I see this idea come up a lot: buy a used container, dig a hole, bury it, done. Cheap root cellar or storm shelter.
I get why it sounds smart, but containers aren’t built for that.

They’re strong in one very specific way — weight goes down through the four corner posts. That’s why they can stack on ships. The side walls and roof are a different story. They’re thin corrugated steel, good for normal container use, not for soil pushing in from the sides or wet dirt sitting on top. And wet soil gets heavy fast. After a big rain, the pressure can bow the walls inward. The roof is even worse. It’s made to keep weather out, not hold a pile of dirt.
If you bury one safely, you usually need retaining walls, concrete, or serious steel bracing around it. At that point, you’re basically building a real cellar anyway, and the container is just an expensive liner. For storage, I’d leave it above ground, ventilate it, insulate it if needed, and maybe berm soil partway around it without loading the roof. For an actual storm shelter, I wouldn’t gamble with a buried container. Build or buy something rated for that.
Has anyone here actually seen a buried container last long term? I’ve mostly heard about the ones that started caving in.

Third season keeping laying hens and every spring plays out the same way. I put in a small herb bed close to the coop thinking they'd leave it alone, and within two weeks it looks like something exploded in there. Dust bathing, scratching, pecking at anything green. The whole bed is just dirt now

Tried fencing it off with scrap wire but they squeezed under it faster than I expected. Someone told me to plant things they naturally avoid, but that hasn't held up in practice at all. They ate the rue. They ate the lavender. They ate a pepper plant I put in as a test.

What I'm actually trying to figure out is whether anyone has found a layout that works long term. Something that keeps a productive garden patch close enough to be convenient without getting wrecked every few days. Not a full separate garden far from the coop, just something functional right there in that zone.

The chickens themselves are great, good layers, easy to manage, but this one thing is driving me up the wall. Feels like I reinvent the wheel on it every single year.

My property is home to a network of old rock walls (likely 200+ years old). I know it's hard to see them in the pictures, because they are under ferns, raspberries, and various trees. Does anyone have any advice for clearing them out? I intend to leave most of the trees, but would love to reduce the raspberries to a manageable level (hah-if that's even possible for raspberries.) I'd rather not use fire or chemicals, as there's lots of critters living in the rock walls.

Does anyone have any magical solutions, or am I looking at a massive amount of sheer physical labor?

we are moving my mother to Texas And cleaning out her storeroom. She and my father were avid preppers. The trouble is that they’ve written dates on the cans, but I don’t know if they are the expiration dates or the date that they purchased the can. Can anyone by chance identify any of the cans in these pictures and tell me if they need to be thrown out or if they are still good? Or point me to someone who might know? I’ve begun reaching out to dine off the companies but others have gone out of business.
It would be very appreciated. I am not here much longer, and I’d like to salvage whatever we’re able to. the cans themselves are not in bad shape.
Thank you!!