sheep fencing recommendations

[Pippin's person]

One thing I'm really glad we did was live on the property through nearly four seasons before we fenced and brought the sheep onto it. It was super helpful to be able to understand the drift patterns; rain runoff patterns, etc. also gave us a chance to reseed the pasture with grasses and legumes we wanted. it required a lot of patience since of course we wanted to have the sheep yesterday, but having the chance to adapt first to living rurally (a well? A tractor? A generator? Fox?) made it more seamless to then add the sheep and learn what we needed to (and are still learning) for caring for them. Waiting has also meant that we haven't regretted decisions we made before we understood the land we were making ours (except for that one spot where we wish we had a gate....). For fencing, we have 48 inch woven wire with wood posts. We took advice we were given to spend the money on hiring a fencer rather than DIYing it. Haven't regretted that for a second either.

[Maralynn]

So in MD do they have blanket restrictions for dog/cat ownership? Most places here have different rules for different zones. In residential you can have 3 pets, in ag (needs to be 3+ acres) there isn't a limit.

[Alchemist]

Mara, here it's on a county-to-county basis. Some counties don't seem to have draconian limits; Baltimore County has a 3-dog limit, though the person in county planning I talked to seemed to think that there *might* be an exemption if you needed one for agricultural purposes. (The realtor I'm working with seemed to think that such zoning ordinances were not rigorously enforced out in rural areas, but I wouldn't want to count on such assurances - the thought of some sort of "Sophie's Choice" involving getting rid of a dog because neighbors had complained about a dog barking and the dog police were on me is too horrible to contemplate. I'd rather see what's involved in applying for an exemption to the zoning, or else getting a kennel license).

 

So in MD do they have blanket restrictions for dog/cat ownership? Most places here have different rules for different zones. In residential you can have 3 pets, in ag (needs to be 3+ acres) there isn't a limit.

[Alchemist]

Ah, Robin, great suggestions! You've thrown down the gauntlet, for sure! Can I resist the temptation of wanting things (sheep, chickens, vegetable and flower gardens) *ASAP* (after having wanted to many of them for many years)? Am I part of the "immediate gratification" generation?

 

We're DEFINITELY going with a professional fencer, not a DIY. DIY does not fall within my spouse's requirements: he wants to move to "a condo" (which could be a "condo" on a farm). And I don't think we're sufficiently skilled to manage fencing that wouldn't be a mess three years from now.

 

A big question (currently) is high-speed internet. We're insanely spoiled: we currently have Fios (fiber optic). Fast connection, lots of data. Will we need to move to satellite? (a foreign nation to us). I don't object one bit if the boys (when they're home) are limited in terms of data (gaming, streaming music) - find something better to do with your time!!! But it seems as if satellite won't support VPN, which means that if my spouse or I want to work from home - it's got to be offline. Checking out cable options at this location even as we "speak"...

 

 

One thing I'm really glad we did was live on the property through nearly four seasons before we fenced and brought the sheep onto it. It was super helpful to be able to understand the drift patterns; rain runoff patterns, etc. also gave us a chance to reseed the pasture with grasses and legumes we wanted. it required a lot of patience since of course we wanted to have the sheep yesterday, but having the chance to adapt first to living rurally (a well? A tractor? A generator? Fox?) made it more seamless to then add the sheep and learn what we needed to (and are still learning) for caring for them. Waiting has also meant that we haven't regretted decisions we made before we understood the land we were making ours (except for that one spot where we wish we had a gate....). For fencing, we have 48 inch woven wire with wood posts. We took advice we were given to spend the money on hiring a fencer rather than DIYing it. Haven't regretted that for a second either.

[Alchemist]

I suspect that the limiting factor may be how many sheep you need for holding a trial. I'm guessing I could hold a clinic with fewer sheep than I'd need for a trial. Maybe I should just consider doing that... Patrick (at the handler's clinic I attended a couple of weeks ago) was exhorting us to attend judge's clinics - there aren't that many in this neck of the woods each year.

 

 

Lynn,

Robin French's field isn't huge either, but it can be made quite tricky. You can also add elements (e.g., Maltese cross, trailer load) to add difficulty to a trial.

 

J.

[Pippin's person]

A big question (currently) is high-speed internet. We're insanely spoiled: we currently have Fios (fiber optic). Fast connection, lots of data. Will we need to move to satellite? (a foreign nation to us). I don't object one bit if the boys (when they're home) are limited in terms of data (gaming, streaming music) - find something better to do with your time!!! But it seems as if satellite won't support VPN, which means that if my spouse or I want to work from home - it's got to be offline. Checking out cable options at this location even as we "speak"...

 

That is a huge concern that will get much worse as time passes. We use Verizon's HomeFusion, which is fast and doesn't have the restrictions of satellite (honestly, for what I imagine you would be doing, satellite as currently available would probably not be feasible-particularly because they throttle the speed if you are using lots of data--at least that's the case where we live).

 

HomeFusion is very expensive though and the data are limited. I have needed to up our data limit three times since we've moved here (we currently use between 26-30 GB a month and that's with no gaming, no automatic software updates, and relatively little streaming. That's primarily for what I do when I work at home--much of it unavoidable cloud computing.) It can be tricky when you have visitors who have, for instance, never paid attention to their automatic software updates or an employer (such as mine) who has updates running in the background that can't be stopped. I once had a $50 overage charge because of software updates my employer pushed out that I couldn't control. It is no small task to figure out how much data something comprises.

 

It's all doable but definitely requires adjustments. You really see the rural disadvantage [ETA: in the US especially] for infrastructure of this type and the way that telecom businesses think about their public responsibilities. We live on a six mile stretch where Comcast didn't lay cable. Still, what is available through HomeFusion is vastly better than what we had before it was available and for that I'm immensely grateful.

[Alchemist]

Thanks, Robin! That's definitely a suggestion worth looking into, and it looks WAY better than satellite. Apparently Verizon no longer offers something by that name exactly, but they do still have something that provides the same function for the same (outrageous) price. But I think we'd both be loathe to give up the luxury of working from home, especially on snow days. I routinely work from home a couple of days a week, and if I were to add up the cost of the gasoline I'm saving, I guess it would be a decent fraction of the monthly cost. (And don't remind me of how inexpensive gasoline is getting - that's a depressing topic for those of us worried about global climate change. And yes, our daily commute will be increasing, so I'm somewhat of a hypocrite).

 

Boys will be dismayed (no online gaming? streaming video? streaming music???) but they're getting to the age where this shouldn't be considered their home any more, eh?

[Gideon's girl]

We're just about to go from Dead Slow Loading to cable internet after 12 years. I hear angels singing!!

[Maxi]

I never get more than 2Mb/sec at home... But that is so much better than it was even 6 months ago when it was half that speed with lots of drop- outs. So I am grateful for what I have. Despite this bandwidth restriction, I found I could usually manage to access my old workplaces's VPN. However, to make things easier, for large work files I would try download as much as possible at work and then work offline at home.

 

I am now self employed (and mainly work from home). I need to do a fair bit of cloud computing. In addition, the end product file size for the client can be large.(upto several Gb). I use file transfer services and just let the data transfer slowly. For very large files this will sometimes be overnight. I've also gone with a package (UK based company) that allows unlimited data transfer..this ended up being cheaper than limiting the amount and then being charged for excess usage some months

 

But for some things like game streaming..not a hope.

[Alchemist]

 

But for some things like game streaming..not a hope.

 

Is there something wrong with that? (spoken from the perspective of the parent of an 18 and a 23-year-old who spend FAR too much time playing games!)

 

Backing up photo libraries to the cloud from home would probably be hopelessly slow - a typical folder of RAW files might be 5-25 gigs. That would only get bigger if I buy the full-frame camera I'd love to own. Oh - wait - farm, right, no time OR money for photography!!!

[Donald McCaig]

Dear Lynn,

 

external HD?

 

Donald

[Maxi]

Yes, like Mr McCaig suggests I back my RAW photos onto external hardrives ..(usually in duplicate plus also have a RAID drive). I keep ongoing projects and photos I'm working on in the cloud. This can add up to a few Gb so takes several hours, so it's either done overnight..or else it makes a good excuse to head outside to do sometching else (it,s even slower to upload, than it is to download..talking Kb/sec). Because of the relatively slow backup It,s also worth making sure you have several memory cards for your camera!

 

And from my perspective there definitely is no problem with not being able to stream games..just you mentioned it in a previous post

 

I guess it ends up being a matter of deciding what are the priorities.. Fast internet access or living in the sticks?..

[Alchemist]

Donald:

 

I have an external HD (actually a RAID system that automatically backs up all our computers each evening, with mirrored hard drives in case one crashes). But - if we have a fire in the middle of the night - I lose that server, my laptop, and all my photos. The only thing that makes things more secure is to have a backup at a remote location. The cloud is the easiest way to do that.

 

Dear Lynn,

 

external HD?

 

Donald

 

Maxi - priorities - living in the sticks is high on our list - nice property with room for sheep and a house we like. Fast internet is also good if it allows us to work from home. We'll probably ALSO end up getting a satellite for TV/movies, just not for internet (as satellite systems don't allow VPN). I don't think my husband would be able to survive without watching British soccer or college lacrosse on the television.

 

Gaming - not a priority for me or my husband. And the boys are old enough I want to do everything in my power to discourage them from moving home. Nor is it a priority for me to allow them to game when at home. I'm sufficiently horrified as it is that one of them is studying game design in college.

 

Oh, and my camera (a Nikkon D7000 - would love to upgrade to the D750 or D810) does have two slots for memory cards, but because I'm not a pro, I use the second slot for overflow, and not as backup (And I have quite a collection of memory cards at this point, ranging in size from 8 GB to 32 GB. ) Touch wood, never a problem yet with a memory card, but if it were that once-in-a-lifetime trip, then I'd probably set it to backup mode. RAW files on the D810 would definitely require lots of time for backing up to the cloud. Heck, just backing up using our current system is impossibly slow if done wirelessly - I have to copy folders over using a wired connection if I want to save my sanity.

[Donald McCaig]

Dear Lynn,

I understand your backup requirements, they're the same as mine. When I wrote Jacob's Ladder I kept duplicate backup floppys in the woodshed.

 

But if you aren't trying to replicate rurally exactly what you had urbanly, other solutions may suggest themselves If your husband is still working, perhaps he could take the updates to work and upload to the cloud, a friend? Starbucks?

 

Donald

[Pippin's person]

The cost, rather than the time, of backing up to the cloud is probably the thing you'll have to worry about. I never back-up to the cloud from home. Just contemplating the cost involved makes me think first of the commensurate need for wine.

[Mark Billadeau]

G-Technology G-RAID 8TB Dual External Hard Drive

USB 3.0 and FireWire ports for flexible, high-speed data transfer

RAID 0 for maximum performance

Supports multi-stream HDV, DVCPro HD, XDCAM HD and ProRes 422 workflows

Plug-and-play setup on Mac OS

Up to 8TB storage capacity

 

8TB is a lot of RAW photos.

[Alchemist]

Can't remember how big my RAID system is, Mark (but I've managed to fill a good fraction with RAW photos). I could just do what a friend does and keep buying new hard drives

 

The issue remains - what happens if the house burns down, and I lose both the laptop and my server? Then everything is gone. Scary proposition.

 

Robin's right, backing up to the cloud from home will become a royal pain (and undoubtedly prohibitively costly because of the data charges, not because of storage - Amazon Prime is offering that for free right now). But I wouldn't want to do it from work, either.

 

Maxi, the real issue with wanting fast internet in a rural environment is mostly wanting to work from home. The place we're thinking of moving to (still haven't heard from that realtor who was going to have our questions answered by yesterday!) is notorious for being in a "heavy snow belt". Unless I *have* to be in at work (I tend to only teach 2-3 days per year, and I'll need a 4WD car for those days), I'd rather work from home if it's snowy. My husband is a software engineer - works with financial software so *secure* internet (i.e., VPN) is a requirement for him. (I need it in order to access the university library). His company also has liberal policies when it comes to working from home during bad weather. It's a fun luxury to do so when the snow is falling hard all around you, but if the cost to moving to the country is hauling into the office during all sorts of weather - UGH. We'd probably grit our teeth and bear it.

 

Fast internet is probably the most important thing to us of all the luxuries of suburban dwelling that we currently take for granted. It seems as if there might be options, though (as long as we don't worry about backing up to the cloud from home).

 

I guess I could periodically burn things to a second (third?) hard drive that I keep in the office.

[Maxi]

Minimum Internet speed, I used to access my work'so VPN with a cable line speed of 1Mb/sec and often used to work from home.

 

If the property currently has some form of broadband access, then my advice is take your laptop over and see if you can actually connect to your university's VPN (and your husband to his work). Connection may not be as fast as you are used to, but it may be sufficient to be workable.

 

If you can't get a decent speed on site, but the internet providers say that the address should be able to achieve higher speeds, then check out the cables and boxes on your property. I had to get all mine upgraded (and connect the hub to the main socket). Now my current download speed (wired) is still only at 2.11Mb/sec (just tested it) and this is the fastest it has ever been.

 

So I count myself lucky. Even now, I'll still get loss of signal at peak evening periods and at weekends. According to my internet provider, this is because I am at the end of the line and as far away from the telephone exchange as possible.. But because I know that this, I just plan my work schedule accordingly.

 

I guess the difference between your situation and mine was that I had never had the luxury of fast internet speeds at home.- Prior to the telephone lines being upgraded a few years ago, the only option I had was dial-up and that was definitely too slow to access work VPN - so I would just download as much as possible when I was at work or else ask someone to put the document(s) I was interested in on Dropbox (or use a file-transfer service) and let things churn away slowly in the background.

 

Safe storage (from fire & theft). well that's why I also backup onto duplicate external hardrives as well as onto a RAID drive and similar to what Mr McCaig described, store them in a completely separate (locked) outhouse.

 

Travelling in snow - Inthe UK, being an island we probably tend to have much less snow than you. Even then there were a few days every year when my 1 hour commute each-way would increase to 2.5-3 hours each-way (with a 4WD). Usually doable, but also dangerous and definitely no fun- and very tiring to get up around 4.30am to sort out the dogs and (almost) guarantee getting to the uni to give a 9am lecture or attend some 'important' meeting .

But NO, if the weather was bad, I would NEVER do this journey just to sit at my computer in my office.

 

So I think I understand where you are coming from .. but IMO it's about finding workable solutions that may not be as good as you are used to in the suburbs... (some of my techy friends say they would never consider living in an area with such slow internet speeds.. but then they don't particularly care about sheep either).

 

..it's just a matter of priorities, compromise and perspective

[Smalahundur]

From sheep fencing to computer backups, I think this thread wins the price for reeling farthest off topic this year..

[Donald McCaig]

Dear Lynn,

 

Snow. Generator for well water and lights & 4wd Subaru wagon (you''ll need it anyway. A dead sheep fits nicely in back and the lift isn't too high.) Hubby may want a big Dodge diesel pickup as his price for "Going Rural", but unless you're heating with wood or hauling hay, the Subaru w/small trailer will answer most of your needs.

 

We are not infrequently snowed in for a day or two. It's peaceful unless you have a medical emergency in which case you're probably dead so what's to worry? Virginia pretty well closes down with three inches of snow and maybe Maryland is the same? Big roads are cluttered and impassable and nobody else will be at work anyway.

 

Donald

[Maxi]

From sheep fencing to computer backups, I think this thread wins the price for reeling farthest off topic this year..

'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find' (i guess this concept generally applies to this BB ..it is an amazing resource)

[Mark Billadeau]

Lynn, we are currently changing computers and I am considering what to do with all of my RAW images. I may be deleting any RAW image that I have not processed (if I didn't feel the RAW image was good enough to be processed when I first looked at it I am unlikely to go back years later to process that RAW image). Deleting these images should free up a lot of storage space.

 

Ask the sellers how frequently they lose power, this can guide you in terms of needing a back-up generator. We have rarely lost power and we would need 2 back-up generators (one for the house electric & one for the well pump which is on a different electrical service - thanks to Potomac Edison).

 

You may not NEED 4wd/awd for commuting; I have made do with my fwd VW Jetta which I park at the end of our drive when we are predicated to get more than 4" of snow. I have been able to drive my Jetta up and down our 1/4 mile long drive as long as the snow is no deeper than the ground clearance of the car. The key is good (the right) tires, plus I can carry sand and a shovel if the road conditions warrant. Once out of my drive the rest of my commute is on snow emergency routes (1st roads to be cleared). Perhaps in the next year or two you and I will be able to replace our VWs with a Golf SportWagen TDI 4Motion (i.e. AWD diesel wagon with >40mpg). You should be aware that the cast aluminum oil pans on VWs are vulnerable to being cracked on rutted gravel drives (and certain tow trucks); I have replaced 3 on my VW due to our drive and our mechanic has another client with a VW that has cracked oil pans on their gravel drive.

 

I have not yet tried to use VPN at our house; our options for internet are dial-up, satellite, and cellular (there is no cable, Fios, or DSL in our area). We chose satellite for our internet service in the house.

[juliepoudrier]

Just to chime in on rural access, my most reliable access to the internet has been my mobile hotspot, and this where a cell voice signal is extremely iffy. The downside is that I don't generally download/upload huge files--just Word documents for editing--but it still seems to eat up data. And now we are being required to download all figure, supporting information files and rename them, etc., and those are much larger files. So thank goodness I have Plan B, below. But the wireless hotspot has been very reliable and fast (relatively speaking anyway).

 

More recently my next-door neighbor put in WiFi and gave me the password so I could use their network. That has also been very reliable (not the case with my other neighbor's WiFi). Piggybacking on someone else's WiFi is likely not an option for you though.

 

J.

[Alchemist]

Ah, Julie, you're right, piggybacking on someone else's WiFi would get DH in trouble in a hurry at his work. Property currently has DSL (I love the phrase "Dead Slow Loading"!), so that would never suit us, we've been too spoiled by fiber optic. I think the combination of Robin's Verizon 'HomeFusion' equivalent, plus satellite, will satisfy DH's entertainment requirements, and his and my work needs. He's proclaimed himself no longer worried about internet, now that he's had a few days to research these options and knows he won't be doomed to DSL. The boys may see things otherwise, but they don't have voting rights. I do use both DropBox (for sharing RAW files with friends in my camera club) and a free equivalent that my university offers. Without children that I need to collect from school on a set schedule these days, it wouldn't be a problem to take the few extra minutes to download whatever I need to my laptop so that I can work locally.

 

The garage is in a separate building from the house, and there's a loft above the garage that would be a great place to store a backup HD. I just need to remember to bring it indoors once a week for that all-important backup. Easier than backing up to the cloud with expensive or possibly slow internet.

 

Maxi, working from home is a luxury - as Donald says, there's something about staying snuggled at home while the snow is falling, knowing you're not part of the crazies rushing around trying to get somewhere that's incredibly peaceful. Going for a hike with the dogs without needing to get into the car first, then coming home to hot chocolate and a fire in the fireplace - bliss! The challenge is that I work in the city of Baltimore, which is close enough from the coast that the snow there is NOTHING like what it is forty minutes' drive north of the city, which is where we're looking. So there WILL be days when I'm supposed to teach that 9 AM lecture in the spring semester, and it'll be hellacious to get into the office. (If it's REALLY impossible...well, that's what graduate students are for, just make sure I've emailed them my lecture notes ahead of time). "Important" meetings - that's what "phone in" is for. (Should have used it yesterday - drove in for a meeting where we were introduced to each other, and then were told "please read these documents by Jan. 7". Total waste of time. But then you've heard the definition of meetings? "Events at which minutes are kept and hours are lost". Phone-in).

 

Donald, I don't think Marylanders are any less crazy than Virginians when it comes to snow. They don't know how to drive in it, and they get stranded. I'm as guilty as anyone, despite having lived in Canada (2 years), Boston (9 years) and now Maryland (21 years). My current car (a VW Passat wagon) handles HORRIBLY in the snow, so I've been trapped myself a couple of times, even this past winter on a "snow emergency" route (we live on a hill that it can't get up if we have more than an inch of snow). I'd been thinking of replacing it with a Subaru AWD/4WD wagon, but Mark's news of the new VW AWD wagon has appeal, especially if it comes with a manual transmission (hm, wonder how many crates I could fit in it...). Best car I ever had for snow was a 1980 VW Rabbit - I remember driving through "lake effect" snow in Buffalo with relative ease. I'm pretty sure the place we're looking at is a longer distance from the interstate than Mark's place is, but if I'm willing to take a less direct route, once I get out of the driveway, it's 0.6 miles along a secondary road (don't know whether it's a "snow emergency route" or not) and then 2.4 miles along a state route that I'm pretty sure is a "snow emergency route" (Old York Rd) until I'm at the interstate.This driveway may be a bit easier than Mark's; I'd probably have to live there to be sure. Current owners have the driveway plowed by the company that does their landscaping for them. My husband has already announced that plowing the driveway (and continuing the landscaping) is part of what he views as the "condo association fee" (he jokes he's moving to a condo, it's just going to be on a farm, meaning he assumes no responsibility for anything outside the four walls). He's already researching replacements for his beloved Mini that also qualify as "pocket rockets", but I don't think it'll include any kind of truck. That will have to be MY farm truck!

 

I'd already been thinking that a generator is a *requirement* (most of the houses we've looked at have them). We lose our power A LOT at present (lost it for 5 days from Hurricane Sandy, but even lesser disturbances will take out our power, because they left all the trees (with aboveground power lines) when they built the houses in our development). Fortunately our neighbors across the street are on a different subgrid. We've had a longstanding arrangement for years where we just run an extension cord across the street whenever one of us loses power. I won't be able to count on that in the new place! I'm mostly concerned about my freezer (we buy all our meats from local farmers) at the moment, as we have gas cooktop/hot water heater and city water and a fireplace for heat when the electric fans aren't working, but in the new place keeping the well going will also be a priority. The question will be whether we get something just to keep the freezer and well going - or whether we spring for one of those outrageously priced big whole-house generators that runs on propane and that turns on automatically if we're out of town and it senses the power has gone out. That might be overkill as long as we have a farmsitter willing to turn on a smaller generator.

 

I did some calling around to Baltimore County zoning. They have a 3-dog limit, even on farms, so I'd have to get a private kennel license if I wanted a LGD. That would allow me up to 10 dogs. Seems do-able in terms of paperwork. They also have a limit of 2 adult sheep per grazed acre. That would put me at ~ 22-24 adult sheep, as I think there's about 11 or 12 acres of pasture. Lambs less than one year of age don't count. (I'd been planning on keeping the ewe lambs for use in training dogs when the adults are too far along in pregnancy or are nursing babies - Cheviots are small so I hope the sheep police don't get me if I keep them for a few months past their "sell by" date). I guess I'll be doing a fair amount of mowing, as two adult sheep per acre seems a fairly light stocking rate to me.

 

Getting back to fencing (LOL Smalahundur!): Mark, I'd love to get the name of the person doing your fencing this week (assuming you're happy with the job) so that I can get a quote from them (as long as they'll come out to this part of the state). Prices I've gotten quoted ranged from $3.25 per foot (5-6" diameter driven posts on 16' spacing with 47" high woven wire that's 6" x 6" at the top, smaller at the bottom) to $5.50 per foot (same posts on 10' centers with 48" high-tensile Class III Bekeart woven wire with 2 x 4" holes) to $11.50 per foot (!!!) for driven treated wooden posts on 8' centers with 48" 2 x 4" high-tensile Bekeart woven wire. All of these with one strand of hot wire on top. Haven't yet had time to talk to the NRCS or Chesapeake Bay Foundation folk to see whether they'd be able to provide any assistance with fencing - maybe I'll put in a call to NRCS this afternoon if I get my grading done for one of my two classes. We're clearly (with somewhere in excess of 5000 feet of fencing) not going to be able to afford do it all at once, so I'll get a chance to wait and see what makes most sense in terms of fencing/gate placement. (Boys, I'm spending your inheritance on fencing so that I can move to a farm where you CAN'T PLAY ONLINE GAMES when you come home for summers/come for a visit). Still need to locate those Amish farmers who will do fencing at bargain rates.

 

The realtor emailed me this morning to SWEAR he'll have the numbers for us by this evening (along with answers to questions we'd asked)... Keep your fingers crossed!!!

[Alchemist]

Mark, I admit I'm a bit of a packrat... but I hate to part with RAW images that I might want later. (I do try to purge any that are OOF, or of inferior quality, as soon as I can, but I don't always manage the time for that task, and as you know, sometimes it takes me FOREVER to find the time to process images). Hard drives are relatively cheap, and you never know when someone is going to ask you for a copy of that lovely photo you took of their dearly departed, recently deceased dog... (Speaking of which, I need to make time to do JUST THAT in the next few days). I just checked, and I've currently got ~ 1.5 terabytes in RAW files on our server (not including the mirrored disk). Easier to just get a new, larger server when this one fills up than to delete most of my RAW files.

 

I think I told Renee the story of David's showing me a box that had been in our attic in Boston for ten years, unopened. "Surely we can get rid of this without bothering to go through it?". I opened it nevertheless - there was our marriage certificate. Not impossible to replace, but it would have been a pain, and we have needed it since then, especially as we have different last names.

 

 

Lynn, we are currently changing computers and I am considering what to do with all of my RAW images. I may be deleting any RAW image that I have not processed (if I didn't feel the RAW image was good enough to be processed when I first looked at it I am unlikely to go back years later to process that RAW image). Deleting these images should free up a lot of storage space.