Field of weeds

Finding land, working a small plot or anything else countryside related
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Eric in Japan
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Re: Field of weeds

Post by Eric in Japan »

Tora wrote: She does want a goat which might help somewhat. Until the neighbors start coming to feed it scraps from their gardens and the goat realizes weeds taste bad and breaks out to go raid the neighbors' gardens and the neighbors get angry and end up blaming me and my goat when a troop of monkeys raids their gardens in the middle of the night. At least that's what happened to a friend here. "Billy" the goat quit eating weeds and just became a big rambunctious (violent?) pet. He couldn't get the neighbors to stop coming around at 4am to give Billy a snack.
As a goat owner, I can attest to your friend's plight. And if you get a male, make sure it is castrated. Wethers are much gentler and don't have any strong randy smell to them.
Tora wrote: Do people who raise chickens have problems with Hakubishin (civets) or other critters (foxes) getting their chickens? How do you protect them if they're free range? Do tobi (kites) go after chickens? Haven't seen any hawks around. Billy the goat didn't do much to protect his chicken brothers and sisters from the hakubishin that that went on a serial killing spree that lasted a week and only ended when all the chickens were gone (before a shelter could be created for said chickens.
All my chickens were destroyed by feral cats, hakubishin, and perhaps a feral dog or an inoshishi? Destroyed my chicken tractor, killed everything, and then flipped it over. Between the price of feed and varmit proof shelter, in my area chickens are not economically viable.
"... so, the cucumbers said to the cabbage, `Lettuce Go.`"

Shizuman
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Re: Field of weeds

Post by Shizuman »

Eric in Japan wrote: All my chickens were destroyed by feral cats, hakubishin, and perhaps a feral dog or an inoshishi? Destroyed my chicken tractor, killed everything, and then flipped it over. Between the price of feed and varmit proof shelter, in my area chickens are not economically viable.
Gee mate really sorry to hear about that! I was seriously thinking about setting up a chook tractor but thats a worry! If i might ask are you surrounded by forest? im set up about 1km from the forests but each one is a national park (surrounded by three big ones) are the pests coming out of the nearby forests?

Back to the weeds though i bought myself a shinfuji burner and that thing is a monster! I love it! First time i went to use it, the lady at the gas stand accidentally filled up my kerosene tank with petrol, good times!

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Re: Field of weeds

Post by Tora »

Chickens sound like more than I'm ready to take on now. definitely not ready for electric fences and so on.

Eric, where did you take the goat to get fixed and what did it cost? Never wanted to bring that on another dude but billies can be a liabillity if you and everyone else is not on the constant lookout for a surprise attack to the back. We can get kids from someone who keeps them for milk and gives away the offspring they don't need. Nannies are popular but nobody seems to want Billy bullies.

Zasso,
Thanks for the heads up on that book and Shinfuji spares. I think the burner I have is a Shinfuji but it old. Haven't looked at fixing it.

A good tiller would be nice but I realistically don't have time, money or energy for much extra now.

I really just wanna fix the house now. There is so much to do and the hot summer meant I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped and am way behind where I'd hoped to be.... I'm beginning to understand why one friend broke down and got someone else to do the work at this point. And he didn't have as many weeds or outbuildings to be torndown, moved and repaired. Cutting down the old cedar tree was fun though! Life is a tangent. Enjoy the ride! Weee!!

Shizuman, Now I'm curious about what happens when you put gasoline in a kerosene weed burner....

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Re: Field of weeds

Post by Shizuman »

To be honest i decided not to find out, asked to have it replaced.
Lighting it the first time was challenging, you have to light a piece of fabric to heat up the coil in the nozzel, i rekon it would
have been fairly explosive otherwise.

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Field of weeds

Post by Zasso Nouka »

It's a good idea to flush the burner through with petrol every other year to clean out any gunk from the kerosene but don't try to burn the petrol off, just flush it into a can or something. I did one time and it burns very very hot and the flame is huge, proper flame thrower type size.

The best way to flush it is to put a small amount of gasoline in the tank and pressurise it then open the valve until some petrol comes out then close the valve and leave it for an hour with petrol in the system to dissolve any residues then open the valve and get rid of any petrol inside.

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Re: Field of weeds

Post by Tora »

Zasso Nouka wrote:It's a good idea to flush the burner through with petrol every other year to clean out any gunk from the kerosene but don't try to burn the petrol off, just flush it into a can or something. I did one time and it burns very very hot and the flame is huge, proper flame thrower type size.
Thanks for the tip. I'll keep the petrol flame in mind for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.

Just checked and the burner is Sakae Fuji. Since I've got gasoline but not kerosene I'll do the flush and let it sit til I get kerosene. I'm guessing that the 10 year old tank of kerosene I found in the shed should NOT be put into any burners or stoves.

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Eric in Japan
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Re: Field of weeds

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Tora wrote:where did you take the goat to get fixed and what did it cost? Never wanted to bring that on another dude but billies can be a liabillity if you and everyone else is not on the constant lookout for a surprise attack to the back. We can get kids from someone who keeps them for milk and gives away the offspring they don't need. Nannies are popular but nobody seems to want Billy bullies.
We found the goats online- yahoo auctions I think, and the seller asked if we wanted him to do it. So he basically put a big rubber band around the sack when they were still just a few days to weeks old.
"... so, the cucumbers said to the cabbage, `Lettuce Go.`"

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Re: Field of weeds

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Tora wrote:I'm guessing that the 10 year old tank of kerosene I found in the shed should NOT be put into any burners or stoves.
I don't think kerosene has alcohol added like petrol but it probably has lost a lot of the lighter volatiles so just burn it off in a tin or something.

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Re: Field of weeds

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Zasso Nouka wrote:I don't think kerosene has alcohol added like petrol but it probably has lost a lot of the lighter volatiles so just burn it off in a tin or something.
I didn't have time to pick up new kerosene but tried the old stuff when I needed a break from breaking and hauling concrete, bricks and stone on Wednesday. It takes a LONG time to heat up the burner and start vaporizing the kerosene. It didn't actually start blowing flame (vs squirting fuel) until most of the kerosene was gone from the tank. Probably mostly user error but I suspect some of the volatiles have evaporated like you suggested. Now I have a big plot of dirt that smells like fuel. One more thing for the wife to give me dirty looks about.... guess I'll continue to use the old kerosene for damp days and burning the 10 years worth of downed branches, weeds and and bamboo I've inherited.

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Re: Field of weeds

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Tora wrote:
I didn't have time to pick up new kerosene but tried the old stuff when I needed a break from breaking and hauling concrete, bricks and stone on Wednesday. It takes a LONG time to heat up the burner and start vaporizing the kerosene. It didn't actually start blowing flame (vs squirting fuel) until most of the kerosene was gone from the tank. Probably mostly user error but I suspect some of the volatiles have evaporated like you suggested. Now I have a big plot of dirt that smells like fuel. One more thing for the wife to give me dirty looks about.... guess I'll continue to use the old kerosene for damp days and burning the 10 years worth of downed branches, weeds and and bamboo I've inherited.
I used brand new fresh (with a touch of petrol) kerosene and it took an age to heat up too! Same deal nice patch of kero smelling dirt! Im considering using my little brazing torch to preheat the coils before lighting it up. It might speed up the process slightly.

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