Making it through another year '21-'23

[Old Greenhorn]

Through my works which caused the committee to come together in the first place, and my providing of projects for them to espouse their collective knowledge upon I feel that A) I have done my part, and 2) The committee has earned the right to create it's own space somewhere within the forum environment confines. Perhaps it's very own section?
I have found the committee to provide very illuminating if not useful information which provided countless time to contemplate the collective wisdom of the self-appointed, vacillating back and forth as to what I should do with that wisdom. Sometimes I would spend entire actual minutes in this debate.
I have no doubt the committee shall carry on in some form on some unsuspecting, yet well deserving victim candidate. ;D
The reality is, we are all members of the committee, we just don't realize it, and advice transpires on these forums pages about every hour of every day about 7 days a weeks, holidays included.
In this case of this thread, maybe it got a little too formal with a name and everything.

[thecfarm]

Why stop posting?
It's like a dairy.
I wished I would have taken pictures of some of the rock clearing and claiming back the pasture.
Your kids and grandkids will enjoy this thread in years to come.
I do plan on doing some videos.
I have a few to do. Like a before and after. 

[Wlmedley]

I too really enjoy reading your threads.Being I am just one year behind you in age I'm always curious to find out what you are doing.This gives me and I am sure others a little drive to keep on keeping on.I find it all interesting and enjoy your style of writing,

[aigheadish]

Happy Birthday Tom! It was a pleasure talking to you yesterday!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well thank you. I enjoyed our chat yesterday too. Birthday's aren't a big thing for me, it's just another work day. Frankly with the economy the way it is and the cost of even the simplest things, I have been pretty down trying to figure out how we will get through this.
 It's hard for me to get "up" about anything. We made it through this year with our health, but I am concerned about the years coming and how we all will manage.

 Yeah, I know it will all work out somehow even if we have to sell the house and move someplace cheaper and smaller, but I'd rather avoid that if we can.

 My thanks also to those who sent PM's. These things do cheer me up and remind me I have some good friends out there. 

[firefighter ontheside]

I can't say I have read the whole thread, but pop in from time to time to read what's going on.  It was always good stuff.  Thanks for sharing Tom.  I'll see you on the forum and of course a text here or there.

[Resonator]

Tom must have made it through another year, I see cake! ;D 
Happy birthday OG! 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Happy birthday Tom and Happy Constitution to the rest of the Noggies who may be reading.

[doc henderson]

well happy belated birthday now.  cause I woke at 3 am and typed one but it did not make it here.  

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, that's it. I was too depressed yesterday to close things out. I had gotten up at 4:30 because the dreams I was having kept me awake, so I was tired all day and the weather turned back to cool damp and windy. Knocked around doing little chores and took a nap midday with nothing of note accomplished. Went to bed at a reasonable hour and somehow pulled an all-nighter (I slept all night with no disruptions, rare for me).
 Feeling a little better today and we have to do the monthly food shopping. The weather is still cool and breezy, but I feel a lot more like doing something.
 It's time to start the next year and see what happens. So, moving on, today is another day.....

[Nebraska]

🙂  well sir I sure hope it's an excellent one. 

[doc henderson]

you cannot have a "best" without having a "worst".  glad you got rest.  you close it out, or transition when ever and how you want.  cheers.  Doc.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I tried to go straight, I really did. Just sticking my posts in other threads or starting a new one if it was a worthwhile subject. But after 3 weeks I am finding that there are things I think might be interesting or humorous for others but surely not worth a new thread. So I am going to stick those things here and see how it goes. This allows folks to ignore or enjoy them as they wish.
 Monday(holiday) we were down at Bill's for a last minute get together of a few friends and kids and some food. Just hanging out on a hot summer day watching the kids playing in the pool and enjoying some conversation and laughs. AT some point, Bill hops up from his chair, runs halfway to the shop and scrambles down the cliff like a chimp going after a bunch of bananas before anyone else saw them. Turns out somebody was sneaking along his road down past the sawmill. He heard the car, I didn't. It was a stealthy electric Pruis. Well Bill gave the guy an earful about not reading any of the 5 signs he passed and the guy tried to explain he was looking for property for sale around #240 (we were at #500 a mile further down). Bill wouldn't hear it and turned him around.
 He came back in the usual gruff and I told him he needs a better sign(s). He already has 5 or 6 up that don't seem to work. :D
 But I thought about it and came home and bought him a different sign. Yesterday it came and I went down to nail it up, he pulled up behind me as I was picking a spot for it, so I let him choose.


 
(The new sign is the bottom one.)

Maybe it's a little too busy with all the other signs, but we will see if it helps. You can't read them in this photo, but the ones on the left read "POSTED [with standard text]", NO TRESPASSING PRIVATE ROAD VIOLATERS WILL BE PROSECUTED", and "BEWARE OF DOG".  The ones on the right read "NOT A PUBLIC ROAD LANDOWNERS ONLY", "POSTED [with standard text]", and "YOUR GPS IS WRONG  TURN AROUND" (the newest addition). Maybe this is too subtle?



 

 Anyway, if they don't work, we might get him a sign that says "CAUTION, LIVE FIRE RANGE AHEAD" ,which is not entirely untrue. ;D

 So I finished that tiny task, and we had a chuckle. I had brought down 2 growlers to fill because we have yet to empty those kegs in spite of my best efforts and then I said it was time to head home and asked Bill what he was up to next.. Bill says "well, it's only 4, plenty of time left in the day so I am running over to the next road to finish a storm cleanup so the guys can mow., wanna come?" I told him if I could be home by 5:30 I would help and he assured me it wouldn't take more then 10 minutes, the wife had dinner planned and she is a time keeper. I went home and put the beer in the fridge and grabbed a pair of gloves, he picked me up as he drove by and with the 12" chipper in tow we headed over. Yeah, it was more than 10 minutes, and the saw he grabbed was duller than a stone so we used the battery saw and fed the chipper and threw the bigger chunks and rounds in the dump bed. Soon his lawn crew showed up, so one guy helped us chip and the other mowed. He dropped me off at 5:35 but the wife wasn't home yet, so I was good. I guess that's the price you pay for free beer. :D

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   Have you thought about adding a few "Forget the dog, beware the owner sign", "Due to the high cost of ammo do not expect a warning shot", also a few bullet punctuated bullseye signs with yard markers under them. 

   Maybe something like "I try to be a nice guy but I keep having flashbacks and the meds aren't working".

[Spike60]

Wow, that "cost of ammo" thing broke me up. VERY good!

I've been on that road of course; and by invitation. And Billy knows that if he shoots at me I won't work on his saws anymore. But the kind of people that he found cruising that day think those signs don't apply to them. And the last thing you want is NYC people buying property back there. Would NOT be a good fit.

You guys still haven't finished the beer, huh?

[Old Greenhorn]

Bob, I am working on it as best as I can. I'll probably get two more growlers today. ;D

I looked at a lot of signs. The one I liked the best reads:

WARNING

NO TRESPASSING

You quite possibly could

get shot or hurt and

then try to sue resulting

in a long drawn out

court battle.

YOU WILL LOSE

Because this sign will be:

"EXHIBIT A"

I also like the one that says "WARNING: You are now in range". ;D

[Hilltop366]

Seems to me you said the road goes through to another road but if you put a sign that says "DEAD END" it would discourage a lot of people.

For extra effect if the word dead was written in red with drips running down.

[Nebraska]

Just curious,  why not a single pipe gate on a pivot
  Glad to see this thread keep going. 

[Old Greenhorn]

There is a pipe gate, but with all the legitimate traffic in and out, it is always open. Still that should be another clear clue. Anytime I drive through a gate, open or not, it changes my attitude. I guess other folks don't think that way.
The truth is, if somebody drives through and follows the 10MPH speed signs and IF they begin the encounter in an apologetic manner, bill is calm and polite to them, often even helpful, as am I. But when the first words out of their mouth is argumentative and if they were driving 30MPH all bets are off, as well as the gloves. I actually had one Amazon Driver yell at me "You don't understand! This is the only way I can get to where I am going!" 'OK, where are you going? This I gotta hear.' "Well back to New Jersey, of course." (cue the hysterical laughter trailing off into an insidious cackle.) When we insisted she turn around and get out, she said "I can't turn this big truck around!" She was driving a minivan. So we left the skid steer that she nearly ran into head-on in the middle of the road (after dropping the grapple full of slabs for effect), took out the key, told her to 'figger it out' and walked away. You can see that after more than a few of these your patience runs a bit thin. They make you crazy.
Sometimes I wonder if he should just put in a toll gate.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I like the toll road idea. Put up a booth with a crossarm and a sign in the booth saying "Wait here - toll booth operator will be right back." Then never man the booth.

  Either that or put up a "Wrong Turn" sign and the poster from the old WV movie with all the ax murderers and such. (Actually it was filmed somewhere else but said it was Bluefild WV.)

[Old Greenhorn]

Well Howard, I liked your idea and shared it with Bill. Both he and his wife thought it would be a neat idea. Now we just need to time material to make it. There's the rub. :D And where can I find all the wood? :D
------

 So yesterday was a very pretty day and I decided I needed to get started on firewood. These days it's just a heavy labor, boring time suck for me, but it has to be done, especially this year. Mostly I need to clear out and clean up the firewood working area. I have a friend coming with his family in a few weeks and they will parking parking their RV right in this spot for a few days.

 

In the foreground you can see piles of rotten, pithy stuff, bark, and all the other junk that gets cast aside. The pile is about 18" deep now and about 12'x12'. I got this down from a 3' deep pile that was bigger by burning for a few days a couple of weeks ago. Then in the mid-ground of the photo is a pile of rounds I knocked in half yesterday, and in the background are two piles of firewood sized logs I have yet to start on. I need to get this all processed and stacked, then I think I will bring a machine down from Bill's and just scrape up all the trash and dump it in the swamp to burn in a pile rather than feeding a pit, which is slow. With the machine I can also level out all the gravel that has been pushed up over several years of snow plowing and it should look nicer than it's been in a decade. I have wanted to do this for several years now, so this is a good excuse to make it happen.
 Doing firewood is boring and time consuming but especially with this winter coming, I think we are really gonna need it and I gotta get it done. I have 3 trees, at least I need to take down here too, but I won't start those until next month or so.
 Today is another day.

[aigheadish]

I'm not afraid to take her offroading a bit Tom! You should save some of that work for my son to do too.  Really looking forward to it!

[Old Greenhorn]

Nah, this little area has been bothering me for a couple of years now. Each winter we push up a little more gravel and now there are some spots that are 18" taller than the driveway. If I clean it up and regrade it, that will look good for a few years and give me more work or storage/parking space.
 Your visit is an excuse to make me get it done.

[Nebraska]

I have an ugly stack of firewood logs hollering at me as well. I tried to price propane the other day my supplier hadn't got his fall pricing figured out yet.... :... I think you need an old Yugo carcass with
a skeleton in it, parked in front of the toll booth.  

[Old Greenhorn]

I like that idea! We have several candidate vehicles we could use, or make a line of them. :D

 Yeah, I am beginning to feel like I spend half the year making firewood and the other half burning it. I am barely a cord into it and I am already tired of it. Given my hast to get this all cleaned up in less than 2 weeks, I may break down and borrow Bill's 4 way splitter. My real bottleneck is stacking, especially at the house stacks because I have several steps between the trailer and the stack. The shop is quicker because I can slide the trailer right up next to the stack.