Front Yard Landscaping Ideas

Gardening Tip 103, Mouse Poison – Buy Now Before the Shortage!

Windmills are being planned for all over the senic vistas of New York. There are major problems with windpower that are not being addressed. Windmills kill birds. They are eyesores, they make noise pollution, they can change the weather patterns for an area, they can flicker at times durring the day with the shadows that they cast, and they can rob adjacent property owners of the enjoyment of thier property. Since there will be less birds of prey and thus more need for rat poison, more shortages are likely to occur in the supply of rat and mouse poison. So buy it now while supplies are plentiful.

The magnitude of their investment and their freedom from malice furnish no reason why power companies should escape the consequences of their own folly in building these giant turbines. The need for "clean and green power" IS NO EXCUSE FOR A TAKING OF PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS.

As in the case of Amsterdam Knitting Co v Dean, 162 NY 278, 280; 56 NE 757 (27 March 1900) (Even if the damages are slight [death is not], "it seems to be well settled that where the act complained of is such that by its repetition or continuance it may become the foundation or evidence of an adverse right, a court of equity will interpose by injunction, though no actual damage is shown or found.")

I guess for the power companies, I say, Caveat Emptor. Build your towers and disturb our quite enjoyment and reap the legal whirlwind that will follow.

For the rest of the farmers who stand by and take no legal redress....
Buy More Rat Poison....Because.....Birds of Prey Are Doomed!!! Yes you will need more rat poision when birds of prey are gone. Yes a legal means of killing endangered species has been found by NY State officials: Using Wind Power....The Perfect Killing Machine Our Government supports. Just when eagles are making a come back, our government begins to allow devices that will chop them up. The well documented problems with windmills and bird kills (see energy.ca.gov/reports/avian_bibliography.html) and has widely been reported (see ncpa.org/studies/renew/renew2d.html). There are many web sites that can be obtained from a google search that I did such as this site: windaction.org/articles/c36/.

I believe that in the case of the planned mills in Fairfield NY, many eagles and hawks will be killed. Most birds will be killed by the rotors. Their numbers and type will be determined by the number of rotors their average wind speed. and the location they are placed in flyways. You can encourage your public officals by CALLING AND EMAILING THEM RE WIND PROJECTS IN NY.
Please call all the following officals and tell them YOUR TRUE FEELINGS ABOUT KILLING ENDANGERED SPECIES and the needless killing that will occur by supporting these projects:

Number of Members:
Claudine Grande Phone: 315-866-6886

Mildred S Wheeler Phone: 315-866-3209

Dolores D Walawender Phone: 315-866-0137

Jean E Maneen -Phone: 315-894-2034

Gary G Jackson -Phone: 315-894-2579

Leonard Hendrix - Phone: 315-894-3211

Robert Hyde - Phone: 315-866-1898

John L Brezinski - Phone: 315-732-6397

Peter F Manno - Phone: 315-894-5454

Raymond Smith - Phone: 315-429-9433

If these publisc officials are not told how you feel they will do it to others. Please call all of these officials today!!

On a Happier note why not visit Bucks County?

If your destination is Doylestown in Central Bucks County, you are in luck because our Fountainville farm is located 1 mile west of Doylestown Pennsylvania,( at 5275 W. Swamp Rd.) whose name is not at all derived from the many deer to be found (that would be too easy), was established, wa-a-a-y back in 1681 when the king of England, Charles II, owed one of his old admirals 16,000 pounds Sterling. (That's about 4 million of our 2005 dollars.) For payment of the debt, it became the admiral's son who was given a "tract" (a parcel, a piece) of land in "the New World," on the northern continent of the western hemisphere before it got the name America.

When William Penn saw just the eastern edge of the 40,000 square miles he had gotten he was most pleased, understandably so, with a forest that seemed to never end. Dad's woods, he thought, deciding to name the place where he would start a democratic sort of Quaker colony, Pennsylvania, Penn, -sylv (a Latin word root meaning "woods"), -ania (Latin suffix for "land"). So that's why our home sounds like Count Dracula's (Tran -sylv -ania, tran for "between," as in, between the Carpathian Mountains and the old Principality of Wallachia in what is today's Romania, there's a land which is woods. Maybe Newfoundland should have been named Newfoundania? Naah.

William Penn established just three counties at first, all in the southeastern corner of his wooded land, all with names from mother England. Philadelphia County surrounded the original village there, Chester County was to the south, and Bucks County to the north.

In England, Buckinghamshire was, and still is, a county just northwest of London that forms an irregular rectangle running from the southeast at the edge of London, northwesterly. BUCKinghamShire, was shortened to Bucks in conversation. So William Penn named his land's similarly sized, irregular rectangle county, which ran northwesterly from Philadelphia's edge, Bucks County. Of course when you come to our farm be prepared to visit our county and experience its diverse culture and history.

When you come to visit us at Highland Hill Farm an interesting place to visit is always Haycock Mountain. It is a cooled 130-million year old "almost a volcano" that didn't get to come out of the ground. It stayed below, but made the ground bulge upward, and the hot, liquid magma cooled to form coarse-grained "diabase" rock. Ayres' Rock in Australia and Wyoming's Devil's Tower are world-famous examples of what is called a "laccolith." Milk is "lacco" in Latin and "lith" means stone. Haycock Mountain is a laccolith, Buck's County's highest point at 959 feet above sea level.

Haycock Township surrounds the mountain. Haycock Elementary School is having their annual band concert at the nearby high school in the town of McLean on Tuesday, December 20, this year. You don't think that Bucks County has a town named McLean? You're absolutely right! Although there's the Haycock Elementary School we know on Old Bethlehem Road (Route 212), there's another one at the intersection of Haycock Road (Route 703) and Westmoreland Street, in McLean, Virginia just a few miles across the Potomac River west of Washington, D.C. Then, there's Haycock Mountain, in the southwestern part of the state of Utah, not to be confused with Haystack Mountain, Utah. Haycock Mountain, Alaska deserves mention, as well as Haycock Mound in Kansas. "What's in a name?," Shakespeare observed over 400 years ago.

So you get the point; haycock is a common word, but just what is a "haycock?" Before the days of baling machines, cut grasses for "haying" were spread out in the sun to dry ("gotta make hay while the sun shines") and then collected to be taken to where it would be stored. That dome-shaped mound, that pile, that heap, that stack of hay, will have a rounded top exactly like our Haycock Mountain in Bucks County.

If there's no barn with a "mow" (pronounce it like Chairman Mao) to store the hay out of the rain and snow, an extra large haycock can be piled up and this "hayrick" will have a protective outer layer of hay that will be used for bedding the farm animals, or for composting, etc. If a roof set on poles can be created to cover the hayrick, much less of the hay will have to get wet and subsequently rot... So there's a Hayrick Mountain in Texas and another Hayrick Mountain in Oregon. What's in a name? Try, Highland Hill Farm? And guess what we Raise? Highland Cattle and Nursery stock. Our most popular tree is the Green Giant arborvitae. Here is why:

The hardiness zone the Green Giant Arborvita tolerates is from zone 5 to zone 8. That's where extreme cold temperatures get down to a temperate level of about 15 or 20 degrees in the winter (Zone 8), but also as low as a frigid level of 15 or 20 degrees BELOW zero (zone 5). Green giants are evergreens, being cedars. Their rapid growth rates can in ideal conditions reach 3 feet per year. Site requirements for the Green Giant Arborvita are sun to partial shade, moist well drained soil preferred (but still does well in clay), and protection from wind, at lest when young.

The Green Giant is a beautiful tree. It has an aesthetically fine form. It's conical, being narrow to broadly pyramidal, reaching from 50 feet to 80 feet in height in southeastyern Pennsylvania. The width at the base of the cone is usually about 15 feet to 20 feet. The leaves are rich green making graceful foliage.

Green Giants make a superb privacy screen and living fences. They keep their foliage color year 'round, great for brightening bleak gray winter days with snow on the ground. The cinnamon bright red bark when young turn rich russet brown with time crating a strong contrast with the needle leaves.

Green Giants' flowers, their fruit are pretty little light brown half-inch female cones. (Just so you know, Green giants are females, so its okay to call the cones pretty.) The Green Giant is also a wonderful shade tree, casting a dark, dense shade. The wood is strong too, once the tree is beyond its youth.

This is an arborvita that should outlive even your grandchildren. There are Green Giants out west documented to be over 300 years old. Just don't plant these too close to the ocean, or roads in areas where there's a lot of salt used for snow removal. If you get over 100 inches of snowfall and more per year, no roadside Arborvita planting where salt is used, PLEASE. The greatest soldier of ancient Greece in the Trojan war had his one little weak spot, what proved to be a fatal flaw, and the "Achilles Heel" for Green Giant Arborvitas is hypersensitivity to salt. If you plants this Arborvitas just keep away from the splash of road salt and it will make a great living fence.

Trades Wanted: By the Farm Trader Of Bucks County

Our nurseries, farms, and ranches are always in need of all sorts of used items. We are always looking to trade for items that we might be able to use in our operations. We believe that the best way for us to obtain needed supplies is to have a hardware store approach to inventory for our operations. We want to have all sorts of materials on hand and at many of our locations to supply a lower cost source of materials for the operations. This means we buy in bulk, and accept used or items that need repairs. We have the ability to fabricate some of our own equipment so that means we will collect salvaged iron, metal pipe, and construction materials. We build our own additions and do our own renovations to our properties so used constructions materials are wanted. I am color blind so colors don't matter. Roofing shingles need not match, only protect.

We are always looking for used power equipment and tools. It is easier to have tools on site than to carry needed tools to some of our remote operations. Thus we want all types of machinery. We can modify and repair items and thus condition of the item may not be suitable for your needs but great for ours.

Do you have rolls or partial rolls of barbed wire or woven wire? Fence supplies, electric chargers, fencing tools, gate, posts.... We can trade. See seedlingsrus.com/TradesWanted.html

We are also interest in collecting rocks and boulders that we can sell at our nurseries. Wall stone and old building foundations are great sources of rock and stone. Why throw it out we may be able to recycle it? You may also have left over pavers and flagstone. We again are interested in them.

We have a store in Milan Pa that sells used items from furniture to farm equipment. There is virtually no item that is reusable that we can't sell or recycle for you. See seedlingsrus.com/MilanHirst.html.

We are not a one way street. We have thousands of plants from seedlings and liners to 20' trees. We grow trees, plants, and shrubs in Fountainville and Milan Pa. See our web site for details on plants that we carry. seedlingsrus.com.

Do you like to hunt? We have lots of recreational sites on our farms and ranches. See seedlingsrus.com/recreationalops2.html for information on hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, arrowhead hunting, bird watching, bone hunting and meteorite hunting on our ranches and farms. Maybe you could just help us by transporting items from one farm and ranch to another.

So when are you coming to visit Bucks County?

zone5trees.com, highlandhillfarm and seedlingsrus.com and greengiantarbs.com.

About The Author

James Ryan has a large nursery in Bucks County Pa near Doylestown. He has thousands of Green Giants and writes about there uses. His web sites include http://www.seedlingsrus.com and http://www.digatree.com/Living Fences.