I am about to get really busy. My wife and I volunteer a lot for a Children's Christian Camp about 7 miles from our house, and for their horse program they cleared 18 acres and now need it stumped. In Maine you have two years to convert land from forest to field and with one year up, we need to get this done. The fun starts Friday. I'll bring a few bulldozers over to play, along with some friends who have some big excavators. The clearcut went right up the side of a hill with lots of ledge so it won't be an easy job, but will give the horses a place to spread out anyway. There are other things we can do to get it green, but for now the stumps must go. We have a guy coming in to tub grind the stumps so its just a matter of pushing them into a pile which will be my job on a John Deere 700, while a friend of mine will drive my John Deere 350 layering gravel for some roads and paths. No one is sure how long this will take. I typically figure 1 week equals 10 acres, but there are a lot of variables. After that though there is another 12 acre field, a 10 acre field and a 5 acre field so 45 acres in all. Should be a lot of fun so be ready in the next week or so for some pictures and video. (BTW: I say "Another Big Dig" because in June at this same camp, with heavy equipment we put in 1700 ft of electrical service underground in 1 day. It was expected to take 3 days. Such is production when the Lord is in something and people are willing to work)
Nehemiah 4:6 " ... for the people had a mind to work." You get a good team out there, willing to press on, you'll git er done. I recently read a quote, some moderately famous person, saying essentially, "They say I am a genius, but they are wrong. I plod, if they say I continue plodding, they are right." That is how I get things done, I just work until the thing I am working on is done, then do the next thing. After a while, it is all done - genius!
Kudos to you for volunteering, there are not enough people like you (and some of us) that do good deeds. Just out of curiosity, you mentioned the time limitation for converting forest to field. Are there penalties if the work is not completed?
Not that I am aware of, however between getting the permits before, and the permits that would have to be obtained again, the US Supreme Court has ruled that the Army Corp of Engineers has jurisdiction over all waters and not just navigable waterways. Since this is located adjacent to a lake, it could be problematic. Where my own land is, it is high on a hill, so much so that I can see some 150 miles distant on a clear day. It also is the dividing line between two different water sheds. Still, even though the streams on all my property are seasonal, they are still controlled by Maine's Dept of Environmental Protection (DEP) the Federal EPA and now the Army Corp of Engineers. I can log anything I want, even in wetland areas, bulldoze stumps for my twitch roads and make as many as I want, but can get taken to court by any of those three groups if a single stump is bulldozed in the wetland area if it is used to raise crops. It absolutely does not make any sense.
When I get some time I will explain why the last Big Dig at that Christian Camp was one of the major motivating factors for me retiring from a very promising career building US Navy Destroyers. I don't have time right now, but it is an interesting story and truly stepping out in faith in God alone. As for our volunteering, a lot of what we do is behind the scenes stuff, but I like that. As a farmer I have significant farm plans and forest management plans in place, and one thing this christian camp did not really have was a good comprehensive plan on where it wanted to go in the future. Its not a glamorous thing to do, but they have 68 buildings so assessing them, and making plans for their repair and maintenance is what I have mostly been doing. Ultimately it will be a VERY good thing and allow us to get more done productively with the resources that God has given that place.
Well I was a welder at a shipyard building the latest US Navy Zumwalt Destroyers. It was pretty neat what we did, and at the end of six years of working on a ship there is definitely pride in building what we did as the the latest ship, the USS Zumwalt is a pretty neat ship to say the least. But it was also 80 miles from home one way making for a 3 hour commute each day; 15 hours a week, 60 hours per month...well everyone gets the picture. It was a lot of time doing nothing but riding and not being productive. That is not me. Then there was the Union aspect of things, and while it was a very lucrative job, you really had to fight the system to stay busy. You had to be to work, but actually doing something really did not matter. As a farmer I am not into being idle so it really was not for me. But US Navy ships are 100% welded. Its way over-kill, but hey these ships see 50 foot seas and potentially battle, who am I to judge. My primary job there was welding the missile silos which have 155 weld passes, so positioning is not always the best, and ultimately 1/3 of welders or shipfitters there blow out their knees and ultimately mine did. Surgery in January did not go so well so I was laid up until June, but in February I had a chance to buy a dozer for a song and did so. 2 years prior, my forester suggested with our old growth forest, the mature wood needed to be cut off; some 300 cords alone just to get it close to being productive again. I wanted to do it, but working (5) 8 hour days a week was hard, especially when 3 more were spent just traveling a day to get there. Then with church on Sunday, it left me with holidays, vacations and 1 day a week to do everything around my farm. It was not nearly enough. So time was an issue, but then so was my tractor. A small Kubota, it could not go in mud or deep snow, which here is a big problem. Adding to that was the old growth factor; it was rugged country to try and pull wood from with no existing roads. As this happened, Maine's wood market absolutely tanked. We still have 6 paper mills, but its not a lot compared to the 25-30 we used to have! So wood is moving, but slow and prices are down. In the meantime lamb prices are high and with the Muslim Population increasing in the USA and Maine, a population that enjoys lamb in their diet, it seemed natural to convert more land from forest into field. I also feel this is biblical. While the bible tells us no one knows the day nor the hour of his return, Jesus himself said there will be signs, and I feel we are encroaching that time. He also said in that same passage that in the end, a loaf of bread will be worth a days wages, which in other words means a lack of food. Since we don't eat trees, and I am a farmer and not a logger, I see the future in farmland not forests. Now with a bulldozer that has tracks and can cross wet areas as well as wade through deep snow, 100% of my forest is accessible. But I had a problem, I had a well paying job. It was eating up 90% of my time, but it was a well paying job. There is NOTHING in Maine for jobs so you just don't give a job up like that and lose all your seniority and everything you worked for. Or do you? Ultimately it comes down to faith, are you going to trust the Lord for your needs, or are you going to trust a shipyard? As I was about to return to work, the guy that ran the Christian Camp came to our church and explained the first Big Dig of putting in putting power lines underground. He said, "So if anyone has a backhoe, tractor, skidsteer or even a bulldozer, bring it out..." I nudged Katie, then talked to the guy afterwards and said, "You are not going to believe this, but I just got a bulldozer on Wednesday and I'm not using and I am not scheduled to go back to work for a few weeks", so ultimately I worked my dozer there and fell in love with the place. They did the Lord's work and there was tons of earth work projects...things I do. Slowly I started to realize that I did not need the shipyard. Katie and I live a very frugal life, paying cash for everything and really having to justify any purchase we make. Its one of the reasons why I don't even have a cell phone...an expense I can live without after all. Its that kind of frugal living that keeps me debt free and so retiring from the shipyard was not so bad. But I KNOW none of this would ever work if I spent my now free time on my own pursuits; no it had to be so I could serve the Lord too. It also freed up a lot of time with my (4) daughters ages 3, 9,10,and 11 which are wonderful years. Now with retirement, we are in church a lot simply because I no longer have to get up at 3 AM to go to a shipyard 80 miles from home and that is wonderful unto itself. In 2011 I had kept my sheep on a low pasture waiting for my sheep shearer, then just after she was done, turned them on a really good pasture. The effects were horrifying; 24 breeding stock ewes died that night. As I loaded their carcasses up, I was devastated and wanted to give up sheep farming for good. But God spoke to me. Now I say this quietly because I don't make claim to see visions or angels or have deep meaning dreams, but in my utter despair he simply said "stick with sheep." So I hold onto that deeply. I am not saying everyone should have sheep, but for whatever reason, he has a plan for me regarding sheep and that is why I say I am a sheep farmer and not a logger. Farming always comes first. So at this Christian Camp, one of the Executive Board Members is CEO and Founder of Ag Connect Ministry which goes to Moldova to help that impoverished nation. After prayer, talking to him, and our pastor, I feel really led to go over to Moldova. I am not sure what that will bring, but while we have had chances to go to Guatemala, Haiti and Romania, they just did not seem right. This guy is a dairy expert, but despite having tons of sheep in Moldova, they have no specialist to fill that role. I really don't feel qualified to teach anyone about sheep farming, but its what I know, and the need is indeed there. And our pastor encourages us to act "glocally" which is locally and globally. For Katie and I, that is our church, Fair Haven Camps, and Moldova. So we are going over in May and then...who knows. If the Lord wants us in Moldova instead of Maine, Katie and I are willing to go. So it has been a lot of little steps this last year which has led us to where we are now; retired and serving the Lord on many fronts. All I can say is we serve an awesome God. This year at that camp, out of 770 campers, 110 accepted Jesus a their savior. Another 125 recommited their lives, and this was not "caught up in the emotion" stuff. Counselors were saying kids were giving up their free time, swimming time, rope course time to read the bible; some 4 hours a day. One counselor had every boy in his cabin accept Jesus. It was an honest to goodness revival and its nice to be a part of that even if it is just pushing dirt over buried cables. (Katie is in charge of day care there for parents cooking or doing other roles). As I said, we serve an awesome God and its shameful to think staying at a shipyard because of a little money could have stopped me from being part of something so big.
