Well I moved some totes with the 4052R yesterday and managed to get 6 put into a row. On the 7th tote I found a soft spot and sunk the tractor to the axle on the dunnage. Had to wiggle the forks out from under the tote while trying to back up and not make it any worse. The pics don’t show it well, but the fresh scrape on the dunnage has some green paint on it as well. Got a little made about it and parked the tractor and walked away from the wood yard. Headed up to the wood yard this morning with the mini ex to fix the ruts and compact the dirt before we get another weekend of rain. After lunch I’ll go back and put the covers on the totes and do some stacking.
It’s that time of year again, started winter logging on the property. Working on the next section of our trail project. Dropped some trees, and got the skidded out to the field this afternoon. Had a leaning maple tree fight me the whole way to the ground, between getting hung up in branches of other trees, working on a slope, and trying to keep damage to a minimum. I ended up getting it down safely, but backwards for skidding, so i cut 2-10’ logs out of it, and managed to get the top turned around and out to the field. The deer will have a few days to munch on the tops, before they end up on the chipper pile. I’ll get the trunks bucked and stacked in the wood yard tomorrow. First twitch of trees of the winter. End of the day progress.
A different critter nest in the stack, or IBC tote rather. Went out with the tractor to grab a tote of firewood, and when I took the cover off, there was this bird nest sitting there. This wood has been in the tote 1.5 yrs or so. It’s a first for me, usually it’s field mice and chipmunk nests.
Quite amazing, we have a pair of barn swallows that have nested for 3 years now on the end of a 2” ratchet strap wrapped around a 1” diameter pipe in our portable garage. I’ve abandoned the idea of using that end since we saw the nest, and so far each year they have had 5 or 6 babies each year. That makes sense, it was a good sized nest, and very well built. We always saw a robin in that area when walking this summer.
Thank you! I’m still learning some tricks from the guys who do way more firewood than myself. The property is a long term project to make it a farm/estate. We have quite the list of projects to do to bring the house, outbuildings, and land up to what it was 200 yrs ago.
Yes, (long post incoming) the original house that remains is an 1818 cape with summer kitchen, the rest got knocked down in the late 1950’s and rebuilt by the previous owners in 1986. They rebuilt one of the add on rooms as a dining room, and a 30’x40’ two story garage. For unknown reasons they rotated the garage 90 degrees compared to the 1910 photo of the house they gave us. At the time this place had 2 big barns, 25-30 acres of field with stone walls, and the rest was woods. The cape portion still has the original pine floors, trim, wainscoting, plaster, and central chimney with 3 fireplaces. The previous owners were really good about preserving the place, and we are trying to do the same. The kitchen was redone in the 70’s with ugly vinyl flooring, and an avocado green stove, which still works great. We’re planning on redoing the kitchen in a few years and bring the look back to period correct. We are the 5th owners of the property, and have a copy of the land grant from the King of England to James Bowdoin for the property and a lot more property. Our property line stone wall was the line between two land grants, and is very well known by surveyors and historians of the area. Elizabeth Bowdoin sold it later on in life to a family from the area and that family name is still around town. We got a ton of documentation about the house and property when we bought it. From last winter. Photo of a photo from 1910. If you look closely on the left behind the tree there is the front of a second barn. Main house hasn’t changed much at all.
Thats awesome thanks for sharing. Always enjoy the older homes and the preservation of them. Especially the colonial period ones.Do ya still use the old fireplaces then?
Krackle_959 as a 7th generation Vermonter I can tell you why they rebuilt the garage 90° to the original. I have done it.. Snow drop off eves of roof over a garage door.. is plain stupid design. In old days horses did not care they just stepped over it! cars if go over and top of car hits top of garage door.. usually totaling car or gets high centered on bank and no wheels touch ground.. in short because it makes sense now
The central chimney with 3 fireplaces has been capped, at some point someone cut holes in the dampers to run a stovepipe through. We have gotten replacement dampers for them, hoping to get them installed next summer. The fireplaces are only 12” or so deep, and even with a spark screen I wouldn’t feel comfortable using them. There’s 3 wood stoves as well, and those are used. At some point we will have the central chimney rebuilt, and make the fireplaces deep enough to use, there is space for it, as the brick area is 8’ wide and 13’ long on the first floor. A old home preservationist believes there was a brick oven at one point, based on footprint, but it’s been reworked a long time ago. The chimney is 36” square at the roof.
I’m aware of the snow coming off the roof, according to the documents the main barn gable end had a big door, just not next to the house. What surprises me more is the two big barns were 25’-30’ apart, so the space between them must have been filled with snow from the roofs and nowhere to shovel it to. My FIL has 14 garage doors in 3 4 buildings, 10 of them are on the sides, makes snow removal fun! I’ve told my wife if we win the lottery I’d take the current garage and move it out back, and build a barn as shown in the photo, just for the historical look. she always laughs about it as I never remember to play it.
Wonder if that shallow fireplace where for coal? My mom has a old farm house with fireplaced like that. And last winter the chimney has years of coal dust suddenly collapse out of fireplace covering the entire house.
Not coal fireplaces, the house wasn’t setup for coal. Apparently the central chimney and 3 fireplaces when the house was built was a luxury.
Neighbor let me know a tree top had come down across the snowmobile trail. I went out to investigate, and deal with it, turns out there were several small hemlocks broken off, and a big hemlock top laying across the trail. Broke 35’ or more up the trunk, got it all out of the way before it got too warm. Once it gets cold again I’ll cut the trunk down and a few others and skid them out.
