was white oak. And we have plenty of that!
So, I was skeptical about it and spent weeks researching this. There are countless examples of people using white oak as fence posts and "...they've been standing there for 50 years now and I've never replaced one...". So, sounds good enough to me! Off to cutting them at the right lengths, skinning the bark off with the draw knife and putting them in the ground I go! Some of them even got 3 coats of paint just in case, as coating them in used motor oil and all the other preservation techniques I had read, just weren't settling well with me.
Fast Forward 4 years to Present Day:
So I'm traversing the gates with my tractor to bring a new round roll of hay in to the horse, when I lightly (yes, lightly) bumped one of the posts with my tractor. I noticed when I did (like I said, lightly) it gave and moved a lot more than it should have. I get done with my chores, go back over to the post, wiggle it..... Oh No!! It's rotten!
Here we go! Back on the tractor I go!
I get the girls to come out to help and hook a chain to the posts and start pulling them up one by one. Notice their fine rigging techniques! :)
Some were more stubborn than others. Some just broke off because they were so rotten. Some, weren't rotten at all. I still don't know what caused the variances.
But, since we were doing it, I got the grand idea to actually just abandon this small portion of pasture and go ahead and create our orchard in this area. So, yep, let's pull the t-posts as well.
Once again, notice their fine rigging skills.....hey it worked!
Now, we have plenty more posts to pull that are rotten or will soon become so, but that will have to wait for another day when we can move animals and a whole list of other issues that arise with this.
But for now, I am sitting back and looking at these posts and the stumps they leave behind when they rot and break and it's given me plenty of time to rethink some things.
First of all, I failed. Fair enough, I get that. But, I really don't feel too bad about it. I mean I knew what I was getting in to and I knew that there was a fairly large chance of failure. But, I did what I thought was best at the time. It was almost an experiment, but mostly it was the most eco-friendly and sustainable way I could think of to get the job done. Yes, now I have to go and replace all of the posts. And yes, I don't see another option but to get treated posts. But, this is the point isn't it? Isn't this the point of homesteading? Trying and and figuring out what you did wrong? Even if it means you have to replace everything you did.
I hate we are having to take time away to do this, but all in all I'm actually ok with it. It was a big learning experience. Not only about what you read on the internet to be true or not, but simply learning the process of skinning trees, pulling them right back out. And after all...we finally get our orchard!
Homesteading is an adventure. Luckily, it's an adventure that we get to learn and get better at.
Until next time....happy homesteading!
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