I'm probably too paranoid for my own good. Most inks are probably safe to mix with the soil. My shredder is used mostly for security purposes; I only put certain types of documents into it. It's a bit of a pain when it shuts down due to overheating. It takes something like 15 minutes for it to recover. I can feed paper into it constantly, but I don't. I give it a few seconds between loads to cool down just enough not to trip the safety switch. There are better shredders for higher security. I've seen one that grinds things to a powder-like state. I think only the government would use those kinds - they are the only ones who could afford them too.
I had a shredder with a 10 hp motor at the old house which could eat up most any phone book, and tree limbs up to three inches in diameter. I kept the forest in back of my house tidy with that one. LOL
Pyrotechnics Gone Wild
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Re: Pyrotechnics Gone Wild
I used to own a wood chipper, sold it at the auction before I moved south, where I really could have used it.
Instead I set up an area to pile all the trees I cut down and turned out it became excellent mulch for my gardens.
Also became home for Grouse and later Turtle families. Probably a lot of snakes too, hi hi.
Now that area is overgrown and some tall trees now too. Amazing how fast mother nature can take over an area.
Besides my large garden, I had this small area I cleared for a small garden that needed daily attending.
I guess all that good topsoil I put there the new trees that sprung up liked, they grew like weeds. Now that small garden area is like a little forest with some of the trees well over 20 feet already.
I'll tell ya, having a heart attack, and then a second, really put the damper on a lot of things I liked to do. And now with my COPD, about all I can do is sit close to my oxygen tanks. But I got used to it, since I enjoy working on the computer.
Instead I set up an area to pile all the trees I cut down and turned out it became excellent mulch for my gardens.
Also became home for Grouse and later Turtle families. Probably a lot of snakes too, hi hi.
Now that area is overgrown and some tall trees now too. Amazing how fast mother nature can take over an area.
Besides my large garden, I had this small area I cleared for a small garden that needed daily attending.
I guess all that good topsoil I put there the new trees that sprung up liked, they grew like weeds. Now that small garden area is like a little forest with some of the trees well over 20 feet already.
I'll tell ya, having a heart attack, and then a second, really put the damper on a lot of things I liked to do. And now with my COPD, about all I can do is sit close to my oxygen tanks. But I got used to it, since I enjoy working on the computer.
Re: Pyrotechnics Gone Wild
Our lives are running in parallel lines, but in different universes. LOL
The house I came from to Missouri was located on just a hair over an acre of land. The back of the lot, 365 feet away from the street, was 6 feet higher than the front. That was due to the fact a drainage ditch ran through the short dimension of my property and over the years a lot of erosion took place. In the process, however, a lot of my neighbors' topsoil ended up in my overgrown forested back yard. Some spots had nearly 3' of black dirt. I rented chain saws and wood chippers the first couple years because my neighbors were in the same situation as I was. I didn't clear my land as well as they did, but I could have had it done for $3000 as promised by a shady looking landscaper that came to my door one day. Sometime early on I bought the wood chipper and chain saw and various other pieces of equipment. Over the years I must have cut down about half of what was there when I first moved in, yet it was still overgrown.
About a third of that acre was dedicated to the house and lawn and flowers and whatever veggies I tried to grow. I was into organic gardening big time but discovered that the wild critters living in the forests would eat anything I planted as soon as it sprouted. It was frustrating to deal with so I quit trying. I did have a lot of nice flowers however. Between the gardens and the forest I was able to amass the most awesome compost pile that ever existed. LOL I didn't do anything to accelerate the decomposition and it took a few years before anything useful developed in that pile. But I have to tell you, tears nearly came to my eyes when I sifted through it the first time. Never saw any organic material like it. The flowers loved it as did a few tortoise and toad families. I was tempted to grow potatoes in it but there actually wasn't enough sunlight in that area to make it happen.
The forest was my refuge and my health spa. I'd spend hours out there cutting, and chipping, and raking, and pruning, and taking pictures of things I never expected to see, such as flowers on the catalpa tree; they only last a day or two. I could make all the noise I wanted with the chipper and saws because of the great distance between me and my neighbors. I had lawn mowers, rototillers, snow blowers, portable generators, and all manner of boy toys and gardening tools. They all were left behind for the new owner. I knew they would not get used here in Missouri and didn't want to store them. He gave me a few hundred dollars for it all.
So, now, I'm here in what was a brand new house. You've read my complaints about how it doesn't meet up to the quality I left behind, but it is new and maintenance free. I hired a landscaper the first years or two but then got baseball spiked shoes and a 4WD mower to negotiate the slopes of the land. Of course I had better not dare start it up before 8 AM or the HOA Police would be after me. And a compost pile? Too ugly to suit the blue collar workers surrounding me, sorry. Besides, I've not found anything worth growing in the clay and rock surround my domicile. It's nice in some ways. Nothing needs repairing. I have nothing to do and nobody to do it with. So, I spend most of the day right here in front of the computer monitor. The view out the window is nice and I know every time the neighbor across the street leaves his house. There's not much else to look at, albeit I do have some fantastic sky shots that I've never been able to capture through my forest back home. I'm not perfectly healthy, but thank the gods I've been spared any heart diseases, so far. For the most part I can get around and do all I care to do, which isn't much.
So, there you have it. We must be getting old or something ...
The house I came from to Missouri was located on just a hair over an acre of land. The back of the lot, 365 feet away from the street, was 6 feet higher than the front. That was due to the fact a drainage ditch ran through the short dimension of my property and over the years a lot of erosion took place. In the process, however, a lot of my neighbors' topsoil ended up in my overgrown forested back yard. Some spots had nearly 3' of black dirt. I rented chain saws and wood chippers the first couple years because my neighbors were in the same situation as I was. I didn't clear my land as well as they did, but I could have had it done for $3000 as promised by a shady looking landscaper that came to my door one day. Sometime early on I bought the wood chipper and chain saw and various other pieces of equipment. Over the years I must have cut down about half of what was there when I first moved in, yet it was still overgrown.
About a third of that acre was dedicated to the house and lawn and flowers and whatever veggies I tried to grow. I was into organic gardening big time but discovered that the wild critters living in the forests would eat anything I planted as soon as it sprouted. It was frustrating to deal with so I quit trying. I did have a lot of nice flowers however. Between the gardens and the forest I was able to amass the most awesome compost pile that ever existed. LOL I didn't do anything to accelerate the decomposition and it took a few years before anything useful developed in that pile. But I have to tell you, tears nearly came to my eyes when I sifted through it the first time. Never saw any organic material like it. The flowers loved it as did a few tortoise and toad families. I was tempted to grow potatoes in it but there actually wasn't enough sunlight in that area to make it happen.
The forest was my refuge and my health spa. I'd spend hours out there cutting, and chipping, and raking, and pruning, and taking pictures of things I never expected to see, such as flowers on the catalpa tree; they only last a day or two. I could make all the noise I wanted with the chipper and saws because of the great distance between me and my neighbors. I had lawn mowers, rototillers, snow blowers, portable generators, and all manner of boy toys and gardening tools. They all were left behind for the new owner. I knew they would not get used here in Missouri and didn't want to store them. He gave me a few hundred dollars for it all.
So, now, I'm here in what was a brand new house. You've read my complaints about how it doesn't meet up to the quality I left behind, but it is new and maintenance free. I hired a landscaper the first years or two but then got baseball spiked shoes and a 4WD mower to negotiate the slopes of the land. Of course I had better not dare start it up before 8 AM or the HOA Police would be after me. And a compost pile? Too ugly to suit the blue collar workers surrounding me, sorry. Besides, I've not found anything worth growing in the clay and rock surround my domicile. It's nice in some ways. Nothing needs repairing. I have nothing to do and nobody to do it with. So, I spend most of the day right here in front of the computer monitor. The view out the window is nice and I know every time the neighbor across the street leaves his house. There's not much else to look at, albeit I do have some fantastic sky shots that I've never been able to capture through my forest back home. I'm not perfectly healthy, but thank the gods I've been spared any heart diseases, so far. For the most part I can get around and do all I care to do, which isn't much.
So, there you have it. We must be getting old or something ...
Re: Pyrotechnics Gone Wild
When I look back over the years at all the different hobbies I used to love to do, for short periods of time, then I would move onto something else. And now I don't do any of them.
After I moved down south here and dug out about 1/2 of the crawl space to make a basement like working area. I ended up using it to grow plants, lots and lots of plants, which of course necessitated building a small greenhouse outside.
The few years I did this, I probably sold over 5000 of the more exotic plants that most folks can't get to root for themselves. Many I grew from seeds, if they grew fast enough, but a lot of the others were rooted cuttings or air-layered.
I often wonder if all that dust and dirt from digging out a dry crawl space had anything to do with my breathing problems now. It really smelled down there too when I was digging the dirt. Heck, with no true ventilation, it could be those poisonous gasses were getting to me. One of the reasons I stopped doing things under there.
When I cleared my forest, rather than using a chain saw, I used a Cuts-All with pruning blades in it. This way I could cut flush with the ground without all the damage it does to chain saw blades to hit dirt. On the larger sized trees, I cut them up for fireplace wood, but most of the rest I just added to my compost heap, starting at the front and and kept filling as far as I could to the far end. The stack was well over 10 feet high, but as it sagged down, and I could get compost from the front edge, I would toss some of that over the older stuff which made it compost that much faster. Any time I hit a log that was not quite done yet, I tossed it on top of the middle third, then later to the back third. Now it is all gone, back down to nearly level ground again, filled with growing trees once again.
I had many plans for our backyard, a gazebo around a tree at the top of cleared part of the hill. A patio deck between the palm trees, etc. But my first heart attack put an end to nearly everything. I could not lift my hands above my shoulders for a year, and not above my head for two years. The doc said it would blow out the back of my heart.
It actually took about three years before the back of my heart dissolved the dead meat and the remaining film thickened up enough he said I was now safe. Thankfully, the second heart attack didn't start that process all over again.
I agree, I think we are getting too olde to do anything except sit around and enjoy our remaining years!
After I moved down south here and dug out about 1/2 of the crawl space to make a basement like working area. I ended up using it to grow plants, lots and lots of plants, which of course necessitated building a small greenhouse outside.
The few years I did this, I probably sold over 5000 of the more exotic plants that most folks can't get to root for themselves. Many I grew from seeds, if they grew fast enough, but a lot of the others were rooted cuttings or air-layered.
I often wonder if all that dust and dirt from digging out a dry crawl space had anything to do with my breathing problems now. It really smelled down there too when I was digging the dirt. Heck, with no true ventilation, it could be those poisonous gasses were getting to me. One of the reasons I stopped doing things under there.
When I cleared my forest, rather than using a chain saw, I used a Cuts-All with pruning blades in it. This way I could cut flush with the ground without all the damage it does to chain saw blades to hit dirt. On the larger sized trees, I cut them up for fireplace wood, but most of the rest I just added to my compost heap, starting at the front and and kept filling as far as I could to the far end. The stack was well over 10 feet high, but as it sagged down, and I could get compost from the front edge, I would toss some of that over the older stuff which made it compost that much faster. Any time I hit a log that was not quite done yet, I tossed it on top of the middle third, then later to the back third. Now it is all gone, back down to nearly level ground again, filled with growing trees once again.
I had many plans for our backyard, a gazebo around a tree at the top of cleared part of the hill. A patio deck between the palm trees, etc. But my first heart attack put an end to nearly everything. I could not lift my hands above my shoulders for a year, and not above my head for two years. The doc said it would blow out the back of my heart.
It actually took about three years before the back of my heart dissolved the dead meat and the remaining film thickened up enough he said I was now safe. Thankfully, the second heart attack didn't start that process all over again.
I agree, I think we are getting too olde to do anything except sit around and enjoy our remaining years!
Re: Pyrotechnics Gone Wild
A 10 foot high compost pile 
I had all this land and a lot of equipment so that I didn't feel it necessary to hire anybody to do the landscaping or remove the debris that I amassed. When I fell a tree all the branches would go onto a huge stack of cuttings; it probably looked a lot like your old compost pile. The trunks of the trees were cut into 4' sections and hauled to the back of the property where they were stacked. I had quite a fortress back there after a few years of cutting. It served not only to get the big wood out of the way but also as a dam of sorts. As I mentioned earlier my property sloped gradually from the rear where the logs were stacked to the front where the stream flowed. Much of the run off from storms and snow melt was blocked by my barrier, but not all of it. There were a lot of gaps I never filled in. The last step was to attack the branches with my chipper and create mounds of chips. Some of it was good for mulch, some not so good. Thus I had several mounds of wood chips scattered about my forest. By the time I left that place for good, most of those mounds were gone. They decomposed or were washed away leaving only the newest of them all for the next guy to deal with. We had a wood burning stove but didn't use it very much. Most of the branches that the shredder could not handle were cut and stacked out back with the larger tree trunks. I think I could have run a saw mill back there if I had the equipment to do it. LOL
Soil does have an aroma of it's own. It's hard to know exactly what's in it without doing a chemical analysis. It could be toxic, but I'd think the wildlife and the vegetation would have given you some indications of that long before your lungs protested. I'm suspicious of all that tobacco smoke more than what was in the ground under your house. Regardless, a root cellar and a greenhouse was always a dream of mine. Maybe in my next life.
I had all this land and a lot of equipment so that I didn't feel it necessary to hire anybody to do the landscaping or remove the debris that I amassed. When I fell a tree all the branches would go onto a huge stack of cuttings; it probably looked a lot like your old compost pile. The trunks of the trees were cut into 4' sections and hauled to the back of the property where they were stacked. I had quite a fortress back there after a few years of cutting. It served not only to get the big wood out of the way but also as a dam of sorts. As I mentioned earlier my property sloped gradually from the rear where the logs were stacked to the front where the stream flowed. Much of the run off from storms and snow melt was blocked by my barrier, but not all of it. There were a lot of gaps I never filled in. The last step was to attack the branches with my chipper and create mounds of chips. Some of it was good for mulch, some not so good. Thus I had several mounds of wood chips scattered about my forest. By the time I left that place for good, most of those mounds were gone. They decomposed or were washed away leaving only the newest of them all for the next guy to deal with. We had a wood burning stove but didn't use it very much. Most of the branches that the shredder could not handle were cut and stacked out back with the larger tree trunks. I think I could have run a saw mill back there if I had the equipment to do it. LOL
Soil does have an aroma of it's own. It's hard to know exactly what's in it without doing a chemical analysis. It could be toxic, but I'd think the wildlife and the vegetation would have given you some indications of that long before your lungs protested. I'm suspicious of all that tobacco smoke more than what was in the ground under your house. Regardless, a root cellar and a greenhouse was always a dream of mine. Maybe in my next life.
Re: Pyrotechnics Gone Wild
Have you ever stored something for many years that paper eating termites got into?
If you know that smell, that is exactly what our crawl space smelled like.
And the more I dug out, the greater the smell became.
I hauled over 55,000 five-gallon buckets of dirt out of there!
About one cubic foot of compacted clay, when chopped out fills 5 buckets, sometimes more.
If you know that smell, that is exactly what our crawl space smelled like.
And the more I dug out, the greater the smell became.
I hauled over 55,000 five-gallon buckets of dirt out of there!
About one cubic foot of compacted clay, when chopped out fills 5 buckets, sometimes more.
Re: Pyrotechnics Gone Wild
Never had a close encounter with termites; not that I know about anyway. I'm very impressed that you dug out that cellar all by hand. It must have taken you several years to get it all cleared out. And then, what did you do with the dirt? Were you able to spread it around your property? That's one thing I really miss about my forest. Anytime I needed a wheel borrow full of black dirt, all I had to do was go back there and dig it up. The soil had an organic aroma that I'm sure you are familiar with. I never unearthed anything foul smelling, but we did have a skunk hole back there. I stayed away from that critter. LOL
Re: Pyrotechnics Gone Wild
The front yard from about half way to the road was a stead slope to the drainage ditch.
I used all that dirt to fill in the front yard, but it kept compacting down after rains, and time.
Once it was staying close to the height I wanted, I ran a wolmanized 2x4 all the way across the front yard, keeping it perfectly level. And then planted bushes on the house side of the 2x4 barrier. I still had to keep adding more dirt for another couple of years, but it finally stabilized.
And now those bushes I planted that were not supposed to grow over 3-1/2 feet tall, are over 10 feet tall, hi hi.
Here, at the very end of this newsletter, you can see how much I brought the yard up, planted grass and let it grow, then put in the long board and bushes. Plus some other decorations.
https://stonebrokemanor.classichauslimi ... nl2006.pdf
What the front yard looked like before I put all that dirt out there and raised some grass is not part of my family newsletters. Darn!
I used all that dirt to fill in the front yard, but it kept compacting down after rains, and time.
Once it was staying close to the height I wanted, I ran a wolmanized 2x4 all the way across the front yard, keeping it perfectly level. And then planted bushes on the house side of the 2x4 barrier. I still had to keep adding more dirt for another couple of years, but it finally stabilized.
And now those bushes I planted that were not supposed to grow over 3-1/2 feet tall, are over 10 feet tall, hi hi.
Here, at the very end of this newsletter, you can see how much I brought the yard up, planted grass and let it grow, then put in the long board and bushes. Plus some other decorations.
https://stonebrokemanor.classichauslimi ... nl2006.pdf
What the front yard looked like before I put all that dirt out there and raised some grass is not part of my family newsletters. Darn!
Re: Pyrotechnics Gone Wild
The only thing more awesome than your front yard is the newsletter describing it all. The kind of things you did to improve your surroundings are similar to what I had in my last house. We had city sewers, however, and no drainage ditches at street side. However, I did have a stream flowing through my property which in essence was a drainage path for an underground spring located about half a mile away from my house. The sewer into which it all flowed was on my neighbor's property. Keeping that baby under control and coordinating natural events occurring in the forest was a major pastime. Actually, it was more like a hobby. Things would have worked well without any intervention on my part. I had a row of honeysuckle that was intended to terminate at about the 5 foot high level. When I left them a few years ago they were nearly twice that tall. LOL
Re: Pyrotechnics Gone Wild
Since I'm at the top of the mountain, I have no creeks here on my property.
I almost installed one myself, but the cost to run the pumps would have been enormous.S
I did install a small pond with a tiny creek that ran from behind the garage to the pond in front of the garage.
When I say pond, I mean a plastic pond about 6 feet x 8 feet shaped like a kidney. And the creek was nothing but flagstone overlapped coming down the hill on the side of the garage. It looked nice when I first built it, but keeping weeds at bay, and all the leaves out of it in the fall was a nightmare. I kept it going for about 3 or 4 years after it was completed. Then tore it all out. I actually gave all the flagstone and pond to a neighbor shortly after my pump died. But I don't know what he did with it, since he didn't use it for the same purpose I did. He did set it up with a fountainhead in the center, but it was on the far side of his house, so I never really saw it from my house, and his cars blocked the view from the street. I know it wasn't there when his boy left for college about 3 years later.
I had a large honeysuckle behind my garage in St. Loo. I cut, trimmed, and trained it into an interesting but convoluted shape. I liked it, but kept it cut flush with the eave of the house.
I almost installed one myself, but the cost to run the pumps would have been enormous.S
I did install a small pond with a tiny creek that ran from behind the garage to the pond in front of the garage.
When I say pond, I mean a plastic pond about 6 feet x 8 feet shaped like a kidney. And the creek was nothing but flagstone overlapped coming down the hill on the side of the garage. It looked nice when I first built it, but keeping weeds at bay, and all the leaves out of it in the fall was a nightmare. I kept it going for about 3 or 4 years after it was completed. Then tore it all out. I actually gave all the flagstone and pond to a neighbor shortly after my pump died. But I don't know what he did with it, since he didn't use it for the same purpose I did. He did set it up with a fountainhead in the center, but it was on the far side of his house, so I never really saw it from my house, and his cars blocked the view from the street. I know it wasn't there when his boy left for college about 3 years later.
I had a large honeysuckle behind my garage in St. Loo. I cut, trimmed, and trained it into an interesting but convoluted shape. I liked it, but kept it cut flush with the eave of the house.
Re: Pyrotechnics Gone Wild
I tried to find the origin of the creek in my back yard, but I don't think I ever really accomplished it. It meandered off in a northeast direction mostly through private property. About half a mile or so away it butt up against the main street and could be seen no more. There was no sign of it across that street which is why people said it was an underground spring. That could be true but there have been years when the creek dried up during a long hot summer. My lot was about 75 feet wide and normally the water in the stream had a width of two feet more or less, depending on the terrain. When we had the 100 year rain the stream increased to about ten feet across and was flowing swiftly. Amazingly it stayed within the flood plane. That was due to the fact that the sewer next door overflowed and the water started flowing into the street. The street was sloping away from my house and the folks down the road were out there in rafts and canoes. It was a horrendous mess but we were spared. I wanted to move the stream further back into the lot and away from the house. Apparently the Army Corps of Engineers had to get involved for that to happen. They are the ones who drew up the flood plane many years ago.
I would have liked to build a barrier similar to the one in your newsletter. Mine would be a bit higher and require some heavy duty brickwork that was cost prohibitive for me. Some family upstream, somebody who bought one of those mini-castles they built, were friends of the village mayor. One fine summer day it rained so hard that their yard filled up with water that overflowed from that stream. She complained and the village came out and built the exact kind of retention wall that I would have done, but they built it around the sewer on my neighbor's property. This allowed the stream to drain a lot quicker after a storm, but it didn't prevent the flooding. The only way around the stream overflow problem would be to build a storm sewer system through the unincorporated area north of me. I'm glad they decided not to because the assessment would have been more than the cost of the retention wall I wanted to build.
I would have liked to build a barrier similar to the one in your newsletter. Mine would be a bit higher and require some heavy duty brickwork that was cost prohibitive for me. Some family upstream, somebody who bought one of those mini-castles they built, were friends of the village mayor. One fine summer day it rained so hard that their yard filled up with water that overflowed from that stream. She complained and the village came out and built the exact kind of retention wall that I would have done, but they built it around the sewer on my neighbor's property. This allowed the stream to drain a lot quicker after a storm, but it didn't prevent the flooding. The only way around the stream overflow problem would be to build a storm sewer system through the unincorporated area north of me. I'm glad they decided not to because the assessment would have been more than the cost of the retention wall I wanted to build.
Re: Pyrotechnics Gone Wild
We had one creek on our florist property that eventually went into a sewer pipe.
But at the location where we had several Quonset huts, we had a small spring there.
Not enough from it to use as a source of water, but folks would come and fill up their 3 gallon water jugs.
Down here there is a nice spring with lots of water. The county drove a pipe into it, and I hear it took them like 5 tries before they hit the right channel for the water to come out the pipe. Then once they did, the poured a concrete wall around it and a slab to stand on, with a drain under it that exited on the other end of the slab to the creek it always fed.
Nice of them to do that, and they also test the water every so often to make sure it is safe.
Near my Wonder Plants building down in the city, one block over was an underground storm sewer. That thing was something like 9 feet tall and 12 feet wide inside, and ran all the way to the Mississippi River. About 8 to 9 blocks further west it only measured like 6 feet tall and 8 feet wide. I imagine further west it was even smaller yet.
I've heard there are many such large storm drains in St. Louis, but have no idea where they are.
The one I knew about was called the Page Watershed. And I know there was another called the Olive Watershed.
The one known as the Telegraph Watershed is the one they used for making movies where a scene or two was in a sewer.
I believe it was the largest, at least down near the river, since so many others ran into it before the river.
I imagine you know the River Des Peres is one such draining system, but in this case it is open topped. Like a concrete river, hi hi. A standing joke is sending unknowing people with boats to go skiing on the River Des Peres, hi hi.
But at the location where we had several Quonset huts, we had a small spring there.
Not enough from it to use as a source of water, but folks would come and fill up their 3 gallon water jugs.
Down here there is a nice spring with lots of water. The county drove a pipe into it, and I hear it took them like 5 tries before they hit the right channel for the water to come out the pipe. Then once they did, the poured a concrete wall around it and a slab to stand on, with a drain under it that exited on the other end of the slab to the creek it always fed.
Nice of them to do that, and they also test the water every so often to make sure it is safe.
Near my Wonder Plants building down in the city, one block over was an underground storm sewer. That thing was something like 9 feet tall and 12 feet wide inside, and ran all the way to the Mississippi River. About 8 to 9 blocks further west it only measured like 6 feet tall and 8 feet wide. I imagine further west it was even smaller yet.
I've heard there are many such large storm drains in St. Louis, but have no idea where they are.
The one I knew about was called the Page Watershed. And I know there was another called the Olive Watershed.
The one known as the Telegraph Watershed is the one they used for making movies where a scene or two was in a sewer.
I believe it was the largest, at least down near the river, since so many others ran into it before the river.
I imagine you know the River Des Peres is one such draining system, but in this case it is open topped. Like a concrete river, hi hi. A standing joke is sending unknowing people with boats to go skiing on the River Des Peres, hi hi.