Making LUMBER!

Here's our first attempt at making lumber.  It's from a cedar log that was given to us by my very good lifetime friend Tom.  It's not actually a tree from our property.  It was a really nice thing for Tom to do and we've loved learning about milling lumber on his logs.

So, how do you like my wife's pink filter mask?

Setting up The Martha Fay

We started trying to setup the sawmill.  Turns out I'm missing some of the connector parts, so I'm only able to connect two of the three beds.  I'm still not sure I've got it leveled correctly.  It's going to take a bit of effort to get this thing setup correctly.  But, it's very exciting!

Shower Facilities

Working in the forest is hot, sweaty, dirty work.  Chainsaws and wood chippers will do that to you.  After a hot day working in the forest a nice shower is greatly appreciated. So, the wife and I took some time away from working in the forest to build an outdoor show.  The shower is near the outhouse, so I guess you could say we now have a full bath!  Here's a few pics of us building the shower.  It's been greatly appreciated.

The shower is only screened on one side.  You get to enjoy nature while getting clean.

We don't have running water or septic.  All of our water is hauled in five gallon buckets.  We fill a 20 gallon trash can (look in the lower right of the photo) and then keep a couple of five gallon buckets for reserve.  If the trash can runs out of water mid shower, we use the reserve to finish up.  It's happened.

A sump pump moves the water from the trash can through a propane water heater which feeds the shower head.  There's a switch on the center log, next to the shower curtain that will turn the sump pump on and off.  So far, it's been really nice taking a nice cool shower after a hard day's work in this mid-summer Texas heat.

Setting the Billy Goat loose

Yep, that's my wife, mowing the easement road with Billy.  See a goat really will help keep the vegetation down.

The Martha Fay

Look what we went and did.  Say hello to our new saw mill.  Named for my mother.  We found this on Craig's List.  The goal is to be able to add value to our timber.  We plan on milling up slabs and custom lumber from our trees.

"The Martha Fay".

Forested Grassland

Im on an email list for the Texas Longleaf Taskforce.  Their website is www.txlongleaf.org.  There's also a link under the "Our Partners and Sites" section of the sidebar. Well, a couple of days ago I got and email from Kent, the Coordinator.  In the email he talks about what East Texas used to be like when the early settlers arrived.  Here's what he had to say.

Much of our east Texas forests were described by the early settlers (some of your ancestors) as "forested grasslands"....You could ride your horse through it with the grass up to the stirrups. Consider that the historic fire regime favored the herbaceous under story and kept down the invasive woody underbrush. That fire sustained a diverse ground cover of grasses and flowering herbs. That "lost" open condition that favored abundant wildlife such as quail, can be seen in many of the historic 1890-1920 photographs. Lots of that historic, diverse under story was visible 100 years ago.......frequent fire is the reason you do not see yaupon thickets in those old photos!

Kent Evans

Someday, Turkey Creek Timber will be a "forested grassland", someday.

We got a Billy Goat

So, I've been thinking I'd like to get a walk behind brush mower.  It's kind of like a miniature brush hog.  I've been looking on Craig's List.  I'd set a budget for a used one, but was having trouble finding something within my budget.  We'll, I went into our local Home Depot to purchase some deck boards for our outdoor shower and low and behold, they are selling a walk behind brush mower by Billy Goat.  Their price was more than than my budget, so I asked if they could lower it some more.  Yep, they did and we were able to get it for $300 less than budget.  Sweet!  That of course, this lead to us to also purchase a small trailer.   You gotta be able to haul the billy goat around!