Work Done In 2020

[kennyp2339]

Did that same refi last year. I am looking in the 100 acre range. Don't think I will be happy with less than 50.

Lol, I just called the realtor's office to put a bid in on the land that was for sale, I was pre-approved for the mortgage and was making plans with my father to take a loan out through him for the 20% down to beat the pmi, we were going to start an llc for farming, ie: hay / straw / alfalfa on 15 acres, then start one acre lots of Christmas tree's - the dream was 500 tree's per acre, one acre per year with a total of 7 to keep a rotation going cash crops, anyway I called to put a bid in and was basically laughed at since there were 2 listings for the properties involved, one listing was the farm as a separate deal, the other was the package deal of the farm with a house separate of each other at just over half a million, the lady said there were 3 high bidders for the combo offer and the seller wasn't interested in the separate sales. If anything I think I learned a good lesson here, its good to dream but you seriously have to be on top of your goals for when deals like this pop up, I think if I had my affairs in order 2 weeks ago, I would have been singing a different tune here, but I waited to make a decision and I waited to get my finances in order.

 

[Gearhead660]

Lol, I just called the realtor's office to put a bid in on the land that was for sale, I was pre-approved for the mortgage and was making plans with my father to take a loan out through him for the 20% down to beat the pmi, we were going to start an llc for farming, ie: hay / straw / alfalfa on 15 acres, then start one acre lots of Christmas tree's - the dream was 500 tree's per acre, one acre per year with a total of 7 to keep a rotation going cash crops, anyway I called to put a bid in and was basically laughed at since there were 2 listings for the properties involved, one listing was the farm as a separate deal, the other was the package deal of the farm with a house separate of each other at just over half a million, the lady said there were 3 high bidders for the combo offer and the seller wasn't interested in the separate sales. If anything I think I learned a good lesson here, its good to dream but you seriously have to be on top of your goals for when deals like this pop up, I think if I had my affairs in order 2 weeks ago, I would have been singing a different tune here, but I waited to make a decision and I waited to get my finances in order.

With this market, you need to be the early bird and have your ducks in a row...crazy times.

 

[thewoodlands]

I split the Ash rounds that I brought out of gully yesterday, it gave us another face cord for a total of 12 face cord of Ash in that area. With the Beech,Ironwood,Maple and Cherry stacked out front, that was another 6 face cord for a total of 18 this spring. I still have some rounds of Ash in the gully so I'll get those before the end of May. Since I've been cutting Ash, we have 26 face cord up.


The wife ask me today if I could start on bucking up some of the Pine logs from the garage clearing, there goes my break.

 

[heavy hammer]

you know how it goes no rest for the weary. Nice job on the work of getting so much wood processed!

 

[thewoodlands]

you know how it goes no rest for the weary. Nice job on the work of getting so much wood processed!

Do what we can when we can, I do plan on getting some damaged Ironwood down the hill to the stacks this summer.

 

[thewoodlands]

I took the day off from any firewood related activities and made a trip to the local Agway store for flowers, I then made a trip to my old hometown to plant some flowers on my grandparents' grave.

 

[EODMSgt]

Took advantage of the nice 43-degree weather this morning to scrounge a bit up a forest service mountain road. Not much, unfortunately, but did get three blow downs on the first trip and two on the second; one nice maple, three good beech, and one dead beech with minor punk (good for shoulder season). This is 21-22 firewood so pleased for a couple hours work with a nice drive, great views, and cool weather. (Only took a picture of the downed maple.) Would have gone back for more but had to spend the afternoon on the tractor helping a neighbor.

 

[heavy hammer]

I spent most of the weekend catching up on mowing grass and I did start moving this winters wood from the woods to the area by the house. I only moved a few tractor grapple loads since we had some family stuff this weekend but it was good to get on the tractor and mow and move some wood. My fuel gauge and temp gauge are on the fritz so I'll see what the dealer can do since it was just in a few months ago for this problem. I thing I'm going to have to replace the dash completely but we will see.

 

[kennyp2339]

I spent most of the weekend catching up on mowing grass and I did start moving this winters wood from the woods to the area by the house. I only moved a few tractor grapple loads since we had some family stuff this weekend but it was good to get on the tractor and mow and move some wood. My fuel gauge and temp gauge are on the fritz so I'll see what the dealer can do since it was just in a few months ago for this problem. I thing I'm going to have to replace the dash completely but we will see.

That stinks, do you leave your machine outside all the time? I have slots that switched can be installed on my dash, I have LED flood lights but have yet to install them because I'm looking for an all weather switch than can fit into the slot, my main concern is snow fall melting into the switch when I'm outside plowing, I will also admit that I haven't really been looking to hard to find that switch either so I cant really complain about not getting the right parts.

 

[heavy hammer]

No kennyp2339 my tractor has not spent a day or night outside since I purchased it. I'm not certain but they said hitting the dash is not a good thing and my 3 year old nephew loves climbing up on the tractor and hitting all the buttons and switches on the dash. Who knows it might just be one of those thing as well. I pulled the dash off after work today and ran it up to the dealer to see if they could fix it. If not I'll probably just buy a new one since it is still new to me and I would like it fixed.

 

[thewoodlands]

I cleaned up some pine needles, splitter trash and small branches from around the fireplace and then took them to the trail that runs up top. That trail hasn't been worked on in a couple of years and with some of my firewood coming from up there this year, the trail took a beating.

Two loads didn't do much but I'll work on the rest during the summer.

 

[SpaceBus]

We took a break from wood for the last week and erected a quick fence. Some folks we know had to re-home an Alpaca and he came home today. Hopefully we can find two more alpaca, goats, or even a donkey that need a home, but he has taken nicely to our GSD.

 

[SpaceBus]

Forgot to post a pic of the critter yesterday! We introduced my 50 lb pit and she cried and begged the Alpaca to see her.

 

[kennyp2339]

@SpaceBus that's awesome! , my sister lives over by @begreen in Washington state and has / operates a horse rescue farm, jokingly I call it "the standby glue factory" due to some sibling rivalry (year 35yr old to 39 yr old, still exists, but out of love) but in all honesty when your able to take animals in and giver them a home, its always a rewarding experience for both, and usually the animal knows that they are given a second chance and will show appreciation for it, they are much smarter then we humans think.

 

[SpaceBus]

@SpaceBus that's awesome! , my sister lives over by @begreen in Washington state and has / operates a horse rescue farm, jokingly I call it "the standby glue factory" due to some sibling rivalry (year 35yr old to 39 yr old, still exists, but out of love) but in all honesty when your able to take animals in and giver them a home, its always a rewarding experience for both, and usually the animal knows that they are given a second chance and will show appreciation for it, they are much smarter then we humans think.

He does seem to like it better here than at his previous residence where he got no contact with animals or people. We took our GSD into the paddock this morning and the alpaca ran right over to see the dog. I'm reaching out to a few local farms to see if they have any other alpaca that need homes. Also trying to find a forum for alpaca/llama but not really seeing much.

 

[kennyp2339]

We took our GSD into the paddock this morning and the alpaca ran right over to see the dog.

That's funny, my neighbors have 3 young dogs, the one is a year and a half big black german shepard, he is one of the biggest friendliest goof balls I know, but his claim to fame is that at 6 months of age he got and raised 2 kittens and there "his" cats, I'm allowed to touch, pet and carry them, but you better believe that one eye is on the fun and the other is to make sure his cats are safe at all times. Whats really funny is that he has a certain bark that he'll do and the cats come running to him when he does it, very smart animals.

 

[EODMSgt]

Took a drive Wednesday morning over a road that they just opened for the season and found a silver maple blow down right by the road. It couldn't have been any easier. Some minor punk at the center but overall a decent score for a few minutes work. The picture doesn't do it justice as the total amount filled over 3/4 of the truck. Slowly adding to the wood pile and getting closer to my goal of having 20 cord by the start of burning season. One tree scrounged at a time. My neighbor just told me I can go cut a standing dead beech behind his house so I'll tackle that today. He has a few more so it could be a good day for the score total.

 

[thewoodlands]

Took a drive Wednesday morning over a road that they just opened for the season and found a silver maple blow down right by the road. It couldn't have been any easier. Some minor punk at the center but overall a decent score for a few minutes work. The picture doesn't do it justice as the total amount filled over 3/4 of the truck. Slowly adding to the wood pile and getting closer to my goal of having 20 cord by the start of burning season. One tree scrounged at a time. My neighbor just told me I can go cut a standing dead beech behind his house so I'll tackle that today. He has a few more so it could be a good day for the score total.

Great work @EODMSgt , you have the best looking firewood stacks and stacking area that I've ever seen.

 

[EODMSgt]

Great work @EODMSgt , you have the best looking firewood stacks and stacking area that I've ever seen.

Thanks @thewoodlands. It took me about ten years to figure out a system I was happy with to best utilize the space out back. It still looks like chaos to me however hopefully that will change soon. I spoke to the excavating company that I'm getting the fill dirt from and if everything goes right, they will start delivering this week. When I'm done, I'll almost double my workable area out back. The goal is to have seven more stacks in the new area for a total of 12 stacks (at approx. 1 1/4 cords each) total and eight cords in the shed. Then I'll be happy.

 

[thewoodlands]

Thanks @thewoodlands. It took me about ten years to figure out a system I was happy with to best utilize the space out back. It still looks like chaos to me however hopefully that will change soon. I spoke to the excavating company that I'm getting the fill dirt from and if everything goes right, they will start delivering this week. When I'm done, I'll almost double my workable area out back. The goal is to have seven more stacks in the new area for a total of 12 stacks (at approx. 1 1/4 cords each) total and eight cords in the shed. Then I'll be happy.

Compared to where your tractor is in the picture, where is the fill going ?

 

[EODMSgt]

Took advantage of the nice cool weather today to go scrounging (thanks to a friend's generosity that I could get some dead trees on his property). It was in the low forties last night and never made it out of the fifties during the day today so awesome weather for getting firewood. We have a frost advisory tonight so I'm actually going to start a fire in the woodstove to take the chill out. Nice to have a fire going the last day of May!

So I got a late start but dropped two standing dead beech and a standing dead white birch this afternoon. The larger beech had been dead for a while but the wood is still good and it'll be great early season firewood. The birch and the other beech had recently died so the wood is all good (except for both bases that were hollow in the middle). I did find a standing dead ash on my last trip out so I dropped and marked it for 16" rounds. I'll buck it hopefully tomorrow. I also found two more standing dead ash while meandering about and if I can remember where I saw them, I'll try and grab those tomorrow as well.

It's somewhat difficult to really tell how much I have in the wood lot waiting to be split however with these additions, the trees I hope to get tomorrow, the 6+ cords already CSS and drying outside, and the 2 cords left over in the shed from last winter, I'm estimating to be at around 12 cords.

 

[EODMSgt]

Compared to where your tractor is in the picture, where is the fill going ?

It'll be the area outlined in red. I'll have to build a retaining wall along the back side but that's ok (plenty of stone here, we don't call it the Granite State for nothing). It's difficult to make out in the second picture with the leaves coming in however I already have about a dump load in place (thanks to another neighbor that did some excavating on his property). It'll be a lot of work but making use of an area that has been scrub brush and wasted space for the last eleven years will be worth it. Unfortunately I'll have to drop the oak that's in the new area but it won't go to waste.

 

[SpaceBus]

It'll be the area outlined in red. I'll have to build a retaining wall along the back side but that's ok (plenty of stone here, we don't call it the Granite State for nothing). It's difficult to make out in the second picture with the leaves coming in however I already have about a dump load in place (thanks to another neighbor that did some excavating on his property). It'll be a lot of work but making use of an area that has been scrub brush and wasted space for the last eleven years will be worth it. Unfortunately I'll have to drop the oak that's in the new area but it won't go to waste.

How much will that fill material end up costing you, if you don't mind? Are you using straight excavated material that hasn't been screened?

 

[EODMSgt]

How much will that fill material end up costing you, if you don't mind? Are you using straight excavated material that hasn't been screened?

Based on discussions with the excavating company, I'm estimating around $1,600.00. That's five dump loads of unscreened fill and two loads of ledge pack gravel to top it off (not all the gravel will go on top, some will be used for road and driveway repairs). A lot of the cost is delivery fees however that's just part of the game when you live in the middle of nowhere.

 

[SpaceBus]

Based on discussions with the excavating company, I'm estimating around $1,600.00. That's five dump loads of unscreened fill and two loads of ledge pack gravel to top it off (not all the gravel will go on top, some will be used for road and driveway repairs). A lot of the cost is delivery fees however that's just part of the game when you live in the middle of nowhere.

Not bad for 72 yards of material delivered. I was quoted $500 delivered for a 12 yard load of crushed 3/4 locally.