September 8, 2018

Quick trip to the Fifty Acre Wood to pay the workers. Progress is going well, they have touched all easement areas, just lacking a few big trees and final stump cuts. 

For my share of the day, I completed all framing and dirt work for the firewood rack. I now just need to add the roof.

time: 2hrs

September 7, 2018

The past week we have had two crews working on two separate projects; easement clearing and general land cleanup. the easement clearing started Thursday and these guys really got after it. We needed 26 feet of road frontage cleared to run electricity, problem is we already had a fence installed. Other contractors wanted us to dismantle the fence to clear the easement, the crew we selected would work around the fence. After two days they were about 2/3 complete and we had a surplus of logs.

  

The general land cleanup involve removing dead trees and clearing our view to the pond and removing stumps where the barn will be constructed. This crew had most of this work completed upon my arrival.

It's good to see progress. Most of my day was spent with the easement crew. I would help them fell the trees then use the tractor to haul the logs off the easement onto our property.

9hrs

September 1, 2018

Got a late start today and when I arrived at the land Antonio had already dropped one load of dirt. Over the next 3 hours he would deliver the remaining two loads. In the meantime I started working on leveling the area for the wood rack once that was done then I started assembling the wood rack. I got the framing all complete now I just need to assemble the decking and the roof and the wood rack will be done.

I also talked to Antonia about removing tree stumps and knocking down the eight trees for price of $2,100. I also struck a deal with a guy Rudy know that will cut down the trees along the fence line on our property and the Lafavors for $7000. 

9hrs

August 31, 2018

Always a lot to do at the Fifty Acre Wood, but today I am suppose to receive a load of crushed concrete and five loads of fill dirt at 9am today. Antonio finally showed up at 11am with the crushed concrete and fill dirt. And I was able to complete the pad site for the firewood rack.

  

I wanted to put the old tractor up for sale on Craigs list, so I wanted some good pictures. Since the weed eater didn't work, I tried to pull/push it out of the weeds with the new tractor. It took some time but I was finally able to move it and take some pictures.

  

  

I also had to cut up a fell tree and get it delt with so it was blocking way to pond. So I spent some time cutting firewood.

9hrs

August 25, 2018

Late start today didn't get to the property till about 11 but it's a Saturday. I started late because I promised the kids some chicken minis.

Today I wanted to work on filling in a low spot around the pond so I could go straight to the field I had been cutting yesterday and not have to take a long way. I spent all day on that trying to make a bridge over the wet spot and I'm about 80% complete and I called it a day

time 5hr

August 24, 2018

This morning I met with BJ about clearing the easement for electricity on our property and Lafavors property. I also showed him additional work needed; stumps pulled up in the barn area, clean up the area south of the driveway. He seems to think the fence will need to be disassembled in order to clear the easement on our property. On the Lafavers property he needs permission to push the trees down into their property because the falling of the trees may damage other trees. He also thinks that the Energy company will want us to knock down the trees and not cut them down I'm in favor of cutting them down seems like it would be cheaper and easier to manage.

After an hour of discussing the easement work I was able to get some work done on the tractor I worked on clearing the area next to the pond and getting that mess all cleared out. After all day of clearing the weeds the place actually look good I spent the last hour washing down the equipment and greasing all the equipment.

time 8hr

August 18, 2018

Very ambitious day today but a short time to do it. I have until 1pm and I got started at 9am so this gives me 4 hours to do more than I think I can do.

So what I had plan to do was; mark the easement boundary, mark the barn area, flag the roots to dig up, and the mark the trees to knock down. If I have any time left I want to mark off the cabin area for clearing.

Before any of this can be done I need to do some basic maintenance on the tractor.

Here's what I actually got accomplished; the easement, the barn site, the tree roots and the trees to be knocked down. I did finish task from last visit, spraying for weeds along the fence line.

Time: 4 hrs

August 17, 2018

Today was all about tackling the South fence line. I was able to hook up the mower in less than 30 minutes today so I'm making progress. I really just spent the day mowing the South fence line. The problem I face a ditch I had dug to drain from the pond to the road. The ditch was hidden by weeds so I had to find the ditch so I didn't get stuck.

After 3 hours of mowing the south fence line I turn my attention to the west fence line along Red Road. That proved to be more difficult, the brush had over grown so much I couldn't tell where the tractor was going so I decided to break for lunch and think about how I want to tackle this.

After lunch I decided to tackle the west fence line from the driveway. After an hour of doing that I was ready to go home but decided to mow the home site instead. After an hour I was done and on my way home.

6hrs

August 10, 2018

Okay I have a new tractor, I got the buggy a new starter (it runs fine) and I have a weed eater that is nine months old. First thing I wanted to do today was weed eat around the old tractor where weeds were collecting. But behold, the weed eater doesn't want to cooperate. So I spent about 30 minutes actually more like an hour trying to get the line spindle off the weed eater. I could not get it off so I gave up threw it in the truck. See if I can fix it when I get it home or I will buy a new.

I have a water tank with sprayer that I loaded with weed killer and loaded into the buggy. I was going to kill weeds today! I drove the buggy with weed killing chemicals in the water tank, around the fence line of the property.

While I was out spraying he perimeter, I measured the back half of the property which would be about twenty acres. We are thinking we might want to sell twenty acres some day. I was unable to finish spraying the fence line, the buggy ran out of gas and I didn't have the gas can to refill the buggy. 

I took the tractor and started trying to push down some brush so I can come back one day with the bush hog and mow it

8hrs

August 4, 2018

Back to the Fifty Acre Wood today, and I'm bringing reinforcements, Travis. We started our day by driving the buggy around the perimeter, showing Travis the fence, and also installing trespassing signs that have been stored for years. Once we finished hanging the signs we had we returned to the barn and got the mower hooked up to the tractor. That took a while, I need to figure out how to get the tractor and mower paired easily because that took us about 30 minutes to get hooked up. I reviewed the operation instructions with Travis then I let him try out mowing a small section.

He did good, didn't stall the big rig or run over any stumps. Okay, I pushed him out of the seat and took off to the east side of the property to finish the mowing from last week. I left Travis at the barn to assemble and figure out the herbicide sprayer while I went mowed.

When I got done mowing what I could or felt like mowing, I returned to see that Travis has finished the assembly and was preparing to take it out for spraying. I was tired and hungry so it was a good time for lunch break.

After lunch we packed up and lubed up the machines for the next work out next week.

 I don't understand how to access the grease fittings for bush hog exactly, so I will have to YouTube it.

Duration: 5hrs
mower: 2hrs

July 27, 2018

Today was all about mowing. In the morning I mowed the west fence line and in the afternoon I mowed the north side and the east side. It was a nice day to be outside and the tractor made it so easy.

mower: 6hrs
time: 8 hrs

July 13, 2018

Today I take delivery of my new John Deere tractor can't tell you how excited I am. Finally I get a working tractor that I don't have to work on. Look what I passed on the way to the Fifty Acre Wood.

  

The tractor guy showed up at the Fifty Acre Wood about 10:30 and was late due to heavy traffic and getting here. 

I asked the driver to give me a quick orientation since my old tractor had simple controls this was more complicated. After taking delivery the tractor and driving it to its resting spot, I went got some lunch cool down. While I was out, I picked up a gas can and some gas for the tracter.

When I came back from lunch I read through the owner's manual to see if there's anything I should know (there wasn't). After reading the operators manual, I decided to give the tractor a ride, since the mower was already hooked, I felt the urge to mow. After mowing some simple section for about 2 hours I felt pretty comfortable. Very happy with the tractor! 

I was ready to call it a day. I unhooked the mower and proceeded to park to tractor in the container. I discovered that the tractor couldn't get up the lip of the container by itself so I had to use the front end loader to lift the front end over the lip of the container.  I'll have to make a ramp for the tractor so I can drive it into the container next time.