Hello two questions for the fire.

How is a good way to get a platform in the space between two cottonwood trees. I got a " ladder" built between them. Just treated pine poles 13 inch spaces. Roughly 14 feet tall. It is right up to the beginning of branches. I can't post photos because my I pad does not condense the photos.

Purple top turnips.
I graze cattle on my farm. How long should I keep the cattle off purple tops just planted?

Will they ruin them if the graze over them in let's say 4 to 6 weeks?

Thanks in advance.

let them graze then keep them off until the tops ar grown back well graze and repeat you will only get tops no globes but you can graze then 3 maybe 4 times

Forr heavier timbers a winch is a good way to go or better two winches or cum-a-longs. On the cows flash grazing is the best thing and might want to plant more of a variety to increase the season and any demise by pests.

For a couple hundred bucks you can get a safe and comfortable 2-man ladder with a shooting rail, and save yourself a lot of potential grief. I built a number of bubba stands in the 60s and 70s, later used 2x4 treated lumber with galvanized brackets, and lived to tell about it, but any contraption nailed into a tree, especially between two trees, is subject to all kinds of forces from wind and tree growth that will loosen things up, maybe even pull nails. Watch those two trees on a windy day and you'll see what I mean.

Just how much is your ass worth to you?

^^^^^^This^^^^^^

Build a real stand, put glass windows, use a heater to keep warm, no law says you got to freeze your ass off.

Deer don't fool with turnips here till they freeze.

That is what is supposed to happen, but deer around here did not get the message. They eat them at every growth stage.

The turnips are doing great!

I hear you on the stand also, there is nothing permanent about a building into live trees. But hopefully it will last a while.

I wish my I pad would compress photos. I got some I would like to share.

+1 on the buddy stand.

I've got a 200 acre farm. There are all sorts of old stands up on the property in varying degrees of rot. I've never tried to use any of them, but you can still see how they were constructed.

The ones that faired the worst were those that went up between branches or between trees. When you get a high wind, the branches or trunks operate independently, and torque the nails out. The ones that faired the best were ladders that were strapped to the tree at the top and allowed to slide as the tree moved.

I've been using tube steel ladder buddy stands for 20 years. They generally last about a decade, but you have to replace the straps every few years.

I built mine on the ground and my neighbor used his tractor to lift it in place. Its 8' off the ground.

I build a metal base 15 foot high, bolt stand to it, pull it up with winch on a jeep. It doesn’t take but a few minutes. I guy wire it off to a couple of trees with 1/4” cable.