Making it thrugh another year, '24-'25

[SawyerTed]

If we can indiscriminately spend other people's money, can't we loan the tools of someone we are just acquainted with?  

[Old Greenhorn]

Well guys, I know this might be confusing, but this is actually Bill's job and client. His carpenter, Billy, is doing the work as he works for Bill, so there is no borrowing needed. Also this location is precisely one mile of private road from Bill's yard. So they can, and do, drive any dang piece of gear down there they might need. There is a teeny mini-ex on site but it doesn't have a lot of reach. At any rate, they got the headers up yesterday afternoon.  Austin, you might get a kick out of this. It's been 30 years since I was up on this property and I had forgotten about the pool that feeds that waterfall you saw. This pool is what is called 'dry laid stone' meaning there is no mortar used in it's construction. It's an old and dying art, but when done correctly will last many hundreds of years. Done wrong it will collapse in a couple of decades. I had forgotten how elaborate this pool is, or maybe I never saw it dry, we haven't had any real rain in a while now.


The pool is fed from runoff coming under the driveway I took the photo from. It enters into a deeper pool and when that fills it over spills into a wider rectangular pool, the when it all fills, it spills over the rectangular cut you can see at the far end, which is the waterfall seen from the road. If the inflow is really high and fast, it spills off the side into another stone trench on the left (barely visible in this photo) to handle more runoff. Further, there is a 1-1/2" drain pipe in that main pool so that if there is no inflow to that pool, it will drain out over a couple of days. It's an amazing little piece of engineering.
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Well today was a much longer day than I planned on working for sure. As I said, Billy was tailing for me so I knew I had to get him back to his actual work rather than help me. I kept things moving and we had some bad logs to get out of the way but we filled his truck with the stuff he really needed and he left at noon with a smile and enough lumber to get him into next week. I continued his order with one more log after he left, did a better cleaning than usual, swapped out a full slab rack for an empty (my last) and checked in with Billy on my way home. I told him I expect to finish all his lumber tomorrow. I texted Bill I need one more 14' log. Had lunch and was back in my shop by 2:30 and started working on a epoxy pour when Bill texted and asked if I could come down to the mill and run the transit while he dug 'the' trench. Now this trench is the one we have been talking about for 3 years to drain the water from around the mill deck and allow us to finally grade the area for more efficient working with no ice ponds in the winter and no frog breeding pond in the summer. I finished my pour and got there in 20 minutes.  He was just doing a quick run through with the transit to see where and how much he had to cut. So he dug and I followed checking his work and keeping the pitch on track. Then we ran up the hill and grabbed 60' of 6" pipe from his stock and set that, then Bill started bring in some shale and finally starting just peeling the bedrock shale from the high side and grading down to the pipe. He had an appointment at 5:30 and I thought I would only be there half an hour, but in just two hours we had the pipe in and 2/3's of it back filled. There is a bunch of grading to do and for now I can't drive my truck through there, but the mill operation is unimpeded and in fact greatly improved. So much easier to drive and drop a log on the deck now even before the grading is done. We finished off by loading that last 14' log on the deck and then beat it out of there. Less than 2 hours work and likely he will finish the grading with Inga over the weekend because that is fun Daddy/Daughter work for them. Maybe Inga will get some loader time.  That area where the skid steer sits is all going to be filled up the level of where Bill is standing.


Yeah, a longer day than I thought and I am too tired to eat. It never broke 62° today, I started with a jacket for a while, then a shirt for most of the day until we started on the trench and I put on a hooded sweatshirt. My fingers were getting cold with the breeze.
 One more day of pushing hard tomorrow and hopefully I can get out the lumber Billy needs so I can get that off my mind and enjoy the weekend. Next week I need to get back on the woodshed order I put on the side to do the bird house. I also need to get those mushroom logs done and delivered by the end of the week.
 One day at a time. I need a beer or three.

[Old Greenhorn]

You know that house has been on my mind. I think the wife and I looked at it when is was for sale back in the 90's and my parents were in the market. I had no idea when it was built, so tonight I did a little research and found the house was built in the 30's explaining the fine stone work because you can't find good dry masons anymore. We had 2 in our county a while back, but now I don't know.
 Zillo estimates the value of this place at 1.1 million bucks. When we looked at that house in the 90's it was ten years after we bought our cookie cutter raised ranch for $170k. This place sold in 1994 for $121k. Holy cow, I missed that one. You can see it HERE if you are curious like me.

[SwampDonkey]

There's a lot of fly by the seat of the pants types in real estate. The guy that bought dad's place was an engineer for NASA (supposedly) and was retiring here in NB (again  supposedly). Well he did some work to the house and finished the basement, probably spent $50 grand. At the same time, up the hill he was building a new home. Over the course of a couple years he and his wife were back in the US as he was called upon by NASA to come work again (supposedly). The guy didn't lack money, but his idea to come here was to be near the border, which is 15 minutes away through the Woodstock/Houlton crossing. I think the guy was like so many southerners, some money to spend, not used to the climate up here and don't stick around long.  Funny for me, I've always felt October to April was the best time of the year up here. Shovel a little snow now and again and keep warm by the fire.

[Old Greenhorn]

My memory about those things is pretty foggy. We were busy trying to get by, raise the kids, pay for food, working 60 hours a week and trying to find a place for my folks to buy around us. I think, anyway. The folks that bought that house then cleared some out back and erected long green houses and high tunnels and raised flowers for the commercial (wholesale) market. The place has 15 acres most of which appears useable but largely untouched. It's a very nice setup and the current owners I think have been there 5 years or so. He works in the city in some finance job or other. Anyway, it's a lovely well kept place. They just put on an addition last year that Bill did all the dirt work for and it fits with the house perfect.
 I can't believe that house sold for $120k is all, but if I recall that was back in a time when no houses were moving and many were on the market for 2 or 3 years. That was a steal. It didn't get a second look for my folks because all the bedrooms were on the second floor and they needed a single floor house with minimal stairs. But I do recall that house was really nice inside with a lot of raised panel work. If you look at the photos you can see some of it.
 It's just funny how things work out over time.

[aigheadish]

Whoa Tom! I don't know if I saw the house from the road but I certainly did not expect that pool at the top of the waterfall. That's really cool! That house and stone work is neat!

Wait 120k for that joint and 15 acres? Jimoney!

[Old Greenhorn]

Tonight I am bone tired and having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I got to the mill before 9 because I had to finish that order today. The first two logs went fairly easy and made good wood, even the 14 footers. The third log was junk and I barely got a minimal amount of wood out of it, but JUST enough to finished the order, or so I thought. I checked everything on my cut list twice. So I cleaned up and left by 1pm and headed to town to run a half dozen errands before we leave, food store, drug store, beer store, gas, etc.
 Got he, had a quick lunch, unloaded the truck of tools and oddball wood, etc., then gave it a quick wash. Between the mud and the sawdust it was kind of messy.  I went in the shop and was really dragging but I did some sanding on the next ERC stool I am working on and put a coat of poly on the one I did the other day. I was loosing steam fast. So I came in around 4:30 and took a shower, then threw some stuff in a bag selected my wardrobe for the weekend.
 We had dinner then I came down to update my milling log. That's when I realized the printed copy I was working from had more material on the second page, which I had not printed, so I missed a mess of 1x4 purlins that I still owe on the order. So I let Bill know I was short and will finish those off Tuesday morning and deliver them if everything else is already moved to the site. My bad, stuff happens.
 Anyway, I will be in bed early tonight again. We'll hit the road in the morning for some R&R with the cousins. Looks like the high for the weekend will be about 55° up there with rain on Sunday. We hit the flea market on Saturday morning and maybe again on Monday on the way out of town. We have no other plans, but they have some nice rockers on their front porch I like to test out.

[Machinebuilder]

Remember in the early 90's the real estate market was severely depressed due to a certain computer company cutting over 10000 jobs in the hudson valley.

The house I had in Wappingers falls had lost about 1/2 its market value and I was lucky to sell it after over a year on the market.

I had bought it in 1983? for $49500 sold it in 1994? for $60000. 2 years earlier a similar house sold for $100000

I just looked on Zillow, it last sold 9/2022 for $270000 with today's value $326000.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, I was recalling that whole period too. Run of the mill homes were a tough sell. 2 houses down was on the market for 3 years, it had a flat roof which is weird for around here and nobody would buy it. The owners finally put a 'normal' roof on it and it sold about 8 months later, for a song. But stone houses with beautiful woodwork inside in good shape should always catch the eye, I would think. It a unique house with nice property. Those folks that bought it for 120k started their nursery there but I think only lasted about 5 years before moving on. As you say, the market was flat dead back then and yeah, the IBM exodus hit everyone. I know my employer took it on the chin as we did 80% of our work for them in Poughkeepsie, Kingston, Fishkill, and Hopewell Junction. Glad I never took the job offer I got from them back in the 70's