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 apatite fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Mar 21, 2013 18:21
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apatite posted:Is anybody out there or are you all doing spring like stuff instead of being inside? It went back to winter here so I'll post some pics rather than letting this go to the archives or whatever happens to threads that people don't read or post in or whatever. I spent the better part of last week pruning about 45 very neglected mature fruit trees, out in the wind and rain. Had to get it done because the pears were already breaking buds and I only had that week off work. I've got probably 20-30 yards of pruned branches piled up around the orchard waiting to be dealt with too. We didn't have any snow this winter so I enjoy seeing it here. What's the maple sap situation? How much longer will you be able to harvest it?
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Mar 21, 2013 20:40
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apatite posted:Is anybody out there or are you all doing spring like stuff instead of being inside? I've got this thread bookmarked and read it whenever there's any updates. I love your photos, it's such a beautiful place to be. I'm really jealous. Just hasn't been much to comment on lately, I'm sure others are in the same boat.
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Mar 21, 2013 21:13
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Leperflesh posted:I've got this thread bookmarked and read it whenever there's any updates. I love your photos, it's such a beautiful place to be. I'm really jealous. I am. If nothing else, it has given me a lot to mull over. Most of my family back home has done something similar - buy land, slowly create a home out of the wilderness. It's a cool process and I'm happy to at least live vicariously 
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Mar 21, 2013 21:38
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Cpt.Wacky posted:We didn't have any snow this winter so I enjoy seeing it here. What's the maple sap situation? How much longer will you be able to harvest it? The sap'll run probably another two-three weeks at best (typically no more than eight total). Weather in that part of the country tends to dump snow like crazy toward the middle/end of March but then suddenly thaw at the beginning of April.
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Mar 21, 2013 22:03
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Rufus En Fuego posted:The sap'll run probably another two-three weeks at best (typically no more than eight total). Weather in that part of the country tends to dump snow like crazy toward the middle/end of March but then suddenly thaw at the beginning of April. I hope you are right. Winter is getting tiresome and I am itching to get out and work on all the construction and other outdoor projects that can't be done with snow on the ground. Need to get a garden started soon.
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Mar 22, 2013 01:04
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Actuary X posted:I hope you are right. Winter is getting tiresome and I am itching to get out and work on all the construction and other outdoor projects that can't be done with snow on the ground. Need to get a garden started soon. You might get one more rude last-minute storm that'll leave you digging out your car (only for it to completely thaw two days later), but those are easy to deal with and always my favorite kind of weather (awesome photo ops, too, since the snow's usually wet and heavy and clings to everything). Then by the time the kids are on spring break you're in a t-shirt, and BAM...it's Memorial Day and summer has arrived. Can you start your seeds indoors? We used to get little peat pots and trays and put them in the sunny windows.
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Mar 22, 2013 16:24
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I also really love this thread. I know a lot of your materials came second hand, or trades, but would you mind throwing together a general budget of what everything cost? It would be awesome to get some perspective on what your life costs vs everyone else who buys a small house in a big city.
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Mar 23, 2013 04:25
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I too love this thread, it's my goal in life to do something similar and it's been incredibly inspiring watching you do your thing and share your bitchin pictures with us.
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Mar 23, 2013 06:42
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one1two2three3 posted:I also really love this thread. I know a lot of your materials came second hand, or trades, but would you mind throwing together a general budget of what everything cost? It would be awesome to get some perspective on what your life costs vs everyone else who buys a small house in a big city. As apatite has demonstrated, you can get the land and build something for pretty cheap, or you can put a lot more into it. It will vary pretty much with how much you have to spend; you work with what you have. I was fortunate in that I did not need to build something. I have been putting money into insulation and such, however, trying to upgrade the place and make it more livable. I've looked at real estate around here, and it is a strange market. Things often go for a very different amount from the nominal asking price. Things sometimes stay on the market for years. I think a lot of property probably changes hands without ever being listed with any agent, through word of mouth. There is a strong distinction made here between people who actually live here year round and the visitors, tourists and part-timers. I'm only now understanding it, having been here through this winter. Still, I will never be a native. The expenses of actually living here is another story. I still have all these ongoing expenses, such as health insurance, car insurance and upkeep, property taxes (something to watch out for), and so on. Yet it is harder to find work or get to a place to work when you live as far from things as you might like. I am fortunate that I am able to do consulting work from home on the computer. Also I saved up for many years ahead of time to be sure I would be able to do it (I planned very conservatively). In short, I don't think someone else's budget is going to help you much. You'll need to draw up your own, depending on how you want to live and what you can afford.
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Mar 25, 2013 16:14
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Food for thought.
apatite fucked around with this message at 14:27 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Mar 26, 2013 18:57
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apatite posted:Very cool on the tree pruning, we've got a LONG way to go before our orchard is at that point The original plan was to chip the branches and use them as mulch around the trees. I got as far as purchasing a used chipper and sharpening the blades. I'm not sure it's going to be up to the task since there are lot more branches than I expected and it's only a 10 HP model instead of one of those giant towed-behind-a-truck models. I'm also not sure I want to spend several long days feeding stuff into a chipper either. Worst case there is a landscape materials place just down the road that might come pick them up, maybe even in exchange for some wood chips.
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Mar 26, 2013 21:39
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apatite posted:Yep. Are you from here or just know things? Northern Vermont! We're practically neighbors.  Not sure if this is a tradition outside Vermont, but once you start boiling you should get a little party together and do sugar on snow. Boil fresh syrup down even further to make it thicker and more concentrated in flavor, then pour it over fresh snow. Once it hits the cold snow it turns into a kind of taffy and it's AMAZING. Serve it with sour pickles and cider doughnuts to cut the sweet. There's nothing better. Can't wait to see what your spread looks like when everything starts to bud! What vegetables are you going to grow?
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Mar 26, 2013 22:38
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rotting wood we have around.
apatite fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Mar 27, 2013 15:25
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apatite posted:Hey we really are neighbors! We get over to Northern VT/Burlington quite a bit. Sugar snow is definitely a tradition here as well and is one of my early memories. We went to my mom's boyfriend's family's sugar shack and helped them boil, had a big party and went into sugar comas. Perhaps that is part of what the fixation is about I grew up just outside of Burlington and attended the University of Vermont there.  I'm out west now but usually make it back every year, and I'm planning on moving back permanently in the next couple of years or so. As much as I'd love to do what you're doing (and have some experience with it) I have my heart set on a Victorian fixer-upper. We do have a family cabin in the deep, dark recesses of the Green Mountains that could use a ton of work, though. Maybe it's in the cards for me after all!Do you know anyone with chickens? Chicken manure is like crack for gardens. My father used to do three giant gardens and grew everything you could imagine (I even got my own 12'x12' plot) and his soil was the typical sand/clay of the area, and tilling in chicken manure with hay was the most amazing thing ever. Our tomatoes and bell peppers always went crazy and the carrots and potatoes are still the best I've tasted to this day. I miss being able to stroll down to the gardens whenever I was hungry and pluck a snack.  One day!Hugelkultur is very interesting! If laid out correctly they could probably help with drainage and erosion control, too. Imagine them stacked up horizontally along a ridge!
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Mar 27, 2013 17:24
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stuff goes here
apatite fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Feb 16, 2016 |
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Mar 27, 2013 17:46
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Rufus En Fuego posted:Hugelkultur is very interesting! If laid out correctly they could probably help with drainage and erosion control, too. Imagine them stacked up horizontally along a ridge! Terracing and swales are permaculture techniques like that which have been used very successfully. Check out Sepp Holzer's work for some examples. Dude grows citrus at like 4000 ft elevation in Austria. For building soil on rocks you can look at sheet mulching/lasagna gardening/Ruth Stout-style deep mulching. It will take a while but as long as you bring in and pile up some organic matter for the initial plants then you just use their waste to keep building up soil. Artichoke and cardoon are commonly used because they make a lot of biomass with their big leaves. I'm doing a hugel mound at my mom's place this year with branches I pruned from her ornamental trees. I'd do it with the orchard prunings but I've read fruit tree wood takes too long to break down, the orchard doesn't belong to me and it's more time than I want to invest in it. Anyways, keep posting. Some day I'll get land like that once I've saved enough. Prices around here are starting around $7k/acre.
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Mar 27, 2013 18:18
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75875
apatite fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Mar 29, 2013 15:14
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apatite, you should throw a harness on your dogs and have them pull you or whatever you need to haul in the sled. And post a bunch of pics of your working dogs. :3
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Apr 1, 2013 00:20
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I just finished racing through this thread and I have to say it is insanely inspirational. <3 I've got this dream in my head to build a little hobbit-hole house with all the crazy hippie upgrades like the composting toilet and the water-collection systems, and then cover the whole area with plants and beehives and maybe a small herd of sheep. Luckily, it'll be a few years before I can even start looking at land (fiance is still in school, so we're in downtown Baltimore for a while), but this thread really makes me want to look in to designing the house and preparing the plans so we can dive right in as soon as possible. Can't wait to see your next update!
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Apr 2, 2013 03:39
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Pucklynn posted:I just finished racing through this thread and I have to say it is insanely inspirational. <3 For some interesting ideas, check out Mike Oehler's stuff. I picked up a copy of his Low-Cost Underground House Workshop the other day, and so far it is pretty cool.
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Apr 3, 2013 21:34
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Liquid Communism posted:For some interesting ideas, check out Mike Oehler's stuff. I picked up a copy of his Low-Cost Underground House Workshop the other day, and so far it is pretty cool. His stuff looks great, thank you!  I wasn't even really sure where to begin before.
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Apr 4, 2013 01:21
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Pucklynn posted:His stuff looks great, thank you! Check out Being Somewhere as well. http://www.beingsomewhere.net/index.htm He's got a lot of good info on how he built two of those houses, and they're both nifty as heck.
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Apr 4, 2013 15:29
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Liquid Communism posted:Check out Being Somewhere as well. ...it's literally exactly what I pictured. I need this in my life, as soon as possible.
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Apr 5, 2013 12:59
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2435624
apatite fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Apr 8, 2013 15:17
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Awesome stuff apatite, just looked thru the thread here. Various questions and musings follow, in no particular order. 1. Do you have internet access on the property, and if so, how? 2. Look into you and your wife (maybe even your Dad), getting ham radio licences. When you go gallivanting around on that much property you should carry some handheld vhf/uhf radio communication with you so you can call your wife for help, if necessary (Those non-licsened FRS radios suck.) If you get real bad weather and the cell phone towers go down, it may come in handy as well. Also, with that much land, you could get some really awesome HF antennas up for worldwide radio contacts. 3. Do you have any alternative energy plans besides PV? Perhaps some windmills and an undershot water wheel? You got enough fire wood that you could also easily pull off a steam powered generator. 4. Have you looked into a "forest stewardship" plan? These can lower your property taxes significantly.
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Apr 8, 2013 17:48
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AbsentMindedWelder posted:4. Have you looked into a "forest stewardship" plan? These can lower your property taxes significantly. I've been looking at properties like this and it occasionally pops up. I haven't found a ton of info but the impression I got was that you are working on preparing the land for a timber sale and property taxes are merely deferred until the next major logging operation. Is that actually how it works? I wouldn't let someone cut my trees. I'd like'em exactly where they were.
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Apr 12, 2013 01:24
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Good question, I don't claim to be an expert in the matter. I have a friend who lives in Maryland that does this. He has no intentions on logging at all, and he would probably shoot anybody who tried to cut down one of his trees. Once a year some state official comes out to inspect his property. Basically, he has to keep dead trees, brush, and other undesirables cleaned up, put up some bird houses here or there, and generally basic stuff like that to benefit the wildlife and vegetation. Essentially all the things he'd be doing anyway. In return for doing that work, the portion of his property that is deemed a forest is taxed at a much lower rate then the portion with the house, garage, and shop.
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Apr 12, 2013 03:55
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Sounds like you're basically doing preventative maintenance on the local fuel load in exchange for paying less in property taxes. A win all around in my book.
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Apr 12, 2013 04:39
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AbsentMindedWelder posted:Good question, I don't claim to be an expert in the matter. I have a friend who lives in Maryland that does this. He has no intentions on logging at all, and he would probably shoot anybody who tried to cut down one of his trees. Once a year some state official comes out to inspect his property. Basically, he has to keep dead trees, brush, and other undesirables cleaned up, put up some bird houses here or there, and generally basic stuff like that to benefit the wildlife and vegetation. Essentially all the things he'd be doing anyway. In return for doing that work, the portion of his property that is deemed a forest is taxed at a much lower rate then the portion with the house, garage, and shop. Maybe they're different things then. That sounds awesome and I would totally do it.
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Apr 12, 2013 16:29
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3467843
apatite fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Apr 12, 2013 20:16
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 PEWPEWPEWPEW 
apatite fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Apr 16, 2013 16:34
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apatite posted:This is an "adz" which is my preferred tool for getting rid of roots and tire poppers. I'm going to have to try that. For smaller stumps within 100 feet of the cabin, I've been cutting them flush with the ground with a sawzall. But there are dozens, seems like hundreds, of those little stumps around to trip over, and they are pretty ugly. But drat, I'm glad spring is here!
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Apr 17, 2013 11:36
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Actuary X posted:I'm going to have to try that. For smaller stumps within 100 feet of the cabin, I've been cutting them flush with the ground with a sawzall. But there are dozens, seems like hundreds, of those little stumps around to trip over, and they are pretty ugly. Oh you really should try the adz, then. For most 1" beech stumps it takes me a couple of swings, then bam, on to the next one. Just make sure to sharpen it like you would an ax so that it really cuts through stuff. It's not really great for bigger stumps unless you like a good workout, but cutting them off sucks too, if it's a high traffic area the soil just gets all compacted around them and they end up sticking out again so you're cutting them off every year. I'd much prefer to just get rid of the stupid things and not worry about it anymore quote:But drat, I'm glad spring is here! ooooooooohhhhhhh man I know! But now I have to go out west for two weeks for work starting next week and it's going to screw everything up.
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Apr 17, 2013 18:18
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I love my pick mattock for digging up big rocks and roots, but it can still be a hell of a workout to get some of the deeper roots out if you're trying to dig a bigger, deeper hole for planting new trees.
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Apr 17, 2013 19:57
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I burn stumps. Drill a few holes, pour on some kerosene, and let it smolder.
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Apr 17, 2013 19:59
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apatite fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Feb 16, 2016 |
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Apr 18, 2013 17:25
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If you have some bigger stumps that don't need to be gone right away you can look into growing mushrooms on them. You'd have to check for compatibility between the wood and mushroom species but the process is basically drilling holes and pounding in short lengths of inoculated dowels. The mycelium will spread through the stump and consume it, leaving you with some nice soft spongy stuff, but it might take a few years. I wish I'd known about it before paying someone to grind out 3 stumps in my yard.
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Apr 18, 2013 17:47
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Cpt.Wacky posted:If you have some bigger stumps that don't need to be gone right away you can look into growing mushrooms on them. You'd have to check for compatibility between the wood and mushroom species but the process is basically drilling holes and pounding in short lengths of inoculated dowels. The mycelium will spread through the stump and consume it, leaving you with some nice soft spongy stuff, but it might take a few years. I wish I'd known about it before paying someone to grind out 3 stumps in my yard. Yeah I saw something about that, possibly in the wild edibles foraging megathread?? Very cool indeed. Probably won't get around to it this year though unfortunately. Would be great though to roll up to the farmer's market with a big bunch of edible mushrooms, those things sell for tons of cash!!
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Apr 18, 2013 19:43
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Know some people who carve their larger stumps into mushrooms, looks really good when you come across one out in the woods.
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May 2, 2013 04:36
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