New Donkey

Well, the right deal finally came along and we got ourselves a donkey. It's all part of the master plan, to get a small herd of goats to clear the massive undergrowth we have on the property.

From Drop Box

The female donkey (a jenny) seems to be a nice donkey. It lets the kids approach her and she eats out of their hands. However, she hates dogs, so the dogs who've been roaming the property better watch out. Their days are numbered.

From Drop Box

Suz went down this morning to check on donkey and she was instantly on alert, looking for anyone entering her area. She should be a great goat guardian. Now I have to get busy fencing in a bigger area for donkey and the goats.

Clearing the field and turkey hunting

Once again we had beautiful weather and we took advantage by getting in a little turkey hunting and continuing to clear the new camping area. The brush pile just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I was hoping to light it this weekend, but it was a little windy and I didn't want to take a chance of it harming our big oak that is the center piece of the field.

From Drop Box

The graveyard is starting to shape up though. I'm hoping the new field starts looking like this soon.

From Drop Box

We also got a chance to go turkey hunting with Andrew which was AWESOME! I had no idea how much psychology there is in it. Andrew is a walking encyclopedia on them and started showing me the ropes.

Here's a turkey scratch we came across in the middle of the trail. Sawyer and I scared them off as we came around the corner on the quad. We tried to get a picture but they ran off too quickly.

From Drop Box

Small spike on trailcam - 3/13

Got this short video clip over on the trail, on the north side where the little stone bench used to be.

New land clearing technique

After much trial and error, I think we finally discovered the way to clear land. First, I go in with the bulldozer and start knocking down cedar trees by pushing them over, then using the blade to dig out the root ball. By the time I'm done, the tree is laying on the ground, completely removed.

From Drop Box

Second, I section the cedars with my chainsaw. Since the tree is completely uprooted, I cut off the stump ball, the I cut off the top and then all the branches.

Third, we haul off the timbers to our drying pile and then haul the top and branches to the burn pile, then use the bulldozer to push the rootballs to the burn pile. I hope by pushing them, it will knock as much dirt off as possible, so we don't lose it.

After we're done, the area looks like this. Hopefully some grass will now start growing in this poor soil.

From Drop Box

Cool cedar fence design

I finally found an example of exactly the cedar fence I'd like to build.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

Blow down archaeological dig

As I previously mentioned, we're trying to date the old blowdown cabin on the property by dating some of the many beer cans and whiskey bottles we found when tearing it down. Here's some photos of the can

From Drop Box

The 'church-key' opening on top puts this can around the early 60's, since the pop top wasn't invented until 1962. Aluminum cans were first rolled out around the same time.

From Drop Box

Another artifact was a bottle of "Old Quaker" rye whiskey. From what I could find on the internet, it looks like this bottle is probably from the early 60's as well. Apparently, it was rot gut whiskey. One of the few brands to survive prohibition. I checked ebay, but it look like the bottles are only worth about $10-20.

From Drop Box

Deer Cam for 2/27 to 3/5

I decided to experiment with doing avi video instead of still shots with the trail cam this week. It turned out pretty interesting. Here's some video looking at the mudhole in the 'football field' area.