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?

Prepping for a Pole Barn

Slowly but surely we're making progress on clearing an area to build a pole barn.  It's been a long slog, complicated by things like tearing down an old house, clearing enough space to create a burn pile, burn piles that won't light, burst hydraulic lines... the list goes on.

Despite all that, I think we finally cleared enough space after a big burst of work by the boy scouts, who did a service project for us this weekend.  The basic idea was to throw anything that would burn on the bonfire.  That's kind of a scary directive to give scouts, but it worked out well.  No major injuries.

From 2012-05-13

The panorama shot below gives an idea of how big a space we're clearing.  The old house sat right about where the fire is on the right side.  I hated to have to tear it down, but it was falling apart and unsalvageable.  It's a pity, because it was really interesting to see how the old timers built a house out of rough cut cedar.

In fact, the only parts that were bought from a store were the tin roof and the nails.  The rest was either rough cut or milled cedar.  Even the fireplace was built out of handcut limestone.

In the middle of the picture, you can see the old well that they used.  We've set up a crossbar an Amish well bucket to pull water out of it.  Unfortunately, it goes dry pretty quickly and doesn't fill up until we get a lot of rain, so it's not really functional.

I'm currently toying with the idea of calling in a well digger to open it up a bit more and using it for a cistern, and piping all the water off the roof of the barn into it.  It could be an interesting project.

From 2012-05-13

Below is flare up we had from throwing a couple of dried up cedar boughs on the fire.  It's amazing how flammable the cedar is when it's dried out.   It's almost as explosive as gasoline.

From 2012-05-13

The scouts worked hard dragging cut trees to the fire.  It would have taken me several long Saturdays to do it myself, so I'm very appreciative of their efforts.

From 2012-05-13

Brian and Bill were a lot of help.  Here they are showing the scouts the proper way to screw around.

From 2012-05-13

Brian got into the swing of things by bulldozing the forest.  I was a little nervous at first, but he picked it up quickly and was moving stuff all over the place.

From 2012-05-13

By the end of the day, it was starting to look like this crazy idea just might work.  Now comes the really hard part.  How to layout the barn.  East-West, North-South?  What orientation will make it easiest to pull equipment in and out?   I have a lot of thinking to do.

From 2012-05-13

One of our activities was  to explore the sink hole cave.  I'd known the goats liked hanging around it, but I had no idea how much they've taken over until I climbed down in.

From 2012-05-13

It was really cool to come out of the cave and see Gracie sitting on shelf.  They have taken over and made themselves totally at home.

Interestingly enough, I think it's high enough and sheltered enough that they might not need a guardian to protect them.  It would take a determined dog or coyote to get up there.  I'll have to keep an eye on it through different weather cycles and see how it goes.

From 2012-05-13

Working Hard, Playing Hard

I finally got the bulldozer fixed (with the expert help of my friend Kent).  To test it, we decided to do a cleaning session by knocking down trees and popping stumps. Unfortunately, that's the easy part. Cleaning up after is some serious work.

The hardest thing to do is figure out how to get rid of the stumps.  They're burnable if you let them sit for a couple years or if you douse them with $4 a gallon diesel fuel.

Otherwise, it takes three or four bonfires to burn them down enough to knock the dirt off so you can burn the rest of them.

Staying true to our constant experimenting,  we decided to try  burying them, to see how that works.  It could take a while to find out.  Hopefully about 50 years, so it'll be someone elses problem.  I could run for office with an attitude like that.

From 2012-05-03

We had some excellent help this time.  Elders Davis and Dempsey were animals, and dragged logs to the bonfire without rest.  It was great to have some help and we were amazed at the progress we made and very thankful for their help.  I hoped they enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed having them there.

From 2012-05-03

Suz was our dedicated driver.  She'd back the quad in and pull out logs as we cut them up with the chainsaw.  She got pretty good at figuring out how to gun it at exactly the right moment to yank trees out of the tangle.

From 2012-05-03

It was sooo hot close to fire.  At it's full height, it was difficult to get close enough to even toss the brush on.  It's rather unpleasant to get close to an inferno on a hot day.

Lately, Sawyer has this thing where he likes to fall down and pretend like he's helpless and can't get up.  I've taken to teasing him about looking like "Christina's World".  See the picture below and judge for yourself.

From 2012-05-03

From 2012-05-03

I might have to try a new painting called "Sawyer's World".  Maybe it'll make me famous and have people asking, "why is that boy laying there" , and " What is he thinking? " , or "It's so mysterious".


We worked the poor missionaries hard, but they didn't show any ill effects.  They probably could have gone a couple more hours.  

From 2012-05-03

After we finished cutting and burning, we decided to stop and smell the daisies.  It been nice to see all the wildflower patches popping up this spring. It's too bad they don't last longer.  They're very pretty.

From 2012-05-03

After working so hard all afternoon, we decided to take it easy doing some target practice.  The time was finally right to break out the deer target that has been waiting patiently in the garage since christmas.  It was pretty cool using a deer for practice.  I hope the added realism pays off this fall.

From 2012-05-03

The shooting range.  It's starting to look really pretty.

From 2012-05-03

When we left for the night, SuperMoon was just poking it's head out.  I wish I would have had my good camera, but the point-and-shoot did ok.  

From 2012-05-03

The Fence is Finished!

After several weeks of hard work, we made once last push and finished up the new goat pasture.  We ended up closing in about 9 acres of raw forest for the goats to work on.

This area is 100% overgrown and totally impenetrable from March to September.  It's also pretty rough (rough as a cobb, as the realtor liked to say), with sink holes scattered throughout.  We also have a small pond located inside the boundary which will be nice if we ever get  enough rain to fill it up.

From 2012-04-24

By the end of the day I'd end up looking like I'd been in a knife fight, from all the razor cuts from the wire ends.  The ends were so sharp that I wouldn't even notice I was cut until I felt the blood dripping down my hand.

From 2012-04-24

The picture below shows a typical fence stretching arrangement.  It worked great when there was a tree in place that we could anchor to.  Most times we'd get enough tension on the fence that it would be pulled tight as guitar string.

From 2012-04-24

To make the interior easier to access, we tried to put a gates near places of interest or wherever a fence roll would end.  The picture below shows that last post.  It was so nice to get to this point and finish up.  What a lot of work.  I hope it ends up being worth it.

From 2012-04-24

This will be a good reference point for a "before" shot, that shows how thickly forested the pen is.  Hopefully the goats will do their job and we'll be able to walk into the forest by the end of the summer.

From 2012-04-24

It's done!  Time to head to Sonic for a burger and Route 44 Diet Coke!

From 2012-04-24

The goats are very happy now.  They love the sink holes and dance along the edges.  "Climbing like a goat" isnt an empty phrase.  They just love getting little outcroppings on the side of the cliff.  It makes you wonder what they're thinking.

It's also interesting to see where they prefer to roam.  I think they're a bit overwhelmed with all the space since they just seem to be hanging around one little area.

From 2012-04-24

Sadie has already made her patrol path.  Making sure things are safe.

From 2012-04-24

Digging Fence Post Holes

Sawyer and I had a very productive day at the prop on Saturday.  It's been fun to watch our fence building skills improve and steadily get quicker and quicker.

The first fence roll we did took us two Saturdays, the second roll took a full day.  The third roll we finished off by the early afternoon.  Last week, we were very surprised when we'd finished a full roll by lunch.

Since we'd only bought one roll, expecting it to take up the whole day,  we ended up doing fence posts the rest of the day.  Sawyer was begging to try out the post hole digger.  I was skeptical at first, so I left him to it and went off to do other things.  I was pleasantly surprised to come back and see that he'd accomplished quite a bit.  Nothing like digging fence post holes to build up some muscle.

The problem we have is that  we have 2 1/3 rolls left to do.  The fencing material is expensive, so I don't want to have to buy that 1/3 roll.  To fix this, we've been cutting corners and straightening up lines as much as possible to squeak out that last 100 feet. 

Another thing we decided to try was making a double gate since we had the panels sitting around and each one is about 16 feet long.  That's 32 feet + the 6 feet of spacer Holmes.  Only 62 feet left to eat up.

We've been using cedars for fence posts and crossbars.  Fortunately, we have an endless supply so we can put in as many as we can dig holes for.  Fortunately, as well, we had no rock, only clay.  It's sooo much easier digging fence post holes in clay.  You can dig a 24" hole in about 5-10 minutes.  Sawyer shows the tools of the trade below.

We had rainstorms on and off,throughout the day and were pretty muddy and bedraggled by the end.  Sawyer is definitely looking like a mud farmer here.  He was a good worker and put in a 10 hour day without complaint.

Ready to go home and relax in the recliner with and ice cold Diet Coke!  

Green Grass is Growing

One of my projects has been trying to get grass to grow in areas we've cleared out. Until now, my attempts have been mostly unsuccessful.

I attribute this to a couple of factors including, poor soil, no irrigation and not being willing to put in the time necessary to fix the previous two.

The following picture shows what an untreated area looks like.  This was previously so thick with cedar and undergrowth that it was difficult to even walk through.  The trees like to muck up the soil so other things won't grow there and compete.  As you can see, the trees did a good job and there is very little green.

From 2012-03-16

After putting down the straw (that was formerly in the barn), we were very happy to see green stuff sprouting all throughout.   This is all without any prep work such as tilling, seed or fertilizer.  It's just dumping and spreading the straw.  It will interesting to see how it does through the spring and summer and whether it can establish itself in the soil without straw.

From 2012-03-16

I'm not sure what the official name the trees in the picture below are, but we call them Bodocks.  There are only a few of them scattered around the place, mostly close to the old house.  Since they don't show up anywhere else, I assume they were planted.   For what purpose?  I've yet to figure it out.

They are a very interesting tree due to their odd yellow wood (which quickly dulls up my chainsaw) and the large green fruit they drop.  They're about the size of a softball and very odd looking. 

The two bodocks were almost choked out by the cedars until I started clearing.  In fact, they seem to be mostly dead.  I'm looking forward to seeing how they do now that they don't have so much competition.  
 

From 2012-03-16

We're still trying to figure out what to do with all the cut stone from the old fireplace.  It seems like a lot of work to move it.  We might just end up leaving it there, unless something really motivating comes along.  Motivating enough to move many hundred pounds of stone by hand.

From 2012-03-16

The end of a hard days work.  Sawyer and I put down 330 feet of fence as well as moving several gate sections.  Definitely ready for a rest.

From 2012-03-16

Sawyer still looked pretty spry at the end of the day.  He probably could have done another roll of fence.

From 2012-03-16

Working on the Chain Gang

Another beautiful Saturday and another day on the fence line. It's been exciting to see how much more fence we can lay down with each session as we improve our technique.

On our first try, we got about a 1/3 of a roll and the 2nd time we did the other 2/3rds. Last Saturday we were able to get a full roll of fence put in. That's 330 feet of hard work. The fun part is going to be putting in all the support posts later on. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it though.

For now, we just want to get the 10 acres encircled and put the gates on so we can get the animals in there as soon as everything starts blooming. At this point, I figure we have at least 3 more rolls to do and the long straigtaways are turning into the serpentine section which will slow things down as well.  It'll be interesting to see how long it takes to wrap this up.

Sawyer was my chain man.  He wanted a picture of showing off the proper way to accessorize when putting in fence.

From 2012-03-09

Sammy came down and helped out too. She worked really hard clearing the fence line and helping me with the stretching.

From 2012-03-09

What a good crew. Sawyer could'nt wait to use his machete on the brush. However, he always seemed to be cutting good trees and never the brush or roots that I needed cut.

From 2012-03-09

These days, we try to minimize the axe work, but it comes in handy every now and then for chopping out roots or cutting things that the chainsaw can't reach.

From 2012-03-09