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Building my Retirement Home or "My First 5 Year Plan"

Started by Weekend_Sawyer, March 23, 2016, 08:43:11 AM

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thecfarm

Looks like you got some nice looking land there. Lucky you.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Hilltop366

Exciting times, nice looking spot!


Oh, and that backhoe looks real familiar.



 

chet

The next five years should  go pretty fast. You have allot lined up gittin' ready for da big day.
Good luck, da count down begins.  :)
I am a true TREE HUGGER, if I didnt I would fall out!  chet the RETIRED arborist

samandothers

Congratulations on the 5 year plan!  I will watch this with great interest.   We want to do something similar but have not really started the ball rolling other than contacting someone about driveway work.

Place/land looks very nice.

WDH

That is going to be a fine place there, Jon.  A man needs a place like that to ease his travails. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Ron Scott

That looks like a great plan and it sure looks like "Almost Heaven, West Virginia."
~Ron

Weekend_Sawyer

It was a pretty nice weekend even though it snowed, I broke a sawmill and I had a serious bout of ADD.

Friday I played hookey from work and headed for the mountains. I spent the day trying to  clean my lot. First there is a lot of slash leftover from knocking trees down so I worked with the skid steer and grapple but I keep running over these rocks that my part of WV is made of so I hopped on the backhoe and started moving rocks around, but wait, these logs are not good saw logs, lets start a firewood log pile, out with the chainsaw and then back on the skid steer moving some logs around, wait, I need to push this hill back a little so trucks can get onto the lot easier, up on the back hoe. Repeat, repeat, repeat... I made progress on all fronts but I started getting on my own nerves after a while.

Saturday morning I took a load of logs over to my neighbor's to saw and get trained on his LT35 hydraulic with simple setworks. We got through one log but things weren't working very well. It kept surging, speeding up and slowing down and making wavy cuts till the blade would rise and the mill would stall out. We tried 2 other blades with similar results. I finally kept my hand on the speed control and found that If I tapped on or wiggled the speed congrol it would affect the speed even though I wasn't turning it. So I think the speed controller needs to be replaced, should be a simple fix. The good thing is we did make a few boards and I did have my first experience at the controls of a LT35 hydraulic sawmill. I hope to get the replacement part and go back up this weekend for a little more hands on.

 
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

drobertson

very pretty building site,, happy for you!  as mentioned having a plan is a good thing, really almost necessary, and we all pretty much know things change course a little from time to time, but with a goal set, then who cares how one gets there,,by the way,, is this where all your pet deer reside?
only have a few chain saws I'm not suppose to use, but will at times, one dog Dolly, pretty good dog, just not sure what for yet,  working on getting the gardening back in order, and kinda thinking on maybe a small bbq bizz,  thinking about it,

Weekend_Sawyer

Quote from: drobertson on April 11, 2016, 09:54:40 AM
,by the way,, is this where all your pet deer reside?

Yep, and they keep getting into the squirrel corn for which the punishment is pretty severe!
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

Raider Bill

The First 70 years of childhood is always the hardest.

Weekend_Sawyer

Quote from: Raider Bill on April 11, 2016, 12:21:30 PM
Check the TPS :D

I hear they cost about $300 to replace...


I did talk to Woodmizer, they believe the feed rate potentiometer has gone bad. New one is on it's way.
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

thecfarm

ADD,I know I don't have that problem. I start something and than I start somehing else. I have about 10 projects going and none of them are done.  ;D
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Weekend_Sawyer

I ordered the potentiometer from WM and had it the next day. Saturday I installed it in about 10 minutes and was sawing wood. This was my first solo on the LT35 and I like it alot. This Thursday I'll move it to my lot and get serious about my wack o logs.  It took 2 hours just to get the stoopid grin off my face

 

Sunday I worked to exhaustion on this rubble pile. It's to the right of the backhoe and needs to be pushed back at least 30 feet. That pile is mostly rocks and boulders with some dirt sprinkled over top of it and I'm separating the dirt from rocks cause dirt is hard to come by around that area!

 

Boy did I sleep good last night!
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

thecfarm

I'm an expect on a little dirt and alot of rocks.  ;D
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Magicman

Quote from: thecfarm on April 18, 2016, 08:37:09 PMI'm an expect on a little dirt and alot of rocks.  ;D
I expect that you are an expert.   :D
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

thecfarm

spell check don't work when it's spelled wright.  :D
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

POSTON WIDEHEAD

The older I get I wish my body could Re-Gen.

Magicman

Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Weekend_Sawyer

Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

Weekend_Sawyer

 I gave myself a 4 day weekend and went up last Wednesday night.
We moved my buddy Steve's LT35 onsite and set it up. completely wrong! We actually had it leveled and everything before we realized that the loader arms were on the wrong side! So we spun it around, set it up and leveled it pretty good for our rocky/uneven ground. We got a half day of milling in on Thursday, 7 hours in on Friday, Saturday morning it rained so I only got 3 hours in and Sunday we worked all day. Total we were able to mill just about 1,000 bf. All white oak and some if it had some fantastic figuring in it.

I learned a lot about running this mill and I absolutely love it. I made some mistakes that cost a few nice boards and some time but overall I'm pretty happy with the results. I have about a dozen more mixed logs to mill and then I'll return it.

While we were there the power company came in and hooked up my temporary power. My builder stopped by and gave me documents. I now have the building permit, well and septic permits and an ADDRESS! Woot!!

Here's a couple of pix from the weekends sawing.

Sawmill and a stack of white oak.


some nicely figured oak. on this cant I had left the rear roller up and wound up cutting a tapered cant so I wound up milling this parallel to the crotch but it still made nice lumber.


and this one we split the pith for a really nice pair of book matched boards. All 9' long.


a fantastic weekend and we even got in a little turkey hunting and mushroom hunting. Course we didn't find any of either.  ::)

Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

Roxie

This is so much fun to follow!  Those boards are pretty.   :)
Say when

Weekend_Sawyer

Glad you like it Roxy, this thread should run for 2 to 5 years. 2 if i just build the garage with apartment in it, and 3 more if I build a house.
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

Weekend_Sawyer

 I went up to the building lot over the weekend and in spite of the torrential downpours off and on all weekend I was able to mill some nice lumber. All of the white oak logs are done. We milled red oak and red maple. Slogging around in the mud after the rains didn't slow me down much but everything I used and wore needs a good wash!

Next weekend I hope to finish up by milling 5 ash logs and one more red oak. Then I'll return the mill and get back to clearing the lot.

Here's a shot of the mill setup. It's on a slope so I set logs on the loader arms with the skid steer. 

 

We made some pretty maple pieces.

 

Here is a cool smiley face in a book matched pair of red oak.

 

and finally we milled a nice white oak crotch, about 5' long.

 
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

Weekend_Sawyer

 I'm sorry to say the milling is done for now. I really enjoyed running the LT35 and the good thing is that there will be plenty of opportunity's to run it in the future. Of course I still have my Norwood here in Maryland but all my support equipment is in WV. Guess I'll have to rig a parbuckle to load logs.




 
I spent the weekend moving dirt. The original owner of my and my neighbor's properties dug a pond back in the 80's and dumped the overburden right where I want to build. Lucky for me we have heavy equipment. Once this is done we will layout the foundation and start digging!

Can't wait
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

isawlogs

  Wish you all the luck with the plan.
    I can tell you right now that the building will be too small, the wood pile will be short of the peice you need, but if you do plan it correctly, there will always be a cold one to sit down with and contemplate your next move, all in good company.  ;D 

Marcel
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

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