I used to use my tractor and 2 x6's. But, I finally broke down and got a trainer board and chain pulls, Chinese knock of of the Hayes ones. Kind of pricey still (~150 for the whole setup), but we have put up enough fencing in the last 5 years and have plans for plenty more to make it worthwhile. This system works extremely well. I would highly recommend, even if you just pick up the stretcher board and use a tractor, quad, come-alongs, etc. to strain it.
I did a little work on the "lambing barn" today. We put up some lambing pens of welded wire panels and some tarps. The bottom 1/3 grey tarps will eventually be replaced by oak board and batten once I get my jointer repaired. The upper 2/3 is actually "barn curtain" i.e. heavy duty translucent tarp we found on Craigslist. That will be there permanently. It can be closed/opened depending on the weather. I will be doing the other side and putting a drip edge at the bottom of the roof to ensure any drips go outside the curtain eventually. I just keep putting one foot in front of the other...
Our final ewe delivered twins last night, a black ewe lamb and brown ram lamb. Everything went textbook perfectly. A great end to the lambing season. Final score: 5 ewes and 3 rams.
Indoor project for a rainy day today. I finally got around to repairing my jointer. It was a pretty cheap model but it worked well. About 1/5 yr ago the driveshaft on the cutterhead broke. I have been looking for a used replacement, but I just never found what I wanted. So, I broke down and ordered a Byrd Sheliix head + new bearings. It was actually a very easy swap out.
Back to the wood shop today during the rain. Now that the jointer is "fixed" - at least semi functionally, I could get around to making board and batten for the barn. Today I jointed and ripped 44 battens, each 1 x 3 x 36" which resulted in nice pile of kindling, too.
Another load of smaller white and chestnut oak logs going to the mill today. These will be flatsawn, too small to quartersaw .
Today I put up one side the board and batten wall on the new barn. It's 1" thick chestnut oak that I had milled from a bunch of dead standing trees a few years back. There's a lot of surface water stain, etc. because I didn't store it perfectly. However, the wood is actually fine. I just couldn't imagine all the work, noise, electricity, wear-and-tear on my machines it would have taken to joint and plane all this down to "clean" wood. A year or two from now, it will be evenly grey patina anyways. The final wall is 3' high x 20' long. I will be doing the other side of the barn shortly. The barn curtain on the top can easily be adjusted open or closed depending on the weather.
I like that, but always assume that the rope will be cut on the lifting lugs. A friend of mine dropped a brand new Kawi engine when the sheet metal lifting lugs cut the rope I was using. David
When you get your own mill .... I responded to 2 different c/l listings this past week, missed both by a day or two. What does your guy charge by? Hour or bd/ft. Good thread Mike good job(s) as well.
