Sad Day: Someone else cutting my woodlot

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I have been so busy lately, between working overtime at the steel mill cranking out snowplows, dealing with my pending divorce, finding time for my daughters visitation, sheep farming and running to New Hampshire every other weekend...something had to give.

Every time I turn around there are more attorney fees (apparently me 4 year old daughter needs one now), so I could use the extra money anyway. But the biggest reason I need to cut wood is that I get paid to graze certain areas of land, and the USDA fenced these acres in under the condition the wood would be logged off.

So Friday I took off some much needed vacation time for this week and hoped to cut wood on Sunday and today. By the time I got everything ready over half the day had gone by. Dejected I walked to my neighbors woodlot and talked to the loggers cutting that woodlot. With feller-bunchers and skidders they are going to come in at the end of the week and start logging for me.

This is the first time I have ever let anyone cut wood on me before. Its doubly sad because this is big wood, wood I have been saving for 20 years, but sheep pays more money than woodlots do, at least per acre, so the wood has to come off.

So it is a sad day, but more productive in the end I guess and the sheep will be happier. That is ll that counts I guess, happy sheep! :)

(Here is a picture of the wood that will be cut. About 5 acres, but every tree will be taken "squaring up" the field.
 

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Thanks for stopping back into Off Topic Land Travis !

I'm sorry to hear about all of your personal family issues. I hope things work out for you eventually.

I miss your sheep/snowmobiling/lumbering/farming stories. I sit behind a desk all day so I live vicariously through you and others . . .

Cheers

Jim
 
Great to have you back Travis. I was just thinking a few days ago about how much I missed your stories and wondering what you were up to. I too am sorry for all the personal stuff that's going on now. Hopefully in the end it'll all work out for the best.
 
Hey Travis welcome back to the family. Sorry to hear of the troubles you facing. Boy those sheep are spoilt.

How many you got now. Last count was still a small bunch as i recall.?

I have certainly missed you and your farming input. Dang i was learning a great deal. Since your lessons i drive around our country side here and at least have some idea of what i am seeing.

Hope you get time to stop by more often. Hows the dairy doing. You made any more tools since last you posted.

Never heard but did you loose any sheep to coyotes last winter?

Give us an update of the farm life. Is the wood all going to end up as firewood or you going to have some resawed and sticker it?
 
Its not as bad as I made it sound I guess, the divorce was wanted mutually so its not that bad. Its gotten pretty nasty since then, but it drove me to a really good place I must admit, that being a big white building people go to on Sundays, and being FWW, that is about all I can say about that. For those that go there as well, smile because I'm doing just fine now.

As for the wood, it is mostly softwood so this is almost exclusively lumber. Spruce framing lumber to be exact. The trees are really nice the problem is after years of selective logging, nothing has regenerated. Its all big wood and nothing little coming up to take its place. That is why the Forester recommended this be used for sheep expansion. There is some pine in here, about 6000 bf, and really nice, between 3-4 feet on the stump. Its good wood for sure. There is some hardwood scattered throughout, but that will go to make paper.

As for the sheep, I run between 30-50 breeding stock ewes. Not a lot, but I am waiting to hear back on a grant on November 5th. If I get that, it will enable me to increase my numbers where I can farm full-time. That is what the grant is for, to take small farms with potential in my area, based on soil quality, overhead, potential profit and give them start up capital to increase in size. Because my idea is to start a sheep coop and go county wide to provide lamb for the Boston and New York markets, and to also spurn the cottage woolen industry here, there is a pretty good chance I will get the grant. (4 grants for 7 applicants)

The sad part is, I actually like my full-time job welding snowplows. We are at the height of the season so we are working 50 hours a week now to try to build enough plows for everyone, so my days start at 2:30 AM and end with the sheep at 7PM. So there is not much watching TV at this house...not that I could anyway as she cleaned me out and took the TV. Didn't need it anyway Hun! :) So all is well, except I need a toaster...
 
Hey Travis, Glad to hear your doing somewhat ok. :thumb: Was just thinking about how I had not heard anything from you for awhile.:dunno: Sorry to hear anout the divorce but as the old saying goes, Been there, done that, have the shirt ( and lawyer bill ) to prove it. Though my lawyer gave me a really really nice turned pen /pencil set out of cherry wood as a souvenier. :rofl::rofl: No seriously he did :doh:

Glad to hear that your back to work and that work is going good for you and your getting lots of hrs to focus your time and energy I know how things can get rather overloaded mentally through a divorce. How are the kids handling this?
 
You've been missed a lot Travis, and it is good to have you back.
Sorry to hear about your personal issues, but where a door closes, hundred windows open or so we say here.

Take care.
 
Glad things are starting to look up Travis.
I have a cousin that works for Fisher plows. It's in the Rockland area I think.

Yep that is where I work. Fisher, Western and Blizzard plows, we make them all there. Of course, about 300 people work there now so its a big place.

The plant just went down today as the paint kiln blower went so they sent us all home. That was good news for me as I have plenty to do for a 4 day weekend. It was amazing to see how many snowplows are built in just an hour or two though. The place was jammed pack in that amount of time. I think its like 30,000 plows a year that come out of there and they are shipped all over the world.
 
No he never picked it up, so after two years I started using the wood myself.

My girlfriend, finding out that I had sheep, mentioned she always wanted to have some ducks, so I took some of that Basswood and made a banana tree out of it...in the shape of a duck of course. It was a simple project, but it came out good, with the banana hook attached to the ducks bill. She has two little girls who just loved it, so the wood is not going to waste that is for sure.
 
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