Oh My...

I just spoke with the nicest man from Appalachian Log Homes. They are in Nashville Tennessee. Lord I wish he was here so I could meet him.

I called to ask if I can use a log preservative now while the logs are still drying. Now that I am peeling all these logs I want to make sure that they don't get ruined by my wrong doing in storage, etc. This guy told me what to do about everything. Yeah for nice people.

When he said to go to a salvage yard to get some old tin rooging, I knew I was in love. He must know me psychically or something. As it happens we saved all the tin roofing from my Mother's house when the contractor replaced it with new.

I will be off to the farm to drag it all up to Cope. H. to cover my peeled logs. He also told be about putting spacers (dryer sticks in the trade) in between the logs and they I can stack another row.
He also directed me away from a preservative until the logs are dryer.

Timberrrrrrr

We began really making some headway in getting trees down. It is unfortunate we have to take down as many trees as we have to, but I am glad it is all working out great. We are using all the hardwood, or will be, as firewood since I'll be heating with wood. Hopefully all of the red pine will be used in the house construction itself. Most all the huge white pines will be going to a saw mill.

I am getting over the shock of tree felling as much as possible. My original romantic idealism of being in the woods is turning into realistic stuff now. I mean the idea of living in the woods is to live in the woods. But first you have the county issues for the leach field whereas they want a huge leach field and then they want a clear perimeter around the field in order for the sun and wind to get at it and keep it dry.

Next, is the issue of the house. Well, it all seems well and good to build in between the trees, but you have to take some down for the house itself, and then some more for the driveway, and then some for the walkway, and then of course you have to take some more down to get huge trucks up next to the house to deliver shingles, logs, windows, concrete...things like that.

Then, you need a staging area, or several staging areas for things like placing the logs while you build with them, work area, eating areas, etc.

And lastly, who wants some 80' tree falling on their house? Not me. So, a few more have to come down.

A friend of mine said, "I don't know much about white pines 'cept they grow really big and then they fall down."
Well, friend, that sums up the matter.

Peeling away

I am glad the peeling is going so well. It is easier to do when the tree is freshly cut. It is for this reason we only took down a manageable amount this time. I am almost finished with this load. Then I will start peeling standing trees until we are able to get them cut down. I can't think of the numbers I will need in total or else I would be too overwhelmed...5 tall porch posts, 2 for bottom of porch stairs, 2 wall ties, 10 or so ceiling beams, rafters...

Dang ticks

You know I curse those things. I once was a free spirit in the woods, running about in my tank top and shorts. Lyme disease changed all of that. When I got infected, my free-to-dress-as-I-please life changed. Now I am an overdressed woodsman, ready to pass out from the heat.
Bro and I have to overdress for the temperature while we clear the land, which makes it doubly hard to do the work. It was like 80 the other day and there we are in long sleeves and me with my pants tucked into my socks to keep ticks out.
I didn't know what time of year those suckers came out, but I wasn't taking any chances.
I began doing the tick checks as soon as the snow was almost all melted. Never soon enough in my book.
Well, last night, barely into April, I found one attached to my chest area. Yikes! Once removed, which I do have to admit I still never remove properly, I took a shower and cleaned my wound. I hate them.
BTW, I had no regrets drowning it and I hope it suffered all the way down the bathroom drain.

Clearing

Bro is home and playing with his chainsaw. He is cutting away while I am clearing all the tons of logs and branches. Wow. You can't really grasp how much a tree can cover the ground when it is all cut up and laying on it. One average size tree can be four wheelbarrowfuls of logs and many armfuls of branches.
Bro, being an engineer, had to make a road first. This entailed selecting which area of the new forest (old goat field) to debranch in order to open up a roadway without cutting any trees.
He even found a grassy area in the woods for a turnaround spot. Now this road is an access road to take logs for dumping. I need to get all the tree parts as far away from the leach field as possible so the heavy equipment can get in and do their thing.
I worked on breaking down the old goat fence, barbed wire and fence posts in the roadway. I need to drive my truck right where the fence is/was.
That was a chore not only dealing with barbed wire, but just locating the fence since most of it is now part of the forest floor.
Then there is the disposing of all the rusted metal. Bro suggested leaving it all in one of the holes for the perk test. I did. lol