In the begining...

[Don T]

We bought a raw five acre piece of property on one of the main highways coming into town about two & a half years ago. After applying for and getting an address for it, we had to go to the state and apply for a “Road Approach” and put up a bond. Once the approach was complete, with an asphalt apron and inspected, we got the bond back and it was time to start clearing an area for the drive way and shop.

Attached are the land and building lay outs. Don

 

[Charles (in GA)]

"one of the main highways" .......... I think that is where you went wrong.... you would not have had to do this on a secondary county road. I'm not real sure I'd want to live on a main road, especially if it is close to town.

Charles

 

[Don T]

Hey Charles,

We don’t plan to live on this property. We picked it up just before the prices around here started to go up, it was very reasonable and now some are telling me it may be re-zoned to industrial or light industrial some time in the future. Don’t know if that’ll happen in my life time??? It’s also located very near a small International Airport. They call it “International” I think because it has a US Customs Office there. Anyway lot of noise, mostly on the week-ends.

To us here a “Main Highway” is a 50MPH two lane road. LOL!!

Seeing that I’ll be retiring with in the next 12 months and my 24’ X 36’ home shop is so full of tools and equipment (I have an addiction) that I have to drag some projects out into the drive in order to work on them.

I have a couple of cars I’m building plus I like to do some artsy fartsy metal work and also do some work for others.

Thanks,
Don

A couple projects. 31 Chev and a 61 Rambler Wagon…

 

[Don T]

The project begins...

I found a local guy here with an amazing machine. Seeing that the property was logged a number of years ago there are a few large Cedar and Fir evergreens with the rest being small Alder up to about ten inches in diameter.

With this machine he can approach a tree, with a spinning drum with teeth, about ten feet up the trunk.

There’s a hydraulic bar above the drum that is used to push the top part of the tree forward and away from the machine.

Then as he lowers the spinning teeth the tree is chewed up in to small pieces of mulch.

What he accomplished was 300 feet of drive way and a 100’ by 100’ clearing.

After about 10 hours with the machine we were left with a bunch of Alder Mulch covering the area and drive.

Next up we will figure out what to do with all the nice Mulch.

Don

 

[Bib Overalls]

I'm going to follow this one with intrest. Keep the photos coming. What about the stumps? Did I miss someting?

 

[04 Navi]

Should've felled them and cut the Alder up for firewood. Alder is a great burning wood, not much spark or ash and lots of heat.

 

[Don T]

Bib / 04,
The machine goes about 6" into the soil and chews up the stump and the shallow root system.

Actually he was only able to do this the trees that were 5" and smaller. So I did have to fall and stack about 4 cords of fire wood and I still have 4 plus acres to go. Should be able to heat the shop for a few years. I hope!!!

Don

 

[Don T]

I hauled our tractor out to the property over a weekend and scraped the surface of the grounds and ended up with what turned out to be eight small dump truck loads of mulch.

We took them to another 5 acres we have farther out in the country. Or son and his wife live on that piece and they are building it into a small farm with organic raised laying hens and a couple of roosters. Seeing his wife has had extensive training and schooling in the process of cultivating mushrooms (not the funny kind!!!) they have also started that, and it’s really starting to blossom. We also planted an acre plus truffle tree orchard which should start to produce with in the next 3 to 4 years.

Anyway we hauled the mulch to their place for shroom beds???

Don

 

[PAToyota]

Not sure if it is a Loftness TimberAx (a couple companies make them), but the "tree shredder" looks similar - http://www.loftness.com/timberax.cfm

The videos on the site are pretty cool...

 

[Don T]

Not sure if it's the same brand, but very similar. All I know is you don't want to be near that thing when it working. s**t flies.

Don

 

[29bowtie]

Hey Charles,

We don’t plan to live on this property. We picked it up just before the prices around here started to go up, it was very reasonable and now some are telling me it may be re-zoned to industrial or light industrial some time in the future. Don’t know if that’ll happen in my life time??? It’s also located very near a small International Airport. They call it “International” I think because it has a US Customs Office there. Anyway lot of noise, mostly on the week-ends.

To us here a “Main Highway” is a 50MPH two lane road. LOL!!

Seeing that I’ll be retiring with in the next 12 months and my 24’ X 36’ home shop is so full of tools and equipment (I have an addiction) that I have to drag some projects out into the drive in order to work on them.

I have a couple of cars I’m building plus I like to do some artsy fartsy metal work and also do some work for others.

Thanks,
Don

A couple projects. 31 Chev and a 61 Rambler Wagon…

Nice project 31 chev,as you can see i'm building a 29.Any more pics? Thanks Don F

 

[Don T]

Don F.
Thanks, I'll post some more pics later on. What about you, where can I see some pics of yours?

Don T.

 

[29bowtie]

Here's a few for now.

 

[kbs2244]

You know, if you are not going to be living there, I hope you put in a real good, recording type, surcurty system.
With those kind of toys and tools, the word will get around.
You might want the stories to have a mention of the pretty pics you can take of everybody that stops by. Whatever the time of day, or night.
I don't sell them, but do watch the market. You can get a 4 cammera system recording onto a DVD for apx $2000.00 The DVD will record a full week from all 4 cammera. I may be money well spent.

 

[Don T]

29bowtie,
Your car look like it's coming along very fine, LOOKS GOOD. The front suspension looks just like mine. TCI?

kbs2244,
Thanks for the heads up, I've been thinking very hard about some sort of camera system. I noticed some of the systems come with night vision cameras along with the standard day time ones.

I plan on a large steel gate on the drive and it's almost impossible to get on the properity from any other direction. Maybe on foot, but it's like going thru a jungle.

Thanks,
Don

 

[29bowtie]

Yes it's TCI with the Wilwood hubs and brakes.

 

[ownsaglock]

Youre a lucky man. That looks like its going to be very nice.

 

[Don T]

I think it would be best if I move this project over to the “Gallery”. It’s probably going to contain a lot of pictures and get a little long winded at times.

Talking to a friend, who has lived in the area for a long time and he was telling me that he used to call the area where I’m building the shop “Coyote Flats”. So I asked his permission to name my land and shop the same, and he thought it was a great idea!!!

So from here on the title to the thread in the gallery will be known a “Coyote Flats”

I hope everyone enjoys seeing the project as much as I enjoy building it.

Thanks

 

[Don T]

I'll try and start in the gallery as soon a possible.

Thank again...