Side projects... and I got stuck.

June 5, 2020

Working on installing new steering brakes in the bulldozer. They are fairly simple. Just giant bands that wrap around a brake drum in the transmission. Should be back together soon, but the bands are rebuilt now.

Used the new ripper attachment to rip a little trench for Jonathan to plant some rubarb with Dolly.

Also JUST before I ripped all bulldozer apart, I had to use it to “unstuck” Dolly from a swamp that I found while bushhogging brush… Good thing I decided to rip into the bulldozer second and not first.

Gravel Pad Complete!

June 5, 2020

The giant gravel pad is now complete. Final quantity came out to 808 cubic yards of material. That’s fairly insane, but it insures that there is never a problem with mud or drainage or anything in the future. It is also way bigger than necessary just to make working around the building site easier. Hard to convince friends to come help when they just get covered in mud. I need to measure the final dimensions of the area, but is is fairly huge.

I’m standing in the back corner for some perspective.

Build a “little” offshoot in the back corner that will house a shipping container in the very near future. Basically an instant garage before the garage.

Concrete foot pads placed ready for the container delivery.

Just about the final hole that was created harvesting the gravel.

Planting Trees!

May 26, 2020

25 Dunstan Chestnut Trees arrived courtesy of Dad. Lot of mowing the field had to be caught up on and 25 holes needed to be dug. Luckily a gas powered post hole digger was also sent…. definitely has become the most terrifying tool in my possession. Basically like trying to hold onto a mini tornado. If not careful, it will throw you over the top of it and laugh at you. Ten trees were planted flanking the driveway entering the propery and then the rest followed the treeline through the back of the field. They are about 30ft apart to allow good sun when they get bigger.

Wrapped for transport to prevent wind burn.

After all the trees were planted I sprayed them all with a product called Plantskydd to keep the animals from munching on them. It is all organic… basically cow and porcupine blood according to the ingredients. It is supposed to give the impression of a rotting animal and deer dont like to eat that. I’ll be interested to see how well it works.

https://www.plantskydd.com/

In addition, I’ll be wrapping all the trunks in tree tubes. It should offer additional protection from the animals, particularly the mice, voles, moles, woodchucks, beavers, porcupines, rabbits. Trunk tubes are not added yet, but will be in the coming days and I’ll add pictures.

A quick addition…

All the trees now are fully wrapped in trunk tubes and nice and safe. The hard plastic trunk tubes are much like corregated drain pipe and cut very easily with heavy duty sheers from Harbor Freight. Also easy to cut a little hole in the side to make room for a branch here and there. Unfortunately the last time it rained here was when it snowed a month ago. But rain should be here soon? Until then, I ‘m doing a bucket brigade to and from the stream to water the trees. Its alot of carrying buckets!!!

Fixing roads and laying gravel

May 15, 2020

Cleaned up the road a big. Still need a lot of practice grading things like this. It is a lot harder than it looks. Also my bulldozer needs a bunch of pins replaces in the blade arms to give it a little tighter control. That will be happening soon, but I’m learning ways to do it regardless. When its all tightened up, it should be a breeze.

Lots of gravel slowly going in. Digging out of a big bank of gravel/rocky area on the property and moving it up to level. Slowly but surely. Hired my wonderful neighbor who owns the gravel pit/quarry behind my property and lives up the road to help dig. I’m spreading the best I can… But my leveling skills are not super great, hence his bulldozer for the finishing. Teamwork.