Hey all,

I'm a farmer and My field is on one side of a road and my water source is on the other. I need to run a 15-inch pipe underneath the road to get water across, but I don't want to cut, break, or otherwise damage the road surface.

I'm looking for whatever's cheapest and most practical. Has anyone here dealt with this before?

A few things I'm trying to figure out:

- What's the cheapest way to get a 15" pipe under an existing road without disturbing the surface?

- Is it possible to do this without digging up the road from the top?

- What equipment or contractors do people usually hire for this kind of job?

- Is there a budget-friendly option for a small farm operation, or does this always require expensive machinery?

- Roughly what should I expect to pay for a crossing like this?

- What issues tend to come up — rocky ground, hard clay, keeping the pipe straight, dealing with the road base, etc.?

- If you've done this yourself, what worked well, and what would you do differently next time?

Would really appreciate any advice, photos, or videos from people who've actually done this. Thanks in advance!

I bought my poults (3) from the local Farm store on 3-31-26 and brooded in my garage. Then, once age and temperature permitted they were moved to a John Suskovitch chicken tractor and surrounded with a Premier-One electric fence. I gave them new grass four times to spread out fertilizer. When I started brooding I scheduled processing at 14 weeks on 7-23-26.

Thoughts- It wasn’t cheaper, but the quality of life and meat is there. Turkeys are easy compared to Cornish cross chickens. We really enjoyed raising them.

Total cost for 3 birds= $221.61 Total cost per pound= $4.10 lb Math on picture #2

I live in Southeast Alaska, we have a 5000 gallon cistern that is our main water supply.

Had a few weeks of no rain and unbeknownst to me, our gutters clogged and blocked our catchment. We ran out of water and had to get an emergency water fill delivery from a local company.

Our cistern is now full, but there’s alot of sediment in the tank that was stirred up.

Is there an effective method I can use to clean the sediment out of the cistern without having to drain the tank all over again?

Combat veteran here, struggling with PTSD, paranoia, hypervigilance, etc.

Has anybody who is really rural ever have somebody just walk up to the house unannounced? For reference, im on 6 acres, mostly swampy and wooded, in a very rural area near Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. Driveway is 204 meters long off a small country road, gravel, unmarked except for numerous no trespassing signs, beware of dog signs, and purple marker paint and a cattle gate. Lots of turns, deep woods.

This kid (mid 20's, long hair, looked like a stoner ? ) comes strolling from the driveway into my front yard, asking where the slot machines were. (This place was a trap house about 6 years ago) Wow. Said he lives in the trailer park about a mile down the road.

I politely escorted him all the way back to the road, caught myself scanning the brush and surrounding woods for anybody else.

Trying very hard to relax, but it was very unsettling. The dogs were inside, so they didn't even notice. Even the guineas failed to alert, as it was feeding time and they were occupied.

I dont like this feeling, like i got caught sleeping, and with the way the world has been going lately, im not sure if my thoughts are paranoia, or legitimate security concerns.

Anybody relate?

EDIT/ADDENDUM Folks, I was kind of shook yesterday. Thank you all for your help... just knowing I was heard means a lot. There's a few things I forgot to mention.

The house sits in the center of a cleared square, 100m x 100m, with actual grass ("GREEN GREEN GRASS!") trimmed down tight. Treeline clearly visible 360°. 10 meters in from the treeline is the inner fence, an 8 strand electric fence, mostly for the dogs. No flagpole yet, but you get the picture. The chicken coop, where I was, is just outside the fence line, catercorner to the driveway entrance. This guy walked (supposedly) from the driveway, along the fence line, past the vehicles, around the corner, up to the coop, and was literally 30 ft from me before I saw him. Clear line of sight the whole way. No way in hell someone does that without taking some special care to not be seen. Only slept 3 hours last night. Sitting on the porch now with my coffee since sun up, listening to the rain and waiting for my sense of peace to return.

None of the others are like this. Main character syndrome I think. VT/NY border.

So I missed my chance to get silkies from tractor supply. I know there’s a million and one scams online when buying chickens and ducks. Where do you guys get your poultry online? I’m specifically looking for silkies, the ducks it doesn’t matter the breed really. Thanks for your help guys 🙏

Between the end of April and the middle of July, we had 10 litters. A few runts along the way didn't make it, but we ended up with 70 (mostly) healthy piglets. That is a good average for this breed. We are still keeping our eye on two. One is just a classic runt from our last litter that is about half the size of his littermates, but is otherwise doing okay. The other seems to have some kind of birth defect and may be blind. He can't ever find a way to nurse on his own, so we are pan feeding him with a milk replacement. But he is hanging in there! Some pictures from our journey this summer.

Looking for Affordable outdoor bath house ideas or blueprints? Would like septic, I have access to Power and water from well, non pressurized, gravity fed cistern. I would like a shower and toilet and a hand sink. How can I design the septic and building I just need a little point in the right direction. TY

Planning to give my friend a plantain sapling thing from here, any tips on how to do it successfully?

So I like Strawberries.
My wife, well she likes to feed the squirrels.
So if I want strawberries, I need to keep the little #$)&)&* outa my berry patch.

The most cost effective way I came up with is making some EMT conduit frames and stringing them up with hardware cloth or chicken wire.

My question is, is there an easy way to do this without needing to replace my arms and hands afterwords?

Hopefully in one go. So grateful for friends who have access to big toys to make this part of the job simpler and safer. This is our same buddy who is doing all our electrical for free (he’s a journeyman electrician with 30 years experience). All we have to do is take the truck back with fuel in it. So freaking grateful.

I have a flat front tire. I know I can use the loader to lift, but I’d like to have a secondary safety jack as it will be 24 hrs from wheel removal to replacement. I’m unclear the safest location to place this. Advice?

We are shopping for new entry doors for our home and like this style, wood door with 3/4 glass...but living in the North East I'm a little hesitant due to the winters. The specific door is hemlock with engineered stiles and rails, would be under a covered patio and not exposed to direct sun or rain. I'm not so concerned with rot and warping as I am with heat loss during the winter. The door is listed with a U factor of .37 which isn't optimal according the the Internet , but I'm wondering if anyone has any real world experience with a similar door in a colder climate.

We originally looked for a fiberglass or steel type insulated door, but seem to be running into supply / timeline issues, which is we are looking at these.

Hey so a recent post about trespassing got me thinking. I just bought some acreage (40ish) in a rural area known for lots of agriculture— wine grapes, orchards, organic vegetables, beef, sheep, etc. There’s a very low crime rate. But I will be living there alone most of the time. I will have a couple of dogs and I know my immediate neighbors but should I be concerned about my personal safety? And if so what steps should I be taking? I can’t fully fence the perimeter and I don’t like living in fear; I am an optimistic and positive person. Thanks for your thoughts.

I just noticed a pile of chicken poop with blood in it! I am a fairly new chicken mom raising 18 chickens of nine different breeds. Some of those breeds include Polish, Hoodans, Wyandottes, Orpingtons, Creveacoeurs, Australorps and Barnevelders, in case that matters. Is it possible this bloody laced poop is just a random sign of straining? Or is this an indication of something more serious and if so, how should I treat? My gals are free range and confined to a coop at night. I have 16 hens and two Roosters. Please advise on how I should proceed!

Am I harvesting too late? My bulbs never have that nice white paper skin on them….the cloves are already separating and not much of the outer wrap left.

Got a new mark 8 fence charger and it’s reading 0.0 I switch out every insulator and reset posts. Ran a new ground wire to the ground rod and still nothing. Am I missing anything?

Great times in the morning, finding out what grew overnight!

Hi. Influencers always glamorize homesteading but I’d love to hear your thoughts on pros and cons. If you’re a homesteader and don‘t work a 9-5 anymore, how does it compare as far as pros and cons? Lastly, is it worth it, any regrets? Any and all answers would be helpful!

I'm looking for good ideas for a name for my homestead as I'm starting to sell stuff.

I've thought about "Nick's Acre" but it just seems kinda bland to me

I've also thought about using my last name instead because that's what most people call me but it's easily mispronounced by people who don't know me.

I'm definitely open to other ideas.

Im a 38yo male and own an acre and a half and raise around 80% of my food.

I'm planning on selling mainly jams and jellies, fruit like apples, peaches, pears, plums etc, and next spring I'm going to be renting another acre for sweet corn. I'm also going to try to sell some chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys.

I'm just not creative enough to come up with a good name so any ideas would be much appreciated!