An Habitation Enforced

[poliphilo]

After six months on the farm I'm beginning to feel twinges of ruralism.  I even look the part;  in the thick wool jacket that used to be my father's and my Yorkshire wool cap,  I walk round my mother's fields and worry about them. The fields miss their sheep. There are corners where  the tussocks are so deep and thick it's like walking on a lumpy mattress. Yesterday I noticed how many self-sown saplings there are popping up around the existing trees. Leave the land ungrazed and unmanaged for another ten years and it'll revert to woodland.

I need to discuss all this with Matthew . 

Comments

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Even with grazing, the field I lease is gradually being taken over by the willow and the blackthorn... I foresee bonfires this winter.

If you're fond of bees you could have your own nature reserve - find someone with livestock to graze your field through the early winter, then lay it up and get someone to cut it for hay in the late summer, and within a few years you'll start to see an old-fashioned wild-flower meadow...

But letting it revert to woodland might be the easier option - keeping fencing livestock-proof is a massive expense these days.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

As you say, that sounds like a lot of expense- though I lik the sound of wildflowers and bees.

We used to have a local farmer who grazed her sheep in the fields but she's let us down this year.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

You'll have to get a pipe.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've never been a smoker, but I've always liked the smell of pipe tobacco. When I was a kid lots of Englishmen smoked pipes, now hardly anyone does. I think it's a pity.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

The fiddling-around-with-it-to-smoking-it ratio is pretty high with a pipe, and one doesn't inhale.

What about tethering goats? More work to move the stakes but less fencing expense, I would think.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ailz keeps mentioning goats. I don't know how serious she is...

I suppose pipes went out of fashion because they were seen to be "square". What it needs is for some celeb to start smoking one. As you say, they're better for you than cigarettes.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

If you get goats, you are going to need a cheesemaker. Goats' cheese is piss easy to make BTW, and in the summer you could loll around the farmers' markets with a jolly stall of cheeses, in a straw hat, making dour remarks about the weather.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Not really the future I'd envisaged for myself....

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Why not let it revert? Are you using the land for anything? Do you plan on using it for anything? You'll end up with more wild bunnies.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That would be the easiest option- and, I suppose, the cheapest.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

When I had my house on the lake, I had 3 acres of land, about half of which I left wild. Why? For one, I didn't want to pay the extra money to make and keep more lawn that I didn't need anyway. But also, the wild part attracted wildlife, and I really like wildlife. I enjoyed the wild part a lot more than I enjoyed the lawn.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like wilderness too, but it seems irresponsible to allow perfectly good pasturage to turn into scrubby wasteland. I'd like to keep it semi-wild, I think.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

It's not irresponsible if it isn't going to be used, unless, maybe, you are going to maintain it to enhance the property value for when it is finally sold.

A pasturage is a resource for people who have grazing animals. If you can RENT it to people with animals to graze, that is one thing, but if you are PAYING people to have their animals graze, that is quite another.

There are goat farmers here in L.A. that rent their goats out to property owners to keep their scrub land trimmed.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

If forest is an option, you may want to sweep upon a truckload of nuts and seeds from a local woodlot. It'll give you some more diversity, so disease wouldn't wipe out the forest-that-will-be.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Would it matter if it did revert?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Not really :)