Clearing Cedars for a Pole Barn

The never ending process of clearing cedars continues.  It always amazes me how long it takes to process the cut trees and how quickly we can mess it up again.  The rough equation I've come up with is that a half hour of tree cutting takes about 4 hours of post-processing.

However, it's nice to see the field get bigger and bigger after each cleanup.  We're getting really close to having enough area cleared to put in the barn.

From 2012-06-18

The orange  bucket in the background is approximately where the barn is going to be located.  There's a shallow wellhead under the bucket that I'm think of using as a cistern.

Since the well has such a low refill rate, it goes dry when there's no rain, I was thinking of using rain gutters to channel the water off of the roof of the barn into the well hole.

 It might end up just pumping water into the ground, but it might work.  Experimenting is what this is all about 

From 2012-06-18

It's great when I can bring my work crew in to help.  We processed this 30 foot cedar in about an hour.  It'd be much easier if we just burned everything, but I just can't force myself to waste any more wood than I have to.

From 2012-06-18

The fire begins.  The hardest part is that I work myself into a frazzle once I get the fire going.  Once a good coal bed is burning, it's hard to stop throwing more wood on.  This burn session was a good one.  We had nothing left but a bit of ash and a couple sticks.

From 2012-06-18

The fire kept burning on into the night.  It's just about burned down at this point.  Just a few branches left.

From 2012-06-18

Another project I'm working is getting the pond fixed up.  I'm trying to cut back the trees, so more water can collect and I can seal up the dam better. 

When I first made it, I ended up getting several logs embedded in the dam wall, which is ugly as well as leaky, so I spent an evening cutting them out and clearing out the water area so it looks a little nicer.

From 2012-06-18

The next step is rent a backhoe and start digging the pond deeper.  Once that's done, I can take the bulldozer back in and smooth it up.

When the basic pond shape is good, I plan on cutting back more trees, for better water flow, as well as putting in a culvert on the side of the road that will drain into the pond.

I'll also start planting some grass so the water doesn't get so muddy.   It ought to be a pretty nice setup after that.  The picture below shows some of the trees I cut down around the pond.

From 2012-06-18

I'm finally getting all the gates on the new area hinged up.  Until now, they've just been tied down with wire.  They look a lot better now, and are lot more functional.  The fun thing about a farm is that there's always some new, interesting project to work on.

From 2012-06-18

Summer Slowdown

Things always seem to slow down in the summer. Between campouts, holidays, and the heat, it's been tough to get any major projects done.

Currently, I'm still working on clearing space for a barn, which is never ending. The basic layout is in place, but it needs to be squared up and leveled off more.

From 2012-06-12

It's also looking pretty rough because all the knockdowns are still scattered like jackstraws around the perimeter.

I'm probably going to need at least a full day of slashing and burning to get rid of the current stuff. Last night I did a quick chainsaw session and de-stumped a couple trees I had pushed over with the dozer on Saturday before it broke down.

I also cut down a few big trees that the dozer wasn't big enough to knock over. Here's a before shot.

From 2012-06-12

and here is after.

From 2012-06-12

I hope the difference is noticeable because it's going to take a lot of manual labor to clean up the mess.

I was also happy to see that some salad is starting to grow in the winter corral. I've ordered a harrow designed for pulling behind a quad that should help speed up this endeavor up a bit. 

I can't wait to try it out.  It'll also be good for growing some deer plots on the back forty.

The harrow looked great on the web. I hope it's half as good in real life. Here's what the winter corral is currently looking like.

From 2012-06-12

I have a county agent coming out Thursday morning, to inspect the operation and the goats, so that he can give us advice on how to start breeding them.

The market is really starting to pick up, so this might be a good opportunity for the kids to save up some college money. A dad can always dream can't he?