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10 Comments

  1. Nice series, 3AD Scout. A quick tip about fruit trees and a question about private vs public ranges.

    When I plant fruit trees, I dig a hole a bit deeper than required and then fill that excess depth with compost. Then, after the tree is planted, and repeating annually, I berm around the base with more compost. Spreading the length of it every year. I usually do this until the tree begins to provide fruit. Also, the time of year in which people plant can be useful, too. Fruit trees require a lot of watering the first year. In addition, consider looking in to water management, swales and permaculture techniques.

    Public vs. private ranges…A concern I have here is, depending on how often a person shoots, I question that a public range is a benefit in relation to relocating to a rural area and shooting a lot. I have experienced that when I spent time near my bug out location, it is rare to see a car drive by. However, when I shoot out there, it seems every neighbor within ear shot is driving by rubbernecking. I suppose this could be good or bad depending how a person views it, but I am almost certain that people gossip about it. I guess this all depends on what types of firearms people use and how they practice with them, but I have often wondered if a public range is a benefit in relation to opsec? Thoughts?

    1. @Muddykid

      When I was a young single mom living on my rural farm, I had a seriously crazy neighbor that was rather obsessed with me and mad that I had zero interest in him. Another neighbor advised me to set up a very visible(from the road) target and practice often! 😉

    2. Muddykid,

      The apple trees that I planted first have all survived. The next year I planted 4 more and all but 1 died. I planted them the same way and in the same area as the other. Due to the rocky soil I did dig the hole deeper so that it was easier for the roots to go through as they started to grow. The only thing I can think of is that we had a wet year and that they got root rot. The other thing is I bought the variety not knowing anything about- took the word of the folks at the conservancy.

      Re-shooting: I wouldn’t take it as a sign of rubber-necking but as a sign that the people around there are not used to that type of activity in your area and just want to make sure their isn’t anything nefarious going on. There is a person who has a camp down the road who shoots “rapidly” on occasion and this gets the neighbors all fired up. I shoot but the rapid fire is not like the other guy who sounds like he is just practicing “spray and pray”. My time is very valuable to me and my family so when we shot it is nice not to have to deal with all the delays that are associated with public ranges.

    3. I live out in the country on 50 acres, my neighbor to the south has 100 acres, to the north 30 acres, to the east is a 500 acre farm and to the west a 300 acre cattle ranch. We don’t shoot on the west side. Ten miles down the road is a public firing range where the locals train and have competition shooting; which we hear from 6 am to 6 pm 7-days a week. No one gets upset when they hear gun shots. It’s like living on an air force base, after a while you can identify every plane that takes off; same with guns.

      1. Animal House,

        The gun fire doesn’t bother me,it bothers the neighbors. There is gunfire around here often but I think it is that they don’t think the guy is safe since he is shooting so fast and he was getting up at the crack of dawn and starting. I took note as to not be a bad neighbor. I try not to shoot on Sundays unless I know my Mennonite neighbor doesn’t have any company or is out visiting someone. What you say about getting used to the planes is absolutely correct- when I was at Ft. Campbell I was close to the airfield got used to it quickly, with the exception of when C-5s took off.

  2. Two suggestions:

    Passed on to me, as we are on a busy county 2 lane road… Set up a large archery target in a very visible spot by the road. Folks down the road did that. While it draws your eye, it also triggers a wariness to avoid being nosy.

    Fruit and nut trees: most of the nutrient uptake is done in the zone of the very fine roots which are at the tree-limb distance away from the trunk and just beyond.

    Moving the litter and compost a foot away from the trunk will eliminate some pests from overwintering and reinfesting your trees. Also, it will reduce rodent/vole tendencies to harm your trees.

    Yes, increasing your diameter of mulch and compost out further from your trees is an excellent practice. So is building your berm for watering zone, further from the tree trunk. If you don’t have compost to use, even a bag of ground up tree bark (labeled
    misleadingly as topsoil at garden stores) or sawdust/shavings to mix in the tree hole is a huge bonus to tree health when planting.

    The trees I kept in pots for 2-4 years were healthy, but I am relearning a lot at our new retreat farm in our first year of orchard establishment. Lots of pest issues now: aphids, pear slugs, root maggots, deer, etc.

    Where my soils get terribly waterlogged all winter, I am planting trees in low mounds in rows, so a six inch high tree bed above the surrounding area allows drainage but roots can still grow down into the soil for moisture at all times.

    Thanks for writing this series and tying together all the prepping reports this way.

    God Bless

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