Bring on the Good Life!!

Hi all, my husband and I have recently purchased 10 acres of bare land. Our dream is to be as self sufficient as possible, veges, fruit and probably some beef. We have some questions as we are COMPLETE novices:rolleyes:....
Our first questions are about planting our shelter belts; we are getting pretty daunted about the volume of trees we need and the amount of work needed to get them all planted in a season! We both still have full time jobs an hour away from the block and were wondering whether anyone knows whether there are contractors who plant on lifestyle blocks, and if so what the price might be (I know!! How long is a piece of string! )...just so we can see if this is a viable option to get some help with the planting! Also any suggestions for rabbit proofing our trees?
My second question is in regard to fencing contractors! We have a number of fences which need reinstating or straightening...we have a quote which shocked us, so what is the usual price per metre for an 8 wire fence? Thanks for reading my questions!

When we were planting our shelter trees OH was able to plant 36 an hour by himself - perfectly measured and straight. These were bare rooted so needed a hole rather than a slit as some of our other trees did! Hard work but worth it now - 5 years on, starting to benefit

This is a method similar to the one my son explained to me.

forestry.about.com/od/treeandforestcare/ss/plant_broot_2.htm

My son was a contract planter when he was young and they did thousands in a day, the technique was, (using a single ended mattock) into the ground a twist to the side place bare root tree in slit created and remove mattock, heel into disturbed soil and 2 or 3 paces and repeat, it only took them seconds to plant a tree on some very hilly country, unless they got distracted by finding the odd patch of the green stuff, but as I said he was young.

We have lots of trees on this property. I'm now wearing out the third chainsaw getting rid of them. Now that I know, I would be extremely careful planting shelterbelts because they cause more deaths and injuries of both humans and stock than bare land does.
Think of where sheep, cattle, goats and horses come from. They are either desert animals or mountain animals or come from the cold to temperate grasslands where next to no trees grow.
Also, except for tagasaste, trees will cause your pasture to be less productive. Willows and poplars in wet areas can be very useful, but not as shelter belts.
Unless you repair them yourself, paying someone to do it is far more expensive than putting in a new fence. I don't use 8-wire any more, because they need more posts, and they need battens, compared to a netting fence.
You are looking at about $15 per meter for fencing, of which 1/3 to 1/2 will be labour.

LongRidge;459032 wrote: We have lots of trees on this property. I'm now wearing out the third chainsaw getting rid of them. Now that I know, I would be extremely careful planting shelterbelts because they cause more deaths and injuries of both humans and stock than bare land does.
Think of where sheep, cattle, goats and horses come from. They are either desert animals or mountain animals or come from the cold to temperate grasslands where next to no trees grow.
Also, except for tagasaste, trees will cause your pasture to be less productive. Willows and poplars in wet areas can be very useful, but not as shelter belts.
Unless you repair them yourself, paying someone to do it is far more expensive than putting in a new fence. I don't use 8-wire any more, because they need more posts, and they need battens, compared to a netting fence.
You are looking at about $15 per meter for fencing, of which 1/3 to 1/2 will be labour.

Now, that is what I call a good idea, using net fencing. Safe a hell of time n more stable. Great idea.

LongRidge;459032 wrote: We have lots of trees on this property. I'm now wearing out the third chainsaw getting rid of them. Now that I know, I would be extremely careful planting shelterbelts because they cause more deaths and injuries of both humans and stock than bare land does.
Think of where sheep, cattle, goats and horses come from. They are either desert animals or mountain animals or come from the cold to temperate grasslands where next to no trees grow.

This is very true. There are some very dangerous paddocks at my parents farm due to a lot of old poplar and macrocarpa trees that constantly drop huge branches.

And how exciting for you getting your 10 acres of land, I'll hopefully be living the same dream in a years time