Building a farm .. Updated 8/24 Complete/ *PICS*

[Goose and Fig]

That's so true! We have been using the wood we cut for heat and making fences & arbors. The stumps are another story!

 

[texasgal]

September 24

I find myself hesitating to update, because the stress already has me fighting to keep from being negative.

NOBODY moves fast enough for DH .. so he pushes and pushes and pushes. This includes the kids, me, the loggers, the dozer guy (who has already quit), and now the builder. I'm so afraid that all the pushing is going to actually make people slow down even more, or quit.

So we have the logging mess .. and it's at the top of DHs checklist.. I told him that he was going to drive himself and everyone else crazy if he becomes goal oriented about the mess.. it's JUST GOING TO TAKE A WHILE.

We have some land clearing and stump grinding being done this weekend, and that should open up the dirt guys to come in and prepare the pad for the garage slab.

Sometime soon, we will be looking at the electic, and the water well people coming out..

geeeeeeez .... are we done yet?!?!?

 

[chixie]

i know what you mean... we did ours from scratch 10 years ago and things are not the way I want them... cause hubby had to have things his way... it will be worth it though when you are finished

 

[WingingIt]

Have any of the trees been down long enough to be dry enough to burn the piles left? Y'all have been getting some rain down there, right? (I have family not too far from there) Hopefully there's no burn ban now and you could put DH to work burning the piles if there is adequate clearance around them. Would keep him busy and make some progress.

 

[texasgal]

So, this past weekend, DHs DS19 came and brought a friend and the three of them cut and burned and supervised the hydro-axe and stump grinding..

I've got to tell you .. if you've never seen a hydro-axe doing it's thing ........ it's impressive. I've actually got video and will post in a day or two.

The property looks completely different .. the two acres around the house area is all underbrushed and pretty. You can see the slope to the land and all .. it's very beautiful! I've got pics .. will post soon.

Builder brought out the forms for the piers .. and officially marked the house site. The electrician was out yesterday and the water well folks should be out the next couple of days.

Dirt is coming in today for the garage, so they can pour the pad.

We're on our way, baby!!

All this activity has DH VERY happy ..

Pics soon!

 

[Eggs-Actly]

We've been wanting to do this for years. Maybe I'll learn a thing or two by taking this trip with ya'll.

 

[chickenwhisperer123]

That picture on the front page, the one of your driveway...

That is my dream property.


Good Luck with your little farm!

 

[Eliza]

DH and I bought 7 very wooded acreas with an antique cape and out buildings and set about clearing the land ourselves. the most important thing we've discovered is that instead of cutting the trees and then digging out the stumps, it actually was easier to put a cable and comalong as high up the tree as you can from the ladder, dig around the tree with the backhoe and let gravity do the rest. The stumps pop out of the ground. We've felled some fairly huge oak, maple and birch trees this way. It beats the way we first did it, cutting down then digging out the stumps. We've cleared about 3 acres so far, it takes A LONG TIME regardless.

 

[texasgal]

October 1, 2009

OK .. pics as promised:

It's officially started. After they hydro-axe came through and cleared, the very wooded, brushy property now looks like this:

It's ubelievable how "park-like" it looks just getting the underbrush out of there .. beeeee-utiful!!

Last nite we went out to see the builder progress, since his crew spent the whole day out there:

To our surprise, they had formed the garage slab!!

Some builders grade dirt was brought in just to level up the land a bit under the house, but in this pic, it shows how high the front porch will be off the ground at that corner .. we have a gully off to that side of the house that will be a great view from the porch.

Then we opened a bottle of wine and sat and looked at our "house" while the sun set ..

As we were leaving, I spotted Mr. Copperhead in my headlights and we stopped for a photo op ... and then helped him across the road.

I'm sure all the activity has displaced many critters .. we still see tons of deer tracks, though.. so I'll be planting my winter "let's lure the deer onto the property" grass!

It feels good to see progress .. I'm sure things will change almost daily now..

I'm off to the electric company, to give them a check so they can hook up the electric for the builder!

Later!!

 

[jafo]

Congrats! Nothing like building! We did a small log home 11 years ago, and never looked back!