Big Multi Year Project About to Begin...help!

[dave1949]

Wow, I'd say you are having an adventure. Take time to be safe with all that equipment. One close call per year is plenty.

Glad to hear you are making progress, I figured you were hard at work. If you are putting trusses on the pole building, think about plenty of clearance for the truck on turns with trusses hanging out over the bed probably, and a place to turn the truck around at your clearing.

Dave.

 

[Sulla]

Fabric or gravel? Meet the neighbors? Fully lined PR just a few breaks? PTO Genie or Stand-a-Lone? David gets a new tractor!

Well tress are cut for two feet back on both sides of the road. Firewood cut in 8' ft lengths and stacked for cutting and splitting. Saplings and garbage wood chipped and neighbors well met.

Now comes the fun part preparing the road for delivery of the barn. We'll stake it out this Monday begin grading and digging. Gravel needs may be reduced by a couple of solid sections. Pictures to come.

For what it's worth I am thinking of using temporary water breaks at 10' intervals along the swales/trenches rather than lining them with rocks. I can through some mixed seed in there and let the vegetation grow into slow the water. Any thoughts?

Culverts look like five 18" and one 24".

The Forster Service suggested that we not dig out the soft areas. Instead they suggested we grade and cover with fabric then cover with 4" to 6" of three quarter gravel on top. Apparently this is a technique they use in bogs. Any thoughts? Will it work?

The pole barn arrives in two weeks so we've got a lot to do and little time to do it in.

The rain caused a few days delay as every thing, truck, tractor and chipper kept getting stuck in the mud.

I traded my Kioti DK45 for a New Holland Work Master 55. Nothing against the Kioti, it was a good tractor it just wasn't made for this kind of work. Too many things that can and did get broken sticking out all over the place. The frame also was not up to the job. While more than tough enough for farm and yard working the frame twisted and flexed to much when under heavy load on uneven ground. I figured better to do something now while the tractor was still in pretty good shape then wait a year or two and have it be completely destroyed.

The NH is a geared tractor with a much bigger and stiffer frame. Very much a stripped down work tractor. Ground clearance is almost 20" with nothing stick out, even the drive shaft is covered. Hopefully she'll be more suited to this work. It's strange how big a tractor can look in the dealers lot and how small it seems in the woods.

I am going to have to buy a generator. If I go with a PTO unit I can get a lot of KW for the money, but I can't use the tractor and the generator at the same time. Anyone who has had a PTO generator care to comment? I have to decide soon we need for erecting the building in two weeks.

More pictures coming. Thanks for tuning into this installment of "building with Dave"

 

[flusher]

Great comments thanks.

We are quite literally surrounded on all four sides by national forest. Seems everybody except the folks with this property gave the land to the government. This road actually runs through the North Eastern third of the property. It intersects with another town road, not much better than this one at the Western terminus of the property.

There is another, better road parallel to mine that is maintained by the Forest service in the summer time. The only problem is that from the forest service road to my property the road is used as a snowmobile trail in the Winter. It is the primary North/South corridor so I don't want to mess with it. Plus we like to snowmobile and having the trail here is nice.

No one uses these roads other than for snowmobiling and hiking, they don't go anywhere. All three just kinda stop in the woods and turn into deliverance country. I'm not too worried about increased traffic, though I suppose anything is possible.

The town is very small, 300 people, and they are very cooperative so far. Whatever I want to do with the road is fine with them as long as they don't have to pay for it.

I don't think there is any road bed underneath the mud. I think it was simply a hastily built logging road that was turned over to the town when the logging company finished, what looks like thirty years ago. With any luck I'll find some gravel on the property. I scouted out a couple of dry river beds, I'm hoping to dig a few test pits in the next few weeks to see what's what.

I don't need to be in for five years, though I'd like to be all set up in three. My goals for this year are to bring the road up to a reasonable standard, though certainly not town specs. Establish base camp and put up a kit barn or some other building to store my equipment. And clear a couple of acres to prepare for next years growing season.

As for the road I'm thinking about putting in 18" inch culverts at the four water breaks,maybe adding a fifth. Dig out the mud to get down to what is most likely clay. Putting down a layer of rough gravel roll it and then bring in the good stuff for the road surface. I think it's going to cost more than I'd hoped. But better to do it right the first time.

Or I could just steal the forest service's gravel!

Any additional ideas would be welcomed.

I'm just catching up with this thread--got to the part about your gravel road issues. My driveway is 20 ft wide x 330 ft long, road gravel (crusher run, 3/4" or less). Excavated to 6" depth and filled with gravel--three 2" thick lifts, each lift watered and rolled. Installed in summer 2005. I've had concrete delivery trucks, the propane guy's truck, Home Depot flat bed semis making deliveries, Conway freight line trucks on it. It's still looks like the day it was laid.

 

[Piston]

Just catching up on your thread! That is quite an adventure and I'll be following along, you sure have a lot of good equipment with that excavator now, it will make life a lot easier.....

I love cutting down trees, but if you also want the stumps out it is WAY easier to push them over with the tractor, then cut the root ball off. This method is frowned upon here

Why is it frowned upon?

 

[ocaj11]

I just finished reading the thread. I'm sure you're busy getting a road put in. I'll be following along, so keep the pictures and commentary coming....

 

[Sulla]

I have now broken two tractors, Kioti DK45 (front tire, deck, fender, backhoe) New Holland Workmaster 55 ( just flat rear tire and a PTO with a Wallenstein winching shaft stuck on it) timbering this land. Anybody got a good cheap skidder you're selling?

 

[DAY]

Ah, the joys of waging war: machine vs nature!:thumbsup:

I think too many of the "homeowner tractors" being sold are Boy's Toys not designed for Men's Work.

"good cheap" is an oxymoron!

 

[Sulla]

I have now broken two tractors, Kioti DK45 (front tire, deck, fender, backhoe) New Holland Workmaster 55 ( just flat rear tire and a PTO with a Wallenstein winching shaft stuck on it) timbering this land. Anybody got a good cheap skidder you're selling?

Add leaking hydraulic line...

Does anybody actually make these things for serious work? All I am doing is moving, dirt, rocks, stumps and skidding logs. I spend more time fixing the machines then I actually do working. Last week a track came of the excavator, ever put a track back on a 40,000 lb excavator? The week before the Brush Bandit 12" chipper clogged five times a day for three days and then just stopped clogging. The boards on the flat bed trailer crumpled. Turns out the nice grey color of the wood was rot. Who puts pine on a 10 ton three axle trailer. The trailer also had two flats in one day. My Dodge one ton seems to have finally blown the piston ring as all the compression just went. At 235k though I can't complain.

So far the best tools we have are two Husquvana chain saws, tough and strong.

The woods are tough on man and machine.

Tree just missed falling on the ROPs ( with me under it) and my foreman got his legs pinned between two trees. I had to cut the tree to lift it off him, and he has thirty years logging experience.

I love this!

Feels real, especially compared to sitting at a desk moving money around.

Now if I can just sell some of the wood.

 

[Sulla]

I have been very remiss updating this thread. I have good reason. I start the day at 4:30. Work on the land until
2 or so and then had to the office to do my real job. Not complaining just explaining

The second reason is that my phone was destroyed when I spilled DEET on it, the DEET melted the phone. And I bath on this stuff.

I have a new phone and new pics, some are attached

We haven't finished the road yet and have already spread a thousand yards of 6" gravel. A couple more days and we'll be done.

The pole barn arrived before we were ready so we've store it the gravel provide, they deliver when we are ready/

Th project remains challenging and fun. I keep trying to save money by using equipment for jobs they weren't designed for.

Most recent its trying to use a tractor as a dozer/ grader. I actual broke a land pride haft duty grader blade. Now I need to bit the bullet and buy a dozer.

So what I have learned so far is, everything takes longer than planned. Use the right tool for the job. Broken equipment coat money and time, so slow down and take care of the equipment. Lastly the woods are hard on men and equipment.

More to come.

 

[DAY]

Well, no wonder you are behind schedule! Why are those kids just standing around?:laughing:

(If they are anything like mine were, they already learned how to use a 'dozer and a dump truck, in their sand box. The big ones ain't no differ'nt- just bigger toys!)