Lets Talk Shelters and Shelterbelts

No pictures for this post (because I'm lazy). As I was working from home at the paying job,  I saw a tree company stop over and cut down a couple of our trees (and a few branches). I'm excited but also bummed because it means a bill. So, lesson learned. If you get a notice from your township/county, do what they asks. I expect we'll get a hefty bill for not taking care of the trees even though the letter had been sent more than a year ago and the guy that maintains our road volunteered to rip out the trees for us. Lesson learned.


But I guess it's like when your car breaks down and you have the means to do it but not the time. So I'll use that as the way to swallow my pride and write the check.


I didn't do my research for what is required in the state of South Dakota for "minimal care" of livestock. Horses are still considered livestock so people can get away with having less shelter. Not my thing.


We have two run in sheds in the big pen. One unfortunately does not have a roof thanks to the EF2 tornado that missed us by a half a mile. Still means the winds were strong enough to flip the top off. So, lesson learned on that. You DO NEED hurricane straps even if you don't live where hurricanes are (but do have tornados and straight line winds!)


We do not have a shelter in the smaller pen and I would desperately like to put one up. We had a tarp shelter a few years back but it didn't last more than a couple of months. Lesson learned on that one. Get the stakes put in the ground before the ground freezes. I don't think it would have been a total loss had we staked it properly.


The big pasture goes directly into the big drylot so the horses have access to the run in shed 24x7. The other two pastures dont' have sheds and I hate it. But, they do have shelterbelts. Where the mares and Junior stay all winter has a fantastic shelter belt. Where they stay in the spring and summer, it's not as great but there's more wind to keep the mosquitoes off.


I'd like to build a couple of shelter and we have most of the supplies to put one up but not enough time (or expertise). So if anyone has the skills and desire to put one up, let me know. Or if you want to purchase a prefab, premade shelter, that would be great too! Just let me know. I can't pay you for your work but I CAN feed you!


I'm also finding that our shelter belts are starting to die off. The trees to the east of the drylot are all dying at a rapid rate. There weren't many trees to begin with but that's because the runoff from the drylot killed off most of the trees. The nitrogen was too rich. I don't know if we'll be able to put new trees in or not.


But there's a lot to learn with shelters and shelter belts so if you have questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them. Lots of lessons learned on my part.