Our "new" homestead and progress of it...

So the chickens got a visitor today.

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I've been after this one for a month now. Keeps coming up to eat out of the chicken feeder, but I've only ever caught him at night. Missed the shot at him twice prior.

He made the mistake of coming out today during daylight hours when I happened to be looking out the window at the chickens.

This Scorpion has proven to be the best "ranch rifle pistol" I own. So far it's got 5 trash pandas and this single possum.Screenshot_20220310-180203_Gallery.jpg
 
Picked up a pile of wood today so my carpenter buddy can start building a back deck this weekend.

I should have had the back deck built the same time I did the front. Materials for the 10x10 I'm putting on the back, were more than what I paid for the 16x16 on the front which is about 10ft off the ground. The rear is only about 5ft off the ground.

A year ago, I wanted to add it...but decided I'd wait out the lumber prices. At this time, material prices had doubled since the year prior.

Literally a few days before the Russia/Ukraine crap got started, I priced out materials. Today when I bought it, it was 70% higher than a month ago.

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Man oh man do I love this time of year. Lots of stuff going on, or about to be going on.

So as stated previously, I've always been terrible at woodworking/carpentry stuff, and HATED doing it. Since building the chicken coop, I've taken a liking to it. Which is dangerous to my wallet. In the last couple weeks, I've picked up some Milwaukee M18 stuff. 10" miter saw, random orb. sander, and a router.

With said tools, my first project was a bench and table for the deck last week, which came out great. Yes I know it's simple, but this is leaps and bounds better than previous attempts at woodworking 🤣 In the next couple weeks, I'll be building a sectional for the front deck, and a couple chairs and a table for the back deck.

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Speaking of back deck, my carpenter buddy just about got it finished. It'll be complete next weekend. This is something I'd loved to have done myself, but I'm smart enough to know that I don't know what I don't know. It's nothing big...just a 10x10...but big enough to get the grill and two Greenstalks (vertices planters) off the front deck, and add a small table and chairs for me and the wife.

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The wife picked up 6 more blueberry bushes (2 of the 4 we planted last year died) and 2 apple trees that I'll likely plant this week. Also have a "purple smoke tree" to plant. Nothing edible from that one, but something to make the front look a little nicer.

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Im hoping the garden area dries up enough that I can till the cover crop in. It's been a wet swamp basically since November, but the last couple days of warm temps and wind helped dry it out a good bit. If we stay dry for a couple more days, it should be good to till Wednesday...just in time for Thursdays rain. 🙄
 
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Does the purple smoke tree cause a purple haze to be in your brain?
 
Love this thread, I’m gonna have to re-read it a few times and take notes the front loader stump remover could be huge... In February we closed on 9 acres in the middle of Brunswick County. I wasn’t sure we could find/afford 2 or 3 but the right deal came along. It was cut for timber 8-9 years ago, Old stumps are going to be a challenge, but with current cost to build there is zero rush, hence why I might just slowly tackle them a few at a time. Don’t plan to quit my job, I happen to like it as well, but it is nice being out there. So far just be cutting a path to get to a cleared acre in the middle from an old easement, probably will forestry mulch the front 2 acres. Then I’ll need to get stumps out and till it to level the ruts from timber cutting. (How big a stump can a tiller handle? Most is only 3”+- pine). Anyway, rambling, jealous of the time you can invest. But glad we found a plot, it’s a big first step.

Right of way back to our slice of the earth with a few trees removed.
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Mathieu18 said:
Love this thread, I’m gonna have to re-read it a few times and take notes the front loader stump remover could be huge... In February we closed on 9 acres in the middle of Brunswick County. I wasn’t sure we could find/afford 2 or 3 but the right deal came along. It was cut for timber 8-9 years ago, Old stumps are going to be a challenge, but with current cost to build there is zero rush, hence why I might just slowly tackle them a few at a time. Don’t plan to quit my job, I happen to like it as well, but it is nice being out there. So far just be cutting a path to get to a cleared acre in the middle from an old easement, probably will forestry mulch the front 2 acres. Then I’ll need to get stumps out and till it to level the ruts from timber cutting. (How big a stump can a tiller handle? Most is only 3”+- pine). Anyway, rambling, jealous of the time you can invest. But glad we found a plot, it’s a big first step.
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Congrats on the new land!

In my research, the front hoe (stump bucket) is great if you have a few stumps and several hours. It's not what you want if you're pulling dozens and dozens of stumps, unless you want to spend a LONG time doing it. I'd rather keep that wear off the tractor and rent a excavator. Even a mini x is likely to do better than a front stump bucket.

Get a big enough tractor. While my subcompact tractor beats the heck out of a wheel barrow and shovel, I wish I'd bought a compact tractor in the 25 to 35 hp range. Eventually mine will be replaced with such a thing.
 
Your pictures and posts helped me realize how “Un-fun” it would be to grade and level with a 48” box blade. 60” won’t be a lot more fun but still an improvement… plus my wife would probably call it a lawn mower.

Fair point about an excavator, I’m just cheap. But tractor wear is a fair point, especially with 8 acres of small trees. How big of a stump will cause issues for a tilller though?
 
Mathieu18 said:
Your pictures and posts helped me realize how “Un-fun” it would be to grade and level with a 48” box blade. 60” won’t be a lot more fun but still an improvement… plus my wife would probably call it a lawn mower.

Fair point about an excavator, I’m just cheap. But tractor wear is a fair point, especially with 8 acres of small trees. How big of a stump will cause issues for a tilller though?
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2 inch
 
Grading anything larger than 1/4 acre with a 48" box blade sucks. I've done a total of roughly 2 acres with that setup (not all at once). It's a daunting task when there's ruts from heavy equipment and holes from stumps. Doable, but it takes a while. 60" would be far better.

As LeeMajors said, 2 inch (max) stumps is all a tiller is going to want. Basically what a standard size loader bucket is going to easily pull up.
 
TRaGiK said:
Grading anything larger than 1/4 acre with a 48" box blade sucks. I've done a total of roughly 2 acres with that setup (not all at once). It's a daunting task when there's ruts from heavy equipment and holes from stumps. Doable, but it takes a while. 60" would be far better.

As LeeMajors said, 2 inch (max) stumps is all a tiller is going to want. Basically what a standard size loader bucket is going to easily pull up.
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Sounds like I got a lot of work ahead of me. One place quoted $6k-$8k per acre for clearing and root raking. Maybe could find a more affordable company, but anything near that isn't in the cards. Rather buy a tractor and take a year to do it.
 
Mathieu18 said:
Sounds like I got a lot of work ahead of me. One place quoted $6k-$8k per acre for clearing and root raking. Maybe could find a more affordable company, but anything near that isn't in the cards. Rather buy a tractor and take a year to do it.
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Sounds about right based on what I paid to have stumps and trees removed. For me, it was worth the money....but I'm already living here, and needed it done somewhat quickly.
 
TRaGiK said:
Sounds about right based on what I paid to have stumps and trees removed. For me, it was worth the money....but I'm already living here, and needed it done somewhat quickly.
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Well good to hear and damn... was hoping you'd say "that's crazy, search around and you can get it done for $2k an acre. 😁

We want to get some pasture for horses eventually (daughters learning to ride) but I don't want to break their legs finding an old stump. But sounds like i just need a compact tractor and tackle it a quarter acre at a time. Front 3 acres will be fine to start, can tackle the back 6 when we move out there... but also liked what you said about doing it with the build and rolling it into the mortgage. Easier to stomach when it's $100 a month than $20k out of pocket.
 
Congratulations on the decision, and a big WOW for seeing all the work you've accomplished.

Doing what you're doing was always a dream of mine, but life didn't cooperate, so at 73 one of my great pleasures is seeing folks like you do it and succeed. I'm envious. You are doing a great job!
 
TRaGiK said:
Another project done. Sectional for the front deck.

Still need to do some sanding on it, round over the sharp edges, and get some cushions for it, but it's otherwise done. View attachment 456277
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Looks like that would be a happy, peaceful kind of place with the view of the church in the background. I would think it's nice to have them as neighbors.

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Gator said:
Looks like that good be a happy, peaceful kind of place with the view of the church in the background. I would think it's nice to have them as neighbors.

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There are no bad views here. :)

But yes, the church makes for a nice view. I've known the preacher for about 15 years. He was one of my customers at my shop when I still owned it.

The church is over 200 years old. That specific building is ~150 years old. Second oldest church in my county, and I can't really figure out why it was ever built there. There's nothing out here. Best I can tell, there's never been anything out here. There MIGHT be 10 homesteads that existed 200 years ago, within 2 miles in any direction from the church. Yet their congregation used to be well over 100 members, 150 years ago. A busy Sunday now, there might be 20 to 30 people there.

The longer I love here, the more information I find on this area. Best I can tell, my driveway used to be the original road that leads to the church. Looking at aerial photos from the 1950's, it appears there's a "road" that leads back to the river, 1/2 a mile or so through the woods.

Anyway...I'm rambling. The views are indeed great here. 🤣
 
haroldg48 said:
Great job, I’m envious!
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You wouldn't have been envious when I was yelling at the plans I bought for this one.

The writer of them writes out 1.5 x 3.5 instead of calling it a 2x4. Several errors in the plans. And several times of calling for a procedure that seems to be written just to make the job hard for the sake of making it hard.

I know nothing of woodworking. I can't make much yet without having written plans. And even I know these plans were full of BS. It took me longer to make this little 2 seater than it did to make the sectional.

But thank you. 🤣
 
I started a separate thread on the "build" for this, but figured I'd post about it here as well.

Here's the new "farm truck". Since we've been here, I've had a quad cab short (5ft) bed Nissan Frontier. The longer we are here and the more "farm stuff" we do here, the less that truck was working for me. The 5ft bed just isn't enough anymore.

The new one should do everything I need it to. :)
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TRaGiK said:
I started a separate thread on the "build" for this, but figured I'd post about it here as well.

Here's the new "farm truck". Since we've been here, I've had a quad cab short (5ft) bed Nissan Frontier. The longer we are here and the more "farm stuff" we do here, the less that truck was working for me. The 5ft bed just isn't enough anymore.

The new one should do everything I need it to. :)
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Frontier is a great truck on its own but agree I couldn’t go to a midsize again. Enjoy it.
 
Been a while since I've updated this, but hasn't been much going on to post about.

I did replace the cheap vinyl netting that I was using to fence in the garden over the last few days. The netting (6ft tall) actually did a great job keeping the deer out, but constantly needed maintenance and repairs done to it. A strong wind would tear it. The electric fence should hold up significantly better.

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Also, I picked up a part time job working a gun counter back in December. Started a new thread about that, but updating here as well. It's been so long since I've had a job I thoroughly enjoyed that I forgot what it's like. There's a decent chance that I'll eventually go full time at this particular gun shop.
 
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