I'm so confused!

Jeff Darby

Is Chance a stallion or a gelding?

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sueann

Hey Jayd. he's a stallion, I rarely cut my horses. They have more fire if they're left.

I have a lovely chestnut arab that I do endurance on and I did cut him as he was too firey and stupid in the head around other people's mares, but this one I'm handling ok so he's safe, so far. I would hate to cut him now as he's getting a little old to do it safely. He's a very powerful boy and can run like the wind.

Other than my silly arab, I prefer them intact, also they muscle up beautifully more easily when not gelded. Less work involved.

windthrown

Yah, that was my father too. Backhanded me many times. He would be locked up for the stuff he did to us now. I had and have no love for my father. He was a drunk asshole.

Roos... no jumping joeys here. A few roos and wallabies on farms around here, but they are very nervous and jittery creatures. Never liked them. Never was into hourses either. Spendy as all heck, horses. They are all over out here though in the land of the rich. ATVs are easier to manage.

sueann

Spendy? lol! I guess they are expensive, but it's the biggest rush flying through the bush, or up a fire trail on a fast horse with the dogs belting alongside - beats crack anyway haha! (I guess!)

We have heaps of roos around here plus wild pigs deep in the bush, they can scare the living christ out of me and I don't hang around when I see their markings. The pigs, not the roos.

Listen up, this is from a book called Weekend Gardener, it's the biggest book ever, and it says trees can reduce the amount of heat entering the house by more than 70%, lower surrounding air temperature by 10% and surface temperature by 25%.

One strategically planted tree around your house has the same cooling effect a 6 domestic air conditioners.

That's what it says. Interesting huh? I'm not too sure about the air conditioning thing though. Gets up to 42c here often, I think I would die without the air.

Eric Frei

I'm always weary of such liberal writings without quantitive supportive data.

Read this thread, the direct energy savings are not that large. Some solid research going on.

trees lower energy bill| $25 a year| Big deal?

There appears to be a few figures bantered around of which none exceed $100 for energy bill savings a year.

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windthrown

Trees planted on the south side of the house can greatly reduce your cooling requirements. But 70% is way off base. Trees only stop some of the solar radiation from reaching the house by shading it, but none of the ambient heat. Also there is no real way to shade the entire house with trees. We have a long row of 140 foot redwoods to the west of the house here, and they block a lot of sunlight, but not all of it in the afternoon. We still need A/C in the summer here on hot days. I had deciduous maples and sycamores on the south and east side of my house in California, and that blocked about half the sunlight from hitting the roof. I could not plant a tree on the west side of the house there (commons with the house next door). They hleped, but on hot days? It was still hot in the house.

sueann

Yep, well ok, I think that author was getting a bit excited about that concept then

Valerie Swayne was the writer, they're pretty big in the plant world too. The Swayne family.

windthrown

Big in Oz, maybe. Never heard of her up here. I looked her up at Powell's, the largest bookstore in the states that is here in Portland, and she is not listed there. Not that I read that much gardening stuff any more. I am finishing up writing a book on bamboo and starting one on native Pacific North West American trees. Not that anyone wants to publish my stuff in this economy, and the bamboo book has over 100 photos which is too spendy to publish myself.

PS: Methinks its Swane, not Swayne (author of Weekend Gardener, Australian Gardener, etc.).

sueann

Ooh! hang on WT, I'll go check.

Yep, you're right, Swane not Swayne. Sorry about that. The book is a really nice one, hardcover.. I must have been getting confused on the spelling. This book was printed in Australia though, in 1990 so is heaps old now that I look at that. I bought it at a garage sale I think.

I don't know too much about bamboo, except that it goes rank but I think some are ok.