Hello and We did it!

said you had around 3 acres open. Is that the garden space in your drawing??

I apologize for not updating our status frequently. I'm more of a do'r than a writer.

So we've had the property for right at three months and are loving it. We've done a huge amount of work, but aren't anywhere close to being where we want it. I'll break the update down into separate posts to keep it somewhat manageable. Land, Outbuildings, Cabin.

Land: Our whole strategy here has been to improve the maintainability of areas we have to keep mowed. Specifically we had the following to deal with:

Problem: We had many trees with low hanging branches that made it difficult to ride the mowers underneath them. Solution: We used polesaws to trim all of the low hanging branches.
Problem: We had several areas of the "yard" that had been left untended for years and had grown up with scrub brush that needed to be cleared. Solution: We used the DR Walk Behind Bush Hog we got with the purchase to clear these areas.
Problem: There were several large piles of cut up trees that someone had piled up to be split for firewood. The wood is old and rotting. Solution: Our next door neighbor (1/2 mile away) brought his tractor with front end loader and we moved the piles up to the burn spot. We are going to have a big bonfire Labor day weekend.
Problem: There are a lot of old rusting farm implements laying in one area that prevent us from mowing in that area. Solution: I called a scrap metal recycler who came and got them, I told him if he would come get them he could have them for free.
Problem: There were several old fence lines that serve no purpose other than to provide a difficult to mow fence line: Solution: We pulled up the fence lines.
Problem: There were nine piles of tree limbs, old lumber, etc... that were just laying on the ground providing habitat for copperheads. Solution: After we consolidated them, Diesel fuel and a match.
Problem There were lots of small 1"-3" saplings growing around the cleared areas. Solution: Chainsawed them all down and put them on the burn pile.
Problem: There were lots of large and small tree stumps left over from previous cuttings. Solution: Haven't done anything with this yet. Waiting to get a full days worth of work before I rent a stump grinder and grind them all down. Painted them with high visibility orange paint so they are easily visible from the mower.

As you can see from the above, we have done a huge amount of work on the land. We have it where we can mow the entire cleared areas in about 4-5 hours now. My wife has a bunch of before and after pictures on her computer, I'll have to get them from her so you can see the difference.

Some observations:

1) Because the land was farmed for years, it is very clear of rocks.
2) The soil is amazing. Not normal ozarks clay.
3) I love the rain, I hate the rain because the grass grows like crazy in that good soil.
4) We've killed 5 copperheads to date. They have all been in the brush and old lumber piles that dotted the property.
5) We had a real tick problem early on; however, as we've kept the grass well mowed and spread seven dust on the "yard" they seem to have gone away. We also started treating our clothes with Premethrin<sp> that seems to have really helped.

Questions:

1) We have two pear trees inside the garden behind an 8ft deer fence. A couple of weeks ago one of them was just loaded with growing pears, over 100 of them. Last weekend they were all gone!?!?! There was no sign of animal presence, no partially eaten pear remains on the ground. No scat. Any thoughts on what would do that?

2) What is the best way to get algae out of a pond?

Cabin is about an hour from Fayetteville. We live in Fayetteville and it takes us exactly 1 hour from our driveway to the front door of the cabin. 15 minutes of that is just getting out of Fayetteville.

It is an 8N. According to the people we bought the property from, it has been sitting there for at least 14 years. All they knew about it was that it doesn't have any brakes. Since you can buy old 8N's off craigslist for less than 2K I probably won't repair this one. It's just going to be yard art.

My wife likes the tree growing up through the trailer, I don't think she'll let me rehab it.

Yes, there is an old plum tree orchard. There are 49 plum trees. I don't know what kind of plum trees they are but they are not normal plums like you eat. They are small, almost cherry size. We've been told they are used for making jams and jellies. The former owner's have a son who has a PHD in botony and is an arborist. He cut the trees way back several years ago and they are just now putting off new shoots and starting to bear fruit again. They look a bit ragged to me.

There are several other plum trees on the property just like these that aren't in the orchard. They were not cut back and are filled with hundreds of these little plums.

I've picked a few off the tree and tried to eat them but they aren't very soft or sweet. Instead they are a bit chalky and bitter.

If any of you know anything about plum trees, I would love an education.

The fenced in garden is only about 1/2 acre. After all the clearing work we've done around the place I figure we have about 4 or so acres to mow.

I bet the pear thief is of the 2 legged variety. There may have been someone taking the pears for years with the former owner's permission. Hopefully once they know there are new owners, that will stop.

Kitty

Thanks for the update! I have loved your pictures.

I agree with the 2-legged thief, anything else should have left a mess (raccoons esp) or some of the pears. I can't imagine a deer or a bear could reach every one. Did you see any scat?

I especially like the parts where you talk of burning things. Does that make me a pyromaniac?

Update on the work we've done on the cabin:

Fortunately, the cabin is very solid and the roof doesn't leak (we've had a HUGE amount of rain this summer so it has been well tested). The biggest issue facing us with the cabin is that the chinking in the logs is old and starting to crumble out. It's going to need to be rechinked at some point in the next few years. This is going to be a massive undertaking as we'll have to remove all of the siding from the exterior of the cabin. At some point in the past someone wrapped the outside of the cabin in roofing tar and then covered it with board and batten siding. All of that will have to come down to give us access to the logs. I am dreading this.

We've done some major cleaning and some minor fix it type work around the inside. I used spray foam to seal the cracks (Some quite large) around the junction of the floor and the walls. We tore down an old piece of paneling that was covered in wine corks and put up some shelves.

The kitchen counter top was tile and the grout was in terrible shape. The tiles were lose and water had soaked into the plywood below them. We decided to pull the tiles up and re-tile the top. When we got the tiles up, we determined that the plywood had rotted around the sink. The old sink was enameled metal which was stained and chipped so we bought a new stainless steel sink and faucet. I cut out the rotted plywood, covered the top in hardy board and began to lay out the tile. I really didn't like the way it was going to look due to the lack of any "square" to the countertop. I was going to have to cut a lot of tile and it just wasn't going to look good. So I decided on Plan B.

My Brother in Law is a master craftsman cabinet builder. I called him and he came out and looked at it and we decided the best thing to do was for him to custom build new cabinets to fit the space. We want things to remain rustic and match the cabin so I was a bit leary about building something new. One of the treasures we got with the cabin was a lot of old rough cut lumber stacked up in the barn and chicken coop. He took one look at it and told me not to worry, I had more than enough old lumber for him to build cabinets that looked like they were original to the cabin. Below is a picture of the new countertop under construction.

In the "closet" area, I put down new decking over the old floor (see my previous post about this area). I covered the back wall with blue foam insulation and then covered that with OSB. I'm in the process of going around the walls and putting up OSB. This room is going to be used for storage. I'm going to put in some steel shelving I already have so I'm not very worried about this not looking rustic. I'm going for more function over fashion. I wired in a new electrical outlet and we put a 18 cubic ft fridge (on sale at Lowes for $370) to give us more fridge and freezer space. (The cabin came with a small 10 cu Ft fridge)

We have also hung curtians, brought in a recliner and love seat, moved the old rope bed upstairs and the iron full size bed down stairs. My wife found a great old enameal top kitchen table at an antique store which we bought to use in the kitchen. It matches perfectly. This past weekend we found an old wardrobe at an antique store in Texas which we're going to use as our closet. My wife made covers out of old burlap coffee bags to go over the under counter storage area.

I haven't done anything to the upstairs yet, I am waiting for cooler temps in the fall. I'm going to rip out all the ruined drywall and insulation and redo it with tongue in groove wood. At some point in the past, someone put up fiberglass insulation and covered it with sheet rock. They never finished the job and condensation from the metal roof has ruined whats there, it all has to come down.

Here are pictures of the living room, due to the limit of 10 per post, i'll post the kitchen pics in the next post.


Inside the living room:

Before





After

Pictures from the work we've done on the kitchen

Before









As currently is









New Counter Top under construction

Some other pictures of progress

Plum Orchard before and after

Before, you can see one of the brush piles in the middle.





After



Big piles of firewood before and after

There were three of these.




Moving them



Bonfire anyone?



After - notice the rusting farm implements gone as well

The missing pears



Some of the clearing we did, you couldn't walk in this area before due to the low hanging branches and briers.



My Son and I working


Our 180lb English Mastiff, Cooper, staying cool on the back porch


Our chocolate lab, Kyleigh, she loves place!


My Son holding up a trophy


What is this? Beaver? We have one at the pond.


This was a very big print down by the pond, I think it is coyote.


Our shower, after a long hot day working on the land, this feels great!


Bear Hollow

fantastic Chromedome 35. i just love that pond.

The cabin looks AMAZING!!

You will at times feel like you have lost your mind. It will always return to you with so much more here. Your parents will see it too. This place is a happy place. How many of us are setting around that kitchen table clanking cups with you? All of us.

Tell your wife that those big black snakes she is killing are one of the best bets to keep the copperheads away now that you have the yard cleaned up. A big black rat snake would eat that copperhead you shot in a minute if he caught it in the open.

Where I once lived, I had an negibor across the road that had big rock bluffs behind his house, He killed a copperhead or a rattler about every other week. I lived no more than 100 yards from his house and never saw a posioness snake on my side of the road. I did have a couple of huge back rat snake around the house and barn. The got a few chicks a couple of times, and a few eggs every once in a while, but the lack of poisonous snakes around my kids was well worth it. When I move to my next place, if there aren't black rat snakes around, I am going to catch a few and take them there myself!

BTW, I suspect the pears wre absconded with by human varmits if they were all gone in one night.

Looking good. Love the pics. You might be able to find someone to redo that tractor wish I was closer. I am working on a 8n now. The trailer will weaken the tree as it grows. Please keep the pic coming.

__________________
Dorothy Kaye Collins

Congratulations on finding a great property! It will be a lot of work but well worth it! I always wanted a remote place and log house. Good luck to you and yours.you are blessed!

Thanks for the pictures! So much fun to see. Can't wait to see the finished kitchen, great job on the house! And the land...

Super find with that place. AWSOME I see you and yours don't mind a little hard work. It will let you all love it more. Enjoy every minute.

Larry
A World Away