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Heading in a new direction..more like a circle.

Started by Stephen Alford, April 02, 2017, 11:40:57 AM

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luvmexfood

Mike. A few areas like that around here. Even if the people wanted to work there is none. Maybe fast food at $7.35 an hour. Not an excuse to steal though. People laugh if you want to pick up a woman all you have to do is drive down one of those streets and shake a pill bottle.

My local weather always gives a forecast over the Cumberland Plateau. Seems like you guys don't know weather to start out in a coat or shorts. Calling for us to have snow tomorrow.n 
Give me a new saw chain and I can find you a rock in a heartbeat.

mike_belben

Yea thats the cumberland county mating call.  Pills and meth are a favorite currency.  Wrecks a lot of lives, its a shame.

Im from new england so i cant complain too much about the weather or taxes.  Sposta snow here also. 
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Timbercreekfarm

Mike, I can not wrap my head around your sitch, sounds like you have a bunch of stuff where you lived? Now you have druggy criminal neighbors? New england can't be that bad, what gives?

mike_belben

both places were full of criminals.   It was heroin up there, and meth down here.  But i can afford life here.  I was working 2 jobs when i lost my cheap house up there.
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Stephen Alford

  That is a real shame... I guess where ever you go your gonna find those  "peckers"

 

   Things have warmed up a bit. Well warm enough to shed the winter boots and back to the stihl leathers.  The go to snack  is a  "4012" orange.  They travel well and just enough moisture and sweet to keep you chugging along.

 

The north extraction road is holding well.

 

The days are getting longer as well, but as is the case for you.....not long enough.  :)

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mike_belben

Thats a sweet trailer.   

Are you able to charge for this service or is it a "you can have the wood for payment" market?  I can have all the trees i can haul but i cant manage to get paid for it yet and not for lack of trying.

Weather wise its hot here already.  Just got back from a septic tank job.  That first wave of methane that comes out from under the lid when you pry it up is the kinda sweet that keeps me going.. Like 20 more paces the other direction!
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Stephen Alford

  Not really,   and just to be clear with the intent to not mislead ... this is not really working from a business perspective.  Land here is relatively scarce so it is valuable.  I have done work for speculators who buy a piece of property and it needed to be cleaned up,  for example tires out of streams garbage and old structures removed.  Generally got paid when the property sold.  So funding someone else .  Not good.  Cleared building lots ,   but now the go to machine is an excavator with live thumb.  That market dried up. Had hoped folks would pay a little more for firewood derived from good woodlot management,   that has not happened yet.  Firewood markets are in decline and competition from folks with other sources of income who are just selling wood for cash are hard to compete against.  The only bright spot that I am aware of is a guy who does a B&B with a woodlot experience for folks.   The deterrent for the  education/ tourist  concept is the insurance liability aspect.   A business is no longer a firewall between personal assets  and  liability.     For now  "soldier on" ...we shall see    :)
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mike_belben

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Stephen Alford

   Spring seems to be the season of the  "break and bust".   For a couple days of late seems like everything was broke in some manner.  Have had a particular difficult time with the air brake system on the ol tandum.  Don't know how relevant it is to others but I was surprised.  After days of trying to clean and repair the old system with minimum success priced up new components.   The governor was only 23$ and the entire air dryer was only 128$ ... had I know that to start with could have saved a lot of laying in the muck.  :(
  Had to tidy up the lane way with the scraper blade ...



Found a world war one foot locker it has been over seas and came back so ...no surprise ...manifest destiny :D

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thecfarm

Looks good. I don't do much scraper. Don't have too,the rocks hold me up.  :D 
Yes,spring is here. I am digging rocks out of the old pasture. More I clear,the more rocks I find and the more I have to mow. It has to stop sometime. Well I mean the land clearing,no end in sight to the rocks. ;D
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

mike_belben

Youll expire before they do!


Nice find stephen.  Perfect.
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Stephen Alford

   Hey folks  been awhle so thought it was time for a bit of an up date.  Crazy spring weather wise,snowing yesterday morning when I left the house.  Sure hard on the fruit crops.  had to do some upgrades to my ol truck.  Mr lopet had raised the point of dot tolerance here.  I think they are as tough as anywhere but I will give them this , they served notice this spring that they would be stepping up their game.   Well after new tires brakes etc my last encounter was.... "Stephen shes legal but you got to know she aint pretty".... :D
   One tool upgrade was to put a full length shovel handle  in my pickaroon, realy pleased what a difference on the back.




   One issue has been trying not to waste wood and minimize damage at the same time.




   Just a couple pics for those who are unable to get out and about  :)








 

  

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mike_belben

Nice pics. Glad to see youre still at it.

smiley happysmiley
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Stephen Alford

   Thanks Mike, how are the dozer repairs coming along ?

This what the cable looks like after a bit over a year of use .




  These were a pair of trees heading NW that I wanted heading SE. 



 

 

 

 
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thecfarm

Looks like your directional felling works!!!
I have not been cutting wood. Too busy digging rocks and stumps. I made a mess and now I have to make it look good.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

mike_belben

Nice rigging mr stephen, i need to make a self release snatch like that.  You sure do some precise work!


Dozer is just sitting there apart.  When i had the aim to get under it there was a constant creek flowing between the tracks.  Then i fractured my arm doing a triple gainer off the wood trailer and crawling under anything is painful enough to make me find something else to do.  i have no money to pour fuel through it anyway so meh.. Let it sit, the dirt piles arent going anywhere.  Just gotta stay home and let the kids get older for a while and be patient with how life plays out.

I have been putting up firewood, laying out my operation better, getting into camp bundles and gardening like crazy between dishes, feedings and internetting.  Also reworking the quad into a mad max thinning machine, sorta miniature version of your tractor.  Need to get some overhead shelter up.  This sun is relentless and im barking up the melanoma tree.

Ill get some pics up later for ya.  Im glad you popped up, i was getting a little worried in your absence. 
Praise The Lord

Stephen Alford

   Hey mr cfarm hope you get a chance to take some before/after pics.  Great to see your endeavors.  :)

   Well mr  Mike ...I hear ya... balancing domestics and work are always a challenge.  By the time you raise your children you find yourself looking after family seniors.  Just the way of it.  For cooking my mentor is a lad by the name of Jamie Oliver. Great meal plans...healthy,inexpensive and quick.  like most tasks tools make the difference. In the kitchen my go to is a quality blender.  First sign of "dodgie" in she goes.  :D   For the garden my "mantis" is the boy. Stihl now makes a version, it looks a little more rugged.  Had frost again last night but did plant the cold crops last week in my little grow plot.  The BRS in the pic is one I leveled with the clearing saw last year.  Boy did it like that.   ;D



 
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thecfarm

I did take some pictures. Really not much to see. I had this piece cleared off for at least 10 years.  So these stumps have been there that long too. Mostly white pine. Some I got,some I could not,maybe another 10 years.  ;D The could not ones are about 3 feet across. There must of been a few red oaks in there. I try to leave the oak,good food for the wild life. Those stumps was only about 1-1½ feet across and came out pretty easy. Some of those white pines stumps,I had to work on them.
Even dug out a few rocks.  :D  Kinda low on the few too.
Is that red soil? Looks different than what I have.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Stephen Alford

   The red is due to the high iron -oxide content (rust really ;D). Really hard on undercarriage. You do well not to break your tractor dealing with stumps and boulders.  You must have  "datouch"   :)

   Well yesterday was one of ...dozdays .  Hate that crunch noise. Was not even under strain.



 

Spent the day prepin for the extraction. Went well got the ol boy back to the ER.   Only charged me 70$.  He was really impressed with the prep work. Said most people never have a concern for his gear.   On the down side thats gonna be it for awhile.  You all stay safe  :)



 

 
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thecfarm

Never said I did not break my tractor digging rocks.  :o :( Stumps I don't bother with much. Those critters come out hard. And than some. But so have some of the rocks I have dug out.   ::)  Where's the dumb dumb smiley? If the stumps have been in the ground for 10 years they come out easy. White,red maple stumps are gone in half that time,but those white pine hand right in there. 

Can't tell. What did you break?
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Stephen Alford

   Well things are looking up...just the clutch.  I know compared to some of the  mechanical magic I see on here this is pretty basic. The idea with this thread was to share the farm tractor in the woods experience. Well to quote Mr snowstorm if your gonna own it and try to make a living best be prepared to learn how to repair it.   The one issue is the armour.. gets bent over time and the on/off gets to be a bigger challenge every time. The nice thing about the farm tractor I find is recovery and repair for a one man operation is not so bad. Have had to fix a lot of stuff in the woods . Not easy at all. Let the parts hunt begin... :)



 

 

 

 
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mike_belben

Way to get'r done there old timer.  Yer makin me and my dead dozer look bad!  

:snowball:  ;D
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mike_belben

Not to jinx ya i hope, but how much trouble do you have with sticks and tires making love?  I dont want to even say that 4 letter F word.  
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bushmechanic

Looks like you took the center right out of her! That's not too bad of a job and I know it's pretty minor for you Mr. Alford! ;)

Stephen Alford

   Jinx Jinx double Jinx...Hex be gone...turn around...SPIT.  Nope i am good. Never had a flat on the tractor. the rears are forestry specials put on new when I got the tractor. The fronts have been replaced a couple times just wore out. Do a bit of road travel doing tilling mowing snow etc. Its a mindset thing in the woods i know there vulnerable and cut accordingly.  With the winch the wood comes to you as opposed to the grapple where you have to go to the wood.
   On another note meet a nice young couple yesterday. He and his wife were working on an extension to his fly tying shop in the rain. Picked up what he called "the deadly dozen" as a gift for a buddy getting married. Got a couple like the one in the middle for my hat.  Oh ya baby in the woods its its all about LOOKS... :D


 
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