Here's a couple of pictures from behind/above the old shack. Years ago, it was a pasture/hay field, we've been steady pecking away at it, soon I'll have a pasture again. It's either 6, or maybe 7 truck loads of wood, we've cut so far? It's all locust, good wood. Taking everything down to about 3", and burning the brush. The cedar trees all have 2 or 3 tops, not big enough to saw for lumber, so, putting them on the fire too.





That's Wardney, behind his white truck, he's got a heck of a pile of wood. And, we've probably got 2 or 3 loads yet to cut.

That's a fair bit of work done.

If you cut your stumps at 3 feet or so, you'll be able to rip them out with the truck. That might help with preventing excessive re-growing.

Here's an interesting link to the BTU values of firewood: http://firewoodresource.com/firewood-btu-ratings/

Notice the little trees, behind my little red truck, and the bigger ones, off to the left of the picture. That's all black locust. One of the best trees we have here, for firewood. It's very dense, heavy, and once it's dry it'll take the edge off of a saw chain quick.

The little trees were alive, and most of the bigger trees, were nearly dead. That ground is hard up there, even with a small dozer, it'd be a pain to push out the stumps. We've been cutting them off, right at ground level.

I'm trying to get the stumps down where I can get in there with a tractor and brush-hog, and keep it mowed.

See that "sage grass" behind the little truck? Wardney said the field needs lime. Honestly, I'd like to get in there and spread about 15 tons of chicken litter, and plant some good grass or clover.

The other day, I went around the house 2 times, with a grass seeder, spraying out clover seeds. Darn, that stuff is expensive.

I'll tell you something else, I've been thinking about planting 15 or 20 apple trees back behind the house. That one tree behind the little red truck is a pear tree. Years ago, there were 2 Wolfe River apple trees, just above the pear tree. Some of those apples would get as big as a softball. Good cooking apple.

Sorry, I mispelled the apple's name, it's Wolf. My Mom's maiden name is Wolfe. Here's a link:

http://www.mrjacksfarm.com/dnn/FruitNutTrees/AppleTrees/WolfRiver/tabid/571/Default.aspx

They get huge.

Black locust makes excellent fence posts. They will last 20 years or longer. -- Hal

Yes, a good 7-foot locust fence post is worth $5 or more. The little trees are just not quite big enough for a post. And all of the bigger trees are so twisted, knotted-up and/or pithy on the inside.

I guess it's been 5 or 6 years ago, I went up and cut just about everything that would make a good post.

I'll tell you something that I didn't know until a few years ago. There's a difference in locust posts. Trees that grow down in the "low-lands", along the river, won't last as long as a locust tree that grows up in the mountains. I mean as far as the longevity of the post.

I might be up there today, I'll count the growth rings on one of the little trees, I'll guess they're around 20 years old.

Here's a picture from above the old shack. The little field is starting to look like a pasture.



Wardney and I burnt a total of about 4 tanks of gas through the saws yesterday, we're back 125 yards behind the house now. It was windy, not enough snow cover to burn the brush. Next good snow or rain, we'll fire them up! I notified the 911 center the last time, I'll need to again. That one pile will light things up.

I counted the growth rings on a couple of the little locust trees. Any where from 15 to 30 years. You sure can tell a difference between good years, and bad years. Calling for 3-5 inches of snow tomorrow night, we might just fire them up.

Well, it's been a year since I've mentioned the Old Shack project. We've made some improvements, and I've found a couple problems.

Last summer and fall, I'd been staying at the house, 4 or 5 nights per month. The first problem I found, I need more heat. I always turn the fireplace thing off when I leave, no need for me to keep the place warm and waste gas, if it's going to be empty for a week or 2. I can close all of the inside doors and warm up rooms 1-A and 2-A, in just a little bit. The rest of the house, it takes a while. I found a little electric heater, for $5, it'll warms up my room, 2-C in 30 minutes or so.

Last summer my neice, Rebecca, ask me if her and her family could spend their vacation at the house. I gave her the key, on the condition that she'd sweep up and vacuum up all of the dead flies, lady bugs and wasps. That worked out good for me, she did a fine job, and they had a good time too.

That's another problem, bugs. Back in November, I got up one morning before daylight, and there were about 50 wasps clinging to the ceiling, at the foot of my bed. This summer, I'll caulk that little crack. And once the house gets warm inside, the flies and lady bugs come out of the woodwork. I've got enough of those little bug bomb things, I'm going to set off about 3 in the attic, and one in each room. Not sure if you can ever get rid of them?

Late last fall, we got the little field behind the house brush hogged off, it looks good. Painted the front porch floor with used motor oil, it looks good. The lumber was dry, it really soaked in, and it's not slippery either.

When I get time, think I'll add a few shelves in the front room. I need a gun rack, coat rack and a shooting bench.

Notice the 2 trees in the picture above, a man offered to trim them for me, for ONLY $600. I've got a couple of my guys lined-up, won't cost me more than $50. The one boy needs firewood anyway.

Looking good.

I'm not sure painting anything with used oil is a good idea. It does preserve the wood but I don't know how healthy or good for the environment it is. There was a time around here when guys would paint their log cabins with transmission oil. They also soaked wooden footings in it. If a footing was heaving in the frost they would pour oil around it and the problem was solved.

The environment people would frown at that pretty severely nowadays.

Did you ever consider using Sista on the cracks instead of just caulking them? That way you might eliminate more of the bug problem.

Here's a picture of the front porch floor, that was taken 1/4/2015. Doesn't look bad. My head carpenter, Wardney, and I talked about treating the floor. Wardney is 76 years old, he told me that he'd tried everything on treating decks.

I wasn't up there when they painted the floor, but they only used a gallon and a half of oil, the porch is give/take 30'x7'. The floor is all 1" rough-sawed pine, spruce or hemlock, and it was dry as a bone. Nope, I wouldn't want to pour oil on the ground!

But, up on the boards, it should keep everything treated and bug free. The timbers in the ground, are pressure treated 6"x6" stuff, on concrete.

I searched Sista, now is that an insecticide? I found Siesta.

I've sprayed stuff called Tempo around the outside of the house when we first started the job. I used a little pump-up garden sprayer. It'll kill ants, waterbugs, wasps, bees, ticks and fleas, just about everything. Slugs too. But you need a license to buy it. Then you can buy that granual stuff, to sprinkle around in the grass, I used it too.

Last time I stayed up, in December, next morning when the house got warm, lady bugs were crawling around here and there. And a few flies too. Just enough to make a mess.

But the biggest problem I've found, is where I'm losing heat, above the log part of the house. You can touch the walls above the log part, and feel cold. Not sure, but since it's a 1 and a half story house, I may be able to stuff the walls with blown in insulation. I'll check on that, when we trim the trees.