Aerie Plans

No work in the woods today. I may head back out tomorrow to cut some more firewood. And it was such a lovely day to be outdoors, too. Clouds hid the sun fro much of the day but they didn't produce more than a few little sprinkles. And the clouds helped keep the temperatures in the low 70s all day, too. The slight breeze made it feel even cooler.

But, today I did some shopping and played with the tractor for the afternoon. I've got a considerable amount of firewood in the yard all ready for splitting. Any additional wood that I cut will probably be left stacked in the woods until next year. Remember, part of this cutting process is to get the smaller limbs on the ground where they can decay and where they will be out of the line of sight for any stray deer and/or bear come hunting season. And by taking the ATV through the woods I'm also opening trails the deer and bears will walk.

Wood Pile

This morning I went down to A.J.'s Outdoor Power Equipment and asked about the prefab metal roofed car ports they sell. (Terry wants one of the slots in the garage back. Right now I've the ATV in one and the tractor in the other.) This seems like a sensible alternative to building a pole barn in which to store the tractor. They are made by Carolina Carports, Inc.

The price is a fraction of what a pole barn would cost and includes the cost of a crew to erect the structure. All I would need to do is have a level, open site on which the thing could be put. I looked over the information and figure a 21' long by 12' wide structure would suit my needs. For an extra $50 I can have the sides raised from the standard 6' height to 7' which would provide added headroom on the sides as well as in the center. You can get the sides enclosed for an additional cost. On a 21' long building with 7' sides that would be $350. Because they are "temporary' structures that can be taken down and moved, most places do not require building permits nor do they tax them.

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I got so psyched by the idea, I came home and started leveling a place for the car port using my tractor. I had already figured it would have to go in the area near the garage and where I had been stacking firewood. In fact, I had used the front loader of the tractor to move some of the slash (mostly bark and a few branches and such) that had been heaped up there from previous years of splitting wood and cleaning up around the yard. Today I went in with the idea of taking the slightly sloping area and making it more level.

First problem: hard packed clay and stones.
Solution: instead of using the front end loader like a grader, I turned the tractor around and used the backhoe to break up the ground and remove any larger rocks.

Second problem: buried logs that hadn't rotted
Solution: I grubbed them up with the backhoe and moved them to the rear of the site to form a weak retaining wall of sorts.

Third problem: what the hell is that?

Windmill?

I hooked this thing with one of the teeth on the backhoe and it was like I had hooked a whale while fishing from a 12' dory. It wasn't coming out of the ground. No way. No how. I think it was the windmill the previous owner had on the property. The telephone poles and concrete anchors for the windmill are on the west side of the yard...the other side of the cabin. I assumed they had taken the damn thing out to the dump when they demolished the camp that was here leaving only a few cinder blocks that once were the foundation. Well, you know what they say about never assume anything.

Solution: dig. Dig. Dig. I went down a couple of feet around this thing and then got out my Sawzall. Couldn't find my long enough extension cord, however, so I called Terry--who was down at the Mansfield Farmers' Market--and told her to pick me up a 14 ga. 50' cord. Then I waited. And as time went on I started rearranging the stuff in the shed so I could get to my archery target block. And there was a 50' extension. Was it the one I fried in the campground last year? Didn't look fried, so I gave it a try. It worked without tripping any circuits so I was about to use it when Terry arrived. Rather than use the smaller (in diameter) cord, I plugged in the new cord and in minutes had cut the head off the windmill. I removed my tools and hopped on the tractor to use the backhoe bucket as a hammer and pound the ends of the remaining windmill into the earth. (Or at least 2-1/2 feet of it.)

I then did my leveling best with the loose soil I had created. The front loader going forward to scoop up the soil and put it where needed. The front loader as a scraper as I backed up to level things out. And the weight of the tractor as a compactor. Not too bad. I'll take a rake to it and try to make it even better.

Carport site.

Then I've got to get the firewood out of there. Oh well, most of it has to be split anyway. And I've got a couple of days before we have to leave for the next wedding.

Oh, almost forgot. When I went to put the Sawzall away, I found by heavy duty extension cord in the workshop. When I hadn't seen it earlier, I had assumed they were all in the trailer from last year's trip. (There's that "assume" word again.) Hey! It's green, not orange or red or bright yellow. It was easy to miss. Honest.