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It really is a big to do list. I've thought of this place as when I first got it all fixed up being so much better then when I bought it. Then one day it hit me potential buyers won't see it that way. They never saw it before and to them it would appear to be about ready for a remodel. I wasn't concerned about the fix'em ups and wanted them fresh before the sale. Plus I've been broke for so long. I was hoping to get some good jobs so I could do the bigger things, like the tree, but that never came. Really wanting to move out of this area and getting no closer, I decided to stop focusing on what I can't do and do all the things I could. I've been picking away at the work using a lot of the materials I've had stowed away and improvising/compromising a lot. I've done an awful lot in the last year or so.

Moving the barn, it seems, is pretty far fetched to the people I tell. It's a pole building and only 12 x 20. It does have a second floor and I put oak flooring down. But I think I can dig the footers, pour them and the 3' of slab, support, cut posts, brace up, and slide it on over. I may use pipe to roll it on and push with a skid loader. I moved the screen house (10' x 14') 3' with a come along. That has a second floor, too, and the first floor is framed with decking boards.
We have seen how much nicer vehicles stay when parked under shelter. Also nice to not have a ton of snow or ice to clear off. I can't imaging how much firewood is in that maple tree. It's like 18 trees in one. The trunk is ungawdly awful huge. I also have a big white pine I'd like to take out. My older some planted it after winning it at an auction he went with me too. I had to let him plant it, but boy do I regret it. If I had gone ahead with moving the barn uphill in line with the garage to swap sides with the shed roof, I would have had to take a really nice Hemlock out. I have on old steel porch glider against the shed and under it. Makes for a real nice peaceful nook. Feels like back up home in the mountains.

So here are the transmissions and transfer cases before I put the steering boxes with them
Attachment 2047716

This is the screen house now.
Attachment 2047712

The barn somewhat cleared out.
Attachment 2047714

And the SWB hauling it's first load before it runs :lol:
Attachment 2047715

The pile of lumber from the racks in the shed side. I will build a rack in the little garage to move all that. It is a PIA but I need to use most of it on the house. Moving and storing is cheaper than buying

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Make sure to hold onto that cherry wood. Just go check current prices on it. Not for the faint of heart, though it's probably a lot cheaper back there where it grows. Here in California, it's just stupid expensive.

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This morning I fixed the drive through electric gate again after somebody apparently tried to drive under it with too tall of a vehicle :rolleyes:

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Doggone census takers!

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I don’t blame you for wanting to leave Tim, the area has changed so much over the last 20 years. I left in 2013 and although I miss family and the mountains I really don’t miss much else. Every time I come home and go even a little ways East I don’t recognize much of it at all anymore. I’m like my space from other people, that’s getting hard to find in that immediate area. Dad is getting his place ready to sell as well. He’s got 2 years left before he retires and plans to sell the house and rent for a little bit before he leaves for good.

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I've lived other places and everywhere on of those places I wanted to go back to live my life. Somehow (marriage at first) I ended up back here and now it's been half my life this house. I was looking to move somewhere in the valley in the '90s before things started booming, but I had a few snags come up in my life. So I was working toward that again when more snags came along, and here I still am. And now the huta suburbanites have about taken over. Fortunately the only affect where my place are the drivers mindlessly buzzing by like they are still on I-70 or I-270. They aren't here to enjoy the country life. They are here to get away from the urban issues, and they are bringing it all with them.

My mom is 90 now, so no big move out of the region, but somewhere closer to her. Washington Co. near the Potomac and hopefully the Blue Ridges, Sharpsburg to Williamsport or north closer to PA like Maugansville to Blue Ridge Summit-Cascade area. I can't get too far away from the money yet, unfortunately. I need a cheap place to buy outright and fix up to sell before I land in the home I'll finish out my life in. If the next one is my last, then so be it. I'm going right now to look at one in Yarrowsburg, another (if it's still available) in Rohrersville, and one in Williamsport. I look even though I'm not ready. I just need to take a ride!

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Williamsport it still pretty decent, my great uncle lives up there. He and my great aunt before she passed away, have lived up there for 40+ years. I haven’t been up there in a few years but last I was there, the country lifestyle was alive and well. Hagerstown has sure grown a lot over the last several years. If I ever come back that way for good it will be down the valley a good ways far away from everyone. That’s one of the big things that keeps me in the West, wide open spaces with little population. You can still easily find very quiet places that have little to no light pollution at night with ease. Not to mention the old trucks don’t die too many rusty deaths out here.

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My wife used to say, "I'm not moving somewhere just because trucks don't rust out!" when I'd talk about moving back to the S/W. Of course there are all the other reasons. I never lost the feeling of being in the places I've lived. I've been compensating and focusing the good the whole time. It's the good old people and the way it was that is best about around here. I'm more into the historic value than keeping up with the modern world that so many here all all about. Like burly ol' Dave Arterburn (old boss) used to call them, "Buncha Hush Puppy wearin' Pencil Pushers" :lol:. I also look at places in Page County, VA. The valley between Blue Ridge and Massanutten where the South Fork of the Shenandoah snakes through. My sister is down there in Rileyville, about midway between Front Royal and Luray. I spend time there visiting her when I can. Luray is still a nice area. I just wouldn't want to have to commute. I can see me living there once I'm on SS with a place that's paid for. I had been ready for that or Garrett County, MD to be my next place, but I really should try to make some more money before giving up. But some days I just wanna... :cool:

BTW, on my way into town I decided to abort going and fantasizes about houses, hit the store, and get back to it here. I have an overhead lumber rack to build and stock up. Got to keep at it!

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Before painting the roof on the 68 I bucked up some ash

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It's that time of year to be getting firewood together. We had 40s last night for the first time since early June.

I dig more digging and forming today, I have along the high side of the garage all formed up for the "curb" to the uphill side of the walk that will run along that wall. The steps are dug out at the back, where the walk leads to. Pouring the steps are next. I have expansion joint coming and I need to buy stone for the risers. Slow but getting there. My main concern is getting everything seeded before it's too late, like this week!

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Fixed up a couple places in my shop roof the last hurricane rains showed leaking during downpours. Put in a full day at the full time job as well.

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We cut and loaded 3 8ft truck loads of oak on Saturday afternoon. That time of year for sure here. Been into the high 30’s a few times at night. Already. I’ll probably need another 5-6 loads to be set for winter. Probably start burning in a month or so. I heat with a mix of coal and wood.

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I've still got about a half a semi load to cut up.

There's more than enough wood cut up in the yard for this winter, but I try to keep about two years ahead. I have two piles and rotate between them.

We put the new stove in place today but discovered I had the wrong stovepipe adaptor. Called real quick, they said they had one, so we made a quick 70 mile trip to exchange and return unused parts. Get there, uh no - they don't have it after all. So they're ordering the supposedly right part and shipping it to me at their cost.

The old stove was just fine except you could see flame right through the back side!

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As far as wood cutting this will be the first year in many that I probably won't be cutting and splitting for my father in law since he passed the end of August. He would burn a couple cords every year typically and I usually tried to be a season ahead of him.

Supposed to be cooler here after tomorrow and I am ready for it.

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It is a quiet moment thinking not doing something for one of our elders that you have done for years and then you lose them..you are a good son-in-law.

When my sis and her husband live on Lake Overcup near Morrillton ,,they would get wood cut and stacked by a nephew ,,and I noticed that when talking of getting wood for the winter that they spoke of Ricks and not Cords ,,I grew up in Oregon and burned many cords of wood in the 45 years living there ,,so it was new to me that people bought wood and stacked it by ricks.. nothing wrong with it ,,just not used to that way of sizing of wood stacks..and just something to talk about on here,, :)

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GOPAPA,
Way funny, my father in law was born and raised in Morrilton. Crazy, small world. He and I got along famously for the 27 years my wife and I have been together. She often said if we ever split up he would keep me and let her go. He is going to me missed. We used to fly, fish, work, and plan all sorts of stuff we knew we'd never do. Fished the Fouche River south of Morrilton with him many times. Started my engineering career at the paper mill there as well.

This has been a real melancholy year for obvious reasons but also my last child left home for college. Turning off those outside lights and closing the garage door early that first night knowing nobody was coming home was a bit tough to take.

The term "rick" of wood is still commonly used in Arkansas although not officially recognized by the board of standards here. If you sell wood you are supposed to sell by the cord or partial cord. To my eyes, a rick is about 1/3 a cord. 4 feet tall x 8 feet long x 16 inches wide. Some argue that but when I cut and split three "ricks" make a cord. I cut about 16" lengths and split a bit smaller because my father in law could not handle big pieces and often times my wife would be building the fire as well.

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Pretty sure a rick is a face cord. I have enough wood cut and stacked for 3 to 4 years. And at least that needing to be bucked and split. And now I have more town is clearing the dead or dying trees on my road . Mostly maple and oak . One oak is at least 4ft in diameter.

I burn on average 5 to 6 cords a season

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All that maple and oak going up in smoke is enough to make a grown man cry, if he likes to work with wood. All that beautiful, undiscovered grain figure! Here in California we pay good money per board foot for either of those woods. #sad

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Not all oak or maple make good wood but it all burns . I save wood that grows in the heavy woods they tend to be straight and very few branches low on the trunk. I have quite a bit of slab wood from such trees. First is Hickory second is red oak and I managed to salvage some ash for boards. I also have a bunch of maple in log lengths. But milling is best in cool weather

I wont mill wood that grows along the road or people's yards. Nothing like hitting a nail with an expensive ripping chain or a saw band

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What I know the term "rick" to mean has nothing to do with quantity or firewood. It is the method used to air dry lumber or just stack it to keep it dry. It's when you place narrow strips of wood in line with one another between each course of board while also leaving space side by side of each board. That is how you air dry lumber when not kiln drying. It's also how to store it outside to prevent rot and mold.

Yesterday I dug and formed. I forgot mention that digging meant fill the wheelbarrow, walk it out to the road, over next door in the meadow, dump in the ruts my neighbor made, and spread out. A couple summers ago we had record rains and the stream kept flooding the meadow. My neighbor had trailers he had dumped there years before and decided they needed to be moved when things were as wet as they will ever get. Tore it up bad, so bad it can't be mowed and it's a mosquito pit. I needed a place to get rid of dirt, so killed two birds with one stone. I also dug and formed for a threshold at the far side entry door to the garage.

Oh and SteveeDee, what could you do with a piece of cherry like this?

This evening I graded and seeded up to the form work. That was my goal. Get grass growing before the season ends so it won't be a mudhole all winter. I also have stepping stones going around to the back door of the house. There was always a low spot where in heavy rain it would puddle. I've wanted to pull the stones up and raise them to create a swale to direct water on out and down the side of the house. I got pictures today

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We called that "sticking" ;)

We also did it that way when stacking in a kiln, plus leaving edge space. You had to be damn careful to stack it straight or it would lean and tip. Another young guy and I contracted to fill the kiln for this old fellow that I had been working for. I nearly ran my helper into the ground because I was used to humping lumber around all day long. :lol:

I don't think I ever got back to that job. We had to take a break from making T&G and other products while the kiln drying process occurred (the kiln was just a big heated and insulated building). I don't remember now if I got another job or the old fellow got sick or what.


What I did today was go to town to get some papers notarized and drop off the Jeep at the car hospital. This afternoon I've been out watching and yakking with the young neighbor guy who is oiling my house. Retirement is nice :)

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In the ag world a rick can be hay,straw, corn or anything that is put in a shape of a line. When corn was still picked it was called ear corn and if you didn’t put it in a crib you put it in a rick on the ground. A crib went up in the air with corn cribbing.

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72c20customcamper and special-K's projects remind me of my dad. He was retired 25 years before he had his stroke, and those were the kind of projects he loved doing.

I went up to the Maplewood Cemetery this morning and visited my parents.

It was beautiful this morning and these Maple trees will be turning bright colors in a few days.

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I guess I didn't make the connection that your folks were buried there, or forgot. Which I apologize for. I do remember you said you like to ride your bicycle there. It looks like a very nice cemetery.

I like to stay busy and plan to be very busy once retired. I enjoy working. I always look at things and see what needs done. It feels good to shorten the list. It seems my life is nothing but loose ends and I'd like to change that. Too bad I'll get this place all tightened up, then move on and have another place to get right. I do also look forward to sitting back and just enjoying it all. I do that now here but trying to stay on it all I can.

I plan to replace my main (upper) roof a section at a time, from cedar shakes to metal. The front will be first. I had a bad spot I realized when I was painting last year when I saw a section of fascia rotted out behind the gutter. I put a 3/8 bead on all the fascia and on the lower section, where I had a lot of bad spots in fascia, I replaced with Azek (w/bead). When I moved all that material from the shed to the garage I came up with just what I need to replace across the front. I thought it was primed wood until I snatched it out. That's what's great about keeping this stuff around. The bad part is moving it and not being able to get to what you need w/o digging in. But moving it was good for uncovering the Azek, so good/bad oh well :lol:. I'm about to set up tools and do some int/ext trim odds and ends. So the fascia will get taken care of that round

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72C20,
Man, I wish you and I were closer. My grandad had me running a big lathe and doing other woodworking by the time I was nine. I still do some from time to time. Have made three live edge cherry end tables from a tree at my father in laws. Have two big logs from that tree I'd like ripped into slaps for some other project.

All the kitchen cabinets, fireplace mantle, and the cabinets/desk I am sitting at in my office are hickory. Figure when I sell this place the first thing the new owners wife will do is paint it all.:whine:

My plan for the day (besides regular job work) is to mow around the pool and maybe a few other honey do's that need done. Nothing fantastic, just checking the boxes.

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I wont mill wood that grows along the road or people's yards. Nothing like hitting a nail with an expensive ripping chain or a saw band[/QUOTE]

When I was sawyer in a sawmill with two circle saws 54 inch and 38 inch over head the nails bad but them files would fly out like shaprel. dont blame you as staying away from yard grown trees

[quote=special-K;8809154]What I know the term "rick" to mean has nothing to do with quantity or firewood.
Yesterday I dug and formed. I forgot mention that digging meant fill the wheelbarrow, walk it out to the road, over next door in the meadow, dump in the ruts my neighbor made, and spread out. A couple summers ago we had record rains and the stream kept flooding the meadow. My neighbor had trailers he had dumped there years before and decided they needed to be moved when things were as wet as they will ever get. Tore it up bad, so bad it can't be mowed and it's a mosquito pit. I needed a place to get rid of dirt, so killed two birds with one stone. I also dug and formed for a threshold at the far side entry door to the garage.

Good work Tim ,, us old splinter pickers learn to improvise and make some thing out of not so much .. Did I miss where you are fixing things up around the ol place and selling out?


Beautiful Cemetery Larry..well kept ..my niece in Russelville cleans up cemeteries all around where she lives and one in Shirley where my dad is buried..

If you don't mind ,,i would love to see picturs of your hickory cabinets.I bet they are very pretty ....I lived in Oregon the only hickory I could get to build anything out of was from Pallets from trucker bringing motor parts to the papermill close by me .

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Not sure, but if you wanted to buy a plank like that around here you'd be dropping anywhere from $6 to $11 per board foot, depending on the quality of the grain. That plank's worth anywhere from $80 to $170, around here. It's why I try to find free wood. I go to the Habitat ReStore or the Salvation Army store for old furniture made of solid wood, then cut it up. I bought a low dresser made of thick quarter-sawn white oak (QSWO) awhile back. The figure in the wood is to die for. I don't know what I'll do with it yet, but I paid less than the wood would cost me in a store. It's hard to find QSWO with decent figure. I saw a 3/4" X 6" by 4' board at a Rockler store. They wanted $100 for it. That's $25 per board foot! :( Rockler has what I call "boutique" wood.

You're a nice guy for filling in the neighbor's divots!

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We call it sticking too when drying fresh slabs . But heres an instance of what I was talking about hitting metal in wood . Anyone who cuts a lot will hit some .

Edit just took a picture of the wood that I put up last fall. I have two other piles that have been moved to the lower floor of the barn . Upper has lots of ventilation as it was for hay storage. Wood dries faster there but when its dry I like to store it on the ground floor . Little more humidity

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GOPAPA,
Had to take a couple photos as I didn't have much on my phone already. Kitchen and office. Pay no mind to the office, it's always a mess because I spend way too much time here during the week but make a decent living mostly right here at home.

72C20 - I did that to myself this spring. Cut down a 70+ foot tall pine in my back yard that had been struck by lightning. I knew there was a birdhouse on the tree but the lightning blew it off and there were two screws holding the birdhouse to the tree. I thought to myself "What are the odds of hitting one of two screws in a 70 foot tree?" Those odds are exactly 100%.

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Guess I know sticking as ricking because sticking is the only way to be ricking. I know it as sticking as well, but ricking is what's sticking in my head when it comes to stacking and hacking in neat dry stacks. If you don't stick it right it gets out of whack and all you end up with is an achin' back.

I've hit the old barb wire deep into a tree where long ago there once was a fence. The only tree standing in the area, not hedgerow or any breaks in the landscape. Just open field with one storm damaged tree that needed to come down. Hate when that happens!

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When I worked in the sawmill the lumber (boards) were pulled off the green chain and planer chain and put on Jitney blocks and between the rows of boards ever so often to keep the stack of lumber straight and steady to haul away by a lumber carrier or fork truck we used "Stickers" They were rough cut 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch I think ? 4 feet long

A Jitney was a lumber carrier that staddled the loads of lumber and picked the load up by use of the jitney blocks .

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Yeah we sometimes just parked the forklift and stacked directly onto it as it was sawed. Mostly it was 6x6x8' for t&g house logs and I stacked them in bunks of 48 with sticks between the rows and then banded it and set it aside to air dry. That sixth row was exercise to get up there for a little guy like me ;)

If the forklift was busy elsewhere like the other crew running the planers then I just stacked the 6x6's on timbers so the forklift could move the complete bunk out of the way.

This was a little bitty sawmill way up in the mountains. The scenery was incredible :)

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Trimmed the slider today now I need to finish up the siding.

Just like Tim I try to use azek on the outside of the house . Will outlast me . Had to shim the door 3/4 " over to the right when I installed it this door was smaller than the one I had installed 15 years ago. So I needed to make the moldings symmetrical. Wouldn't look right one 1x6 other 1x8, used 1x8 azek with rabbet cuts for the siding . Got rid of the jmold. Replacing the temp railing and making a platform for the entrance . Little nicer than just steps right into the house

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Cut another little load of wood this morning. I'm trying to get into a routine of cutting a pickup load most every morning after chores until the rest of the semi load of logs is all blocked up and stacked in the yard. A "load" being about level with the top of the bed minus the toolbox and the spare. Just that much green wood smashes down that 1500 pretty good.

I almost need to buy one of those cheap HF hoists that you bolt into the back corner of your pickup bed. Some of these logs are huge and still mostly green. I can hardly pick up the round blocks even only cutting them about 12" long. There's still enough of that log to make about a half dozen more blocks, and that is the big end!

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This is my latest scrounge of firewood . White oak and hickory I'm in a reall good place for wood dont need anymore but these literally fell into my lap. They are about 20 feet from my driveway across the road .

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I made a log arch for my dump trailer last year . Comes in handy when I dont have the FEL kubota. Basic idea is the arch acts a high point for the winch mounted in front of the trailer . Block and tackle for the wire rope as the log comes up into the trailer the arch swings into the trailer and the log is halfway on the trailer . I then pull the log up all the way with the winch

Able to get wood in less than half the time . The Ambrosia maple in the trailer is now cut into slabs for a table

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What a set up you have there.. tongs and all ..kinda like a jippo logger.. I only got maple a couple times in all my years of cutting my own wood.. great wood to burn

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Yeah, I just block everything and throw it in the pickup. Simple that way. I could build a gallows with the rear stake pockets and use a come-a-long for a lift, but there's not many that big. I had a logging truck with a self loader years ago ;)

Right now I'm working through a 50K# semi load that I bought last fall and had dumped in the sagebrush. It's a 1/4 mile haul to the house. I've gone through all the dry stuff and trying to get the rest blocked and stacked in the yard for winter after next when it will be good and dry, before I go out and start scrounging dead trees from the woods again.

I've got a bunch of misc saw work also: trimming lower limbs and attacking some of the thickets. That gets pretty discouraging because you spend more time dragging and stacking than cutting. Then I bought another 20 acres so that will need some forest management too :lol:

80 degrees and smokey today. I ain't doin' saw work in the afternoon.

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Man ,,you are self driven ,,,proud of ya and another 20 acres of it too.. ..I suppose I was too. any time I could get some easy pickens for wood ,,I'd work until I couldnt see anymore ..and right back at it again in the morn...self loading log truck Huh? I couldnt get a boom truck to put up rafters to this 60 ft pole barn I was building and this guy says he'd do it with his self loader,,,,,, ( you know one with tongs and nuckle that swings and twists all over the place ? ) we got er done ,,but talk about doing the hula dance up the ladder trying to catch that darn bunch of steel tryin to conk me in the head was a wake up call to dont do it again .. of course the operator had a lot to do with it ..

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I'm not so driven anymore. I do a load in the morning while it's still cool and that's all. Nice enough weather but it's so smokey that we aren't riding the horses in the PM :(

My truck & loader wasn't so big: a C/50 and homemade loader. I did have hydraulic grapple but it didn't rotate. The boom had a heel for the butt of the log and that's how I kept it from swinging out of control. Just four valves like a backhoe: main, jib, swing, and grapple. I still can't run a backhoe because I always move the jib the wrong way.

I had to trade everything off when I got sick and went back to school. I heard the GMC and loader got burned up in a forest fire :(

I bought the other 20 acres mostly to keep anyone from building on it. Also it will make a nice campsite if family or friends visit in the summer. There's even about 200' of seasonal creek down at the bottom end :)