Christmas '14

Christmas 2014 has come and gone.  Plenty of cheer was had by all!

One of the great things about North Carolina weather is the mild weather we get in December - last couple days were sunny and warm.  On the 26th we went up with the kids (first time all of us went together!) to paint.    All siding is now stained and ready to go onto the barn.

Our traditional Beef Wellington for Christmas dinner

Happy 19th Birthday to my daughter, Sarah

Last panel being stained on Dec. 27

Clearing for the home site

We hired some youngsters to help paint and do some clearing work.  Alex, Matthew's friend was out again to assist Elizabeth with painting the barn siding while Matthew helped me clear some trees on the area we plan to build the house.

Matthew

Alex

Matthew cut the roots with a pick axe and then I pushed the stumps out with the MF 240 loader - worked great.

Tow bar hooked to 3PH to pull the trailer holding the wood chips

Alex and Scott unloading chips to the trail down to future house site

Wood Chip Manufacturing

On December 20 out at the farm we were confronted with light flurries on and off in the morning so instead of getting down to all the painting we chose to set up the chipper on the MF240 and knock out a few hundred pounds of wood chips.  We decided to use our little trailer to catch the chips so that we could move them to wherever we needed them later on.

Positioning the tractor to hook up the chipper.

A great country that makes great things!  Thanks Wallenstein for building such a robust and reliable wood chipper.

Blogger maneuvering tractor after scraping some mud with loader to see if it could do some basic grading on the south gable end of barn where the 8' lean-to is going to be installed.

Barn Erection - Cont'd !

The week of December 14th marked yet another notable event.  The roof of the barn went on (at least partially) and we were able to park the tractor under shelter.  As a side note we actually got the tractor back from the local Massey Ferguson dealer located in Danville, VA.  Boone Tractor took our MF 240 tractor away on October 3 to perform some 'routine' fixes to common problems (such as hydraulics not working).  To make a long story short the three point hitch appears to be working correctly (for) now.  It is possible that our tractor may need an exorcist if the problem returns.  Everyone cross your fingers and pray for our MFer.

In the meantime the MF 240 and Elizabeth look very happy under the barn.

One of the Moon Creek Construction guys installing the roof sheathing

On stage 'left' Elizabeth and I began staining the T1-11 siding panels.  It is a lot easier to do this on the ground versus on the barn.  We went with Behr's Barn Red color which we think is going to look spectacular once it is all done.  The quintessential red barn look is what we were going for.

Eight down...

 42 more to go !

Future Fruit and Nut Tree Plans

Recently Elizabeth and I decided to get a head start on planting a few nut and fruit trees before actually moving onto the land.  I did a little searching and found a family run nursery located in Texas that got favorable reviews for its stock.  Womack's offering included pecan varieties that should be fairly cold hardy for North Carolina climate. At least that was the advice given to me by Larry Womack when I contacted them about their products.  So Caddo, Kanza and Lakota pecans, Fuji and Gala apples and some raspberry bushes are all going to be planted in late February 2015.  While visiting Into The Woods, a blog I frequently read, I learned that there is a local fruit tree nursery near Reidsville, NC that could serve some of our future needs for apple trees cultivated in this area.

Barn Erection Continues

The Moon Creek Construction team was hard at work by the end of the first week where they had placed the roof trusses and poured the concrete into the post holes for a permanent set.  Next step is to sheath the roof with plywood and then install the metal roof and wall girds.  Some additional re-grading work to take out some slope on the south end of the structure is needed to prepare it for the gravel base floor.  Maybe one day we'll upgrade it to a concrete floor.

Pole Barn Goes Up

This week marked the start of the pole barn erection.  Moon Creek Construction Co, a Pelham, NC firm began work on our 24'x48' barn/shop.  The structure will have an 8' lean-to on each gable end and some storage space in the attic.  We'll be able to start leaving the tractor and implements in the barn and undertake various other small projects under shelter.  Needless to say we're excited about this development!