So.......I made it back to NJ last night and holy ****, what a trip it was.
I departed last Sunday night around 10:30 pm in the middle of a torrential rain storm. I have never driven a 30' bumper pull camper before and all I can say is it ***** when all your used to is pulling 5er's. It rained all the way to the Georgia state line. We made it to our destination around 5pm, I had a cold beverage and that was the end of the day for me.
Next day we were up early and of to the new homestead, (for lack of a better name right now we are referring to it as "The Farm"), and started looking for the flags that the surveyors were supposed to have put up for the land clearing contractor. The farm is all planted pines with a very heavy (very ******* heavy) ground cover of saw palmettos. We very quickly realized that the surveyor had not put stakes every 200' as indicated on our survey. A quick call to the surveyor revealed that the 200' markers were irons that had been put in the ground years ago and had no flags on them.
The next day we met the surveyors at 7:00am and started marking the 200' irons. After we got the first 2 irons located and marked, the surveyor said he quit because the palmettos were too thick and I needed to get a contractor out here to cut a path along the property line for the surveyor to work from.
So here is where things go south in a hurry. The land clearing contractor won't cut the property line unless it's marked, and the surveyor won't make the line unless it's cut. We were at a stand off.
I had brought a transit, chain saws, machetes , and a gas powered hedge trimmer with me. We set the transit up on a corner pin and I started cutting a sight line to the first 200' iron. About 10' into cutting a sight line into the next iron, I realized that I was having a heat stroke (it was about 95*). I managed to make my way back to Laura who was manning the transit and told her I was done. When I said I quit, she knew things were serious. She got me cooled down after about 45 minutes and we discussed our options.
I had previously talked to a guy that had quoted me $6K to cut our two property lines, I thought his quote was way too high never called him back. At this point I was desperate so I called him. It was 2:00pm and he said he could be there in an hour. He shows up at 3:30 with a Cat tracked skid steer and a forestry milling head. I explained the situation and he said that if I was willing to guide him, he would cut the path for the surveyor. So it was game on. He took off on the first 200' that we had marked and was done in about 15 minutes. I rode behind him on an ATV with my GPS app on my phone. The property line is about 1/4 mile long and when we come out of the woods on the back side, we were within 10' of the pin.
We then back tracked and did the north side property line. All said an done we had both paths cut in 4-1/2 hours. I paid him $1,000 and everyone was happy.
The following day we had a good meeting with our builders and signed off on the floor plan design. We made mark ups to the first electrical plan and should be ready to pull permits before Christmas.
We go back in 3 weeks to mark out for the loggers to clear for the house and thin the rest of the plantation.
We left Florida early yesterday morning in route to Lexington, NC to pick up a new Kaufman equipment trailer. After picking up the trailer and driving way too long, I had to stop 20 miles from home and take a 1/2 hour nap. I rolled in our driveway at 2:15 this morning. I was a 20 year old kid 40 years ago and I can't go like I used to.
I head back down in 3 weeks with a full load and have to start work at my new job on the 1st of November. I'll be signing a contract with the metal building manufacturer for my new shop in the next week or two and things will get interesting.
Here are a few pictures from the last few days.
