Quick Video

 

Here's a short, panoramic type video. I was standing in the Southeastern end of the property. When construction of the log cabin begins, this is where it will be located.

On Golden Ponds

I found this picture awhile ago and that's when I began thinking about a possibility of having a pond down at Pine Grove. Of course, I also would like to have a tractor like that too!

If it ever does happen, out of the 6 acres I would estimate that 2 acres will be cleared out for the homestead and pond and leave the remaining 4 acres as woods.

I've also been reading up on sustainable firewood harvesting. It is conceivable to harvest one cord of firewood per year/per acre. The winters here in the Midwest are hit/miss and 4 cords per year should suffice just fine. Over the course of a few years, the reserve stack of firewood would remain at about 5 cords which should see us through the worst winter season.

4th of July

Earlier in the week I picked up the deck for the mower from the repair shop and got it reattached and tested. It's in pretty good shape for being 33 years old.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day down at Pine Grove. I widened some of the existing trails, made a few new ones, and trimmed some branches from a few Cedars.

Remember that pool of water in the creek bed that I found? Well, according to the number of fresh deer tracks that I saw, they are also taking advantage of the new trails.

I also hooked up about 5 or 6 dead fall trees and towed them up and out of the woods. I'm going to send a text message to our West neighbor and let him know they are there and he can have them for firewood if he wants them.

Towards the end of the day, the steering on the Bolens Lawn Tractor went bonkers. Upon closer inspection, a weld had broken loose so only the left wheel was operational.

I managed to get it loaded back up on the truck, so this week I can remove the wheel and weld the linkage bar.

On the return drive home, I noticed a lot of people heading down to the Ozarks for the 4th of July weekend.

Have a happy and safe holiday weekend!

Form over Function

Topographical overlay

Here's the topographical layout of Pine Grove. As you can see, just to the East of the middle of the Southern border is the lowest point.

Using this natural shape of the land as a guide, that is why if I were to ever construct a pond on the property, I would have it located here.

I am not sure if I will ever undertake that task, but as I make progress on cleaning up the parcel, I will have this in mind.

For example, when deciding where to clear out the trail which will one day become the driveway, my thinking is that the entrance is at the NW corner. Then the path goes down towards the SE and around what would be the damn side of the pond, loops back up towards the NE corner and that is where the log cabin would be located.

I think that I've always liked this stage of projects. When it's all just a bunch of theories and plans, and anything is possible, nothing is set in stone. It's easy to make changes because one only needs to erase a line and redraw it somewhere else.

Eventually, things will be decided upon and the real building process will begin. From that point on, we can make minor course corrections, but to change the destination becomes increasingly difficult.

Billy Goat Brush

The mowing deck on the Bolens Lawn Tractor is in the shop for repairs. A new drive spindle, some bearings, and a new main pulley (heavy, and the most expensive part) will have her all fixed up within a week.

On thinking about how I was making trails before, I realized that I should use the right tool for the job. Yesterday I rented a walk behind brush hog and spent the day clearing some space through the brambles at Pine Grove.

It was $108 for a full day rental, and considering that it's going to cost 4x that amount to have the mower deck repaired, I think that it was worth it. This machine had no problem mowing down the weeds and saplings. Anything over 2" or so it would let me know that it wasn't made for such a task.

The pathways are now ready to be maintained by the lawn tractor, and I will need to build a bridge, because in the middle of the thick brush which is now cleared, I found a pool of water in the creek bed.

In a way it is good to see because it is the creek bed area that I was thinking about clearing out in order to make a pond. However, it's also right at the southern fence line which is where the driveway would be. Well, plans are made for changing I suppose.

Making trails

Making trails

Spent most of yesterday down at Pine Grove. Used around 4 gallons of fuel in the lawn tractor and got about 3/4 finished with clearing out the perimeter.

I dropped a 30-pack of Bush Light at our neighbors porch. I now have his phone number and can TXT him in advance to see how the weather has been and if the gate will be open or not. We're still working on a more permanent way to enter the property. I think that I will ask him if he'd like to trade some firearms or something.

The last part of the day was spent in the brambles and sadly I was out of fuel before I was out of daylight. The brambles are very thick, but it was easy, monotonous work. Move forward a few feet, back up, lower the deck, move forward. Rinse. Repeat.

The 1978 Bolens lawn tractor has been doing a pretty good job. I'm mowing with it through a bunch of little saplings. A brush hog would make the work much easier, but the lawn tractor was only $275 and the brush hogs that I've seen came with a used price of $600+.

I think that with this Bolens being an older lawn tractor, it is much more capable and forgiving than those newer mowers would be.

Memorial weekend trip

With great intentions we loaded up the lawn tractor, several weed eaters, chainsaw and other various hand tools. Today was supposed to be a day of trail clearing.

After the 90 minute drive, we discovered that the neighbor had gone away for the weekend, or so it seemed.

The gate that he'd previously said was going to be okay to use in order to access our property was shut tight. A nice chain and padlock would prevent us from driving in.

I spend about 20 minutes with one of the weed eaters and cleared away some weeds next to the NW corner of his property, right by the county road.

I left a note in his mailbox and told him that we'd come down to do a days work but were unable to do so. I also mention the area that I'd trimmed and said that I would like to talk to him about making that the permanent easement entrance to our property. I left my phone number and asked him to call.

We left the fully loaded truck on the roadside and walked back to the property. I showed the family the trail which I had already began. I guess they weren't as excited about it as I had been.

We spent another 15 minutes back at the truck checking for and removing ticks. We found another 9 of them after we got back home.

Happy Memorial Day.