If all goes well, my wife and I will close on forty five acres of land in further North New Hampshire. This is a dream come true for us and we are excited to get going. The property is old farm land, hundred years or more, that was logged maybe twenty or thirty years back. About 20% is old growth, the rest is fast growing soft woods and smaller hard woods of various species.
The property is surround on all four sides by National Forest. Access is by one of two class VI roads. The better of the two is maintained but the Forest Service during the summer. Unfortunately using this road requires that we also travel down a road that is issued as a snowmobile trail in the winter and we don't want to do that. The property's namesake road is barely a road, this is the one we will use.
From the terminus of the town road to what is in effect our drive way (though technically it's still town owned) is about a mile. The grade is uphill ranging from 2% to 6% grade. The road is reasonably crowned, with the approximation of drainage ditches on both sides. There are four water brakes that are in serious need of attention.
The plan for the property is to build a fully independent farm. We will not have any town power or any town services.
We plan on solar, wind and maybe hydro for electricity. Wood and geothermal for heat. I also plan on purchasing a large industrial generator as backup.
The farm will largely be for our food needs. Beef, poultry, pork, dairy and produce will all be raised in small quantities for our use. (I have another job for money). Extra food will be sold locally.
We also plan on running a farm get away for kids. We will build a separate bunk house and allow kids to spend a week of two free of charge working on the farm.
My plan is to update this thread like a blog, assuming there is interest. I will also be seeking a lot of advice. Both my parents grew up on farms and I worked on my grandparents farms as well as others who were less forgiving. I know this is going to be a lot of work and that is what I am looking forward too,my wife not so much. My day job is investments and quite honesty it leaves me feeling less and less confident of the survival of our species everyday. I need the dirt on my hands to wash off the grime at the end of the day. For me this is therapy.
My excuses having been made, on to project one.
The road.
I figure the first thing to do is get the road sorted out. Drainage is an issue, so I figure on installing four culverts made of galvanized steal with concrete block reinforcement. The road is not heavily travelled but will need to support logging and construction equipment. I was planning on trenching out water breaks to about 4.5 feet laying in the 12 inch galvanized steal pipe. I was then going to stack concrete blocks along the sides to take some of the load then cover with gravel.
Do I need to use rebar?
What about covering the pipe with gravel? Do I need some sort of reinforcement for the top of the pipe?
Next I figure a good box blade pulled behind my Kioti DK45, up and down, taking care to leave the crown in place and the road should be serviceable.
Perhaps this is a fools earned. But the more I see of what has become of our society the more convinced I am we need to find another way. I am not implying that I have the answers, I don't. All I know is that with change comes disruption of the status quo. The ability to productively allocate capital for people is not likely to be worth much in a world where capital has no utility. I guess this is a complicated hedge against chaos. In any event thanks for any thoughts you might have.
Oh we hope to be in within five years.
Sulla,(aka David)
The property is surround on all four sides by National Forest. Access is by one of two class VI roads. The better of the two is maintained but the Forest Service during the summer. Unfortunately using this road requires that we also travel down a road that is issued as a snowmobile trail in the winter and we don't want to do that. The property's namesake road is barely a road, this is the one we will use.
From the terminus of the town road to what is in effect our drive way (though technically it's still town owned) is about a mile. The grade is uphill ranging from 2% to 6% grade. The road is reasonably crowned, with the approximation of drainage ditches on both sides. There are four water brakes that are in serious need of attention.
The plan for the property is to build a fully independent farm. We will not have any town power or any town services.
We plan on solar, wind and maybe hydro for electricity. Wood and geothermal for heat. I also plan on purchasing a large industrial generator as backup.
The farm will largely be for our food needs. Beef, poultry, pork, dairy and produce will all be raised in small quantities for our use. (I have another job for money). Extra food will be sold locally.
We also plan on running a farm get away for kids. We will build a separate bunk house and allow kids to spend a week of two free of charge working on the farm.
My plan is to update this thread like a blog, assuming there is interest. I will also be seeking a lot of advice. Both my parents grew up on farms and I worked on my grandparents farms as well as others who were less forgiving. I know this is going to be a lot of work and that is what I am looking forward too,my wife not so much. My day job is investments and quite honesty it leaves me feeling less and less confident of the survival of our species everyday. I need the dirt on my hands to wash off the grime at the end of the day. For me this is therapy.
My excuses having been made, on to project one.
The road.
I figure the first thing to do is get the road sorted out. Drainage is an issue, so I figure on installing four culverts made of galvanized steal with concrete block reinforcement. The road is not heavily travelled but will need to support logging and construction equipment. I was planning on trenching out water breaks to about 4.5 feet laying in the 12 inch galvanized steal pipe. I was then going to stack concrete blocks along the sides to take some of the load then cover with gravel.
Do I need to use rebar?
What about covering the pipe with gravel? Do I need some sort of reinforcement for the top of the pipe?
Next I figure a good box blade pulled behind my Kioti DK45, up and down, taking care to leave the crown in place and the road should be serviceable.
Perhaps this is a fools earned. But the more I see of what has become of our society the more convinced I am we need to find another way. I am not implying that I have the answers, I don't. All I know is that with change comes disruption of the status quo. The ability to productively allocate capital for people is not likely to be worth much in a world where capital has no utility. I guess this is a complicated hedge against chaos. In any event thanks for any thoughts you might have.
Oh we hope to be in within five years.
Sulla,(aka David)
So you might want to keep an eye out for some used ones and maybe cut your costs in half. But you will be by far happier with this quality of implements, especially with what you need to do. And last but not least , some top and tilt hydraulics so that you can have full control of these implements at your finger tips.
