Pluggin' Away

Just a reminder that we'll be having a work day on Saturday, June 27th.  We'll be up at the farm all day.  Come join us!

Just email or call us for directions.

We could use all the help we can get.  There are many trees still to come down and lots of bark to peel.  Think of it like training for the greased pig event at the county fair.  That's what handling a peeled log is like.

Photos of tonight courtesy of Nevin.

Unexpected Blessings

Today we got some work done!  All the trees taken down so far were cut to 16 inch lengths and most of them were split and stacked.  Thank you Jim and Loren for all the hard work.  

We also had some good help from Ella and Nevin tonight.  Check out what this girl and boy can do!

Ella running the log splitter!

 Nevin and Loren - cutting big logs down to size.

 

The new chop table works great.  Thanks Jim for your engineering input!

Break time.

Zane's favorite hat.

An unexpected blessing at the end of a rainy day.

Taking Care of Buisness (ahem - ahem)

Well toady was a special day.  It was rainy, cold, windy...the best day to move the outhouse from our backyard in Beaver Falls (where it has been getting a lot of comments and strange looks).

 

The outhouse - which will double as a small shed.

The bright idea of just tipping it up onto the back of the truck.  Yes a trailer would be easier....but when you have two young strong guys....who needs a trailer.

 

 

After a failed attempt to auger a hole in the field - we kept hitting stone - we found a nice place in the woods.  Now, how to get the truck in there.

 

It was acutally harder to get off the truck then to get on it.

 

 Sliding it into place.

 Finished!

Room for Five?

The More the Merrier

So tonight was the first "crew" night.  Many hands make light work.  We've learned that you can peel logs on the ground but that gets the old back sore after a while.  So tonight we build a large sawbuck and doubled the length of our logs.  Now four people can attack the bark on one log while others take trees down and move the timbers.

Many, many thanks to Rosetta, Ken, Kim, Scott and Bruce for their help tonight along with Eli, Miriam, Marilla, Jessie, Macaiah, and Samuel for playing with our kids and helping to pick up limbs.

Slip Slidin' Away

We've found out that after you peel a Poplar tree it is very slippery....more like a greased pig or a wet bar of soap.

Denise thinks we should set up a large piece of plastic and make a "slip and slide" to move
the pieces.....we'll see.

Perhaps the best quote of the night tonight was by Nate after Denise
killed a deer fly that wouldn't leave him alone.
"That was worth a hit in the head!"

This is what peeling looks like....it's fun....for a while....

 

Fellin', Peelin', and Birds

Today we fell the first trees.  All the trees in the cordwood walls will be Poplar.  There is a good bit on the land but we'll need to find some more.  We need about 34 cord at 16" long and 6 cord at 8" long

Unloading the pallets that we will stack the cordwood on.  Nate's been collecting these from work.  Many more to come.

Getting off a missed limb stub.

Nevin - helping to clear brush.

Our good friend Tim, and Denise peeling logs with "spuds".

Two trees down, sectioned, and peeled.....many more to go.

 

Yes...that is Nevin with an ax....

We hung up these swallow houses that we made on the property to encourage some natural bug predators to move in.

This pretty much says it all.

First Day

Well today we bought the farm :-) - and decided to have a picnic, a prayer, and then of course - some brush hogging.

Getting Started

On June 18th - 2012 - we purchased 63.2 acres in rural Northern New York - Belfort, NY to be exact - although our address will be Croghan, NY. The plan - build a cordwood home, raise our own food, enjoy being a family together, , start a CSA, and to invite others to be part of the journey. We have been blessed by God and we hope that Stone Table Farm will be a blessing to others.