Bush-hogging finally done!

We spent all day yesterday clearing off the back section of our land. It was a long, long hot day. Just like the front part of the property, the back part was about 5 foot tall in places, and had several small trees.



So our strategy yesterday was that I would do the bush-hogging and Mike would clear the tree line. After 7 hours on Bessie I'm not so sure about that strategy.

When we took Bessie out for the first time a few weeks ago (a few posts down below), she was charming and cute. Yesterday, not so much. More like aggravating and exasperating. We did get her spruced up a bit...she now has all tractor tires, no car tires, some new belts, and actually has an alternator so the battery stays charged. But that didn't make her behave any better.

I stopped every two or three rounds, and we added water and/or oil. We finally decided that maybe the radiator cap needs replacing (hope that's all it is)and the radiator doesn't have a big leak. Not sure. We ended up adding 25 1/2 gallons of water and 4 quarts of oil before the day was over.

Mike worked hard and did a great job clearing out the tree line.
And he only saw one snake! And of course no picture of the snake. He did say it was long and green, so at least it wasn't a copperhead or water moccasin.

Finally, all the clearing is done, and let me say, I think it grew!!
It seemed much, much bigger when we could see it all.

The last order of the day was to take Bessie home to her little shed. Mike drove her, stopping every 1/4 mile to raise the bush-hog because the tractor is too small to keep it up, and I followed along in the truck. A LONG 5 miles to her shed. This may have been her last big job for us, but even if we replace her I think we'll have to keep her around.


All in all, a very productive day.

Green Acres here we are...

Funny how the more you look at something the more it can grow on you. We've looked at this piece of property so many times, and talked out the issues so many times, that suddenly it's turned into the perfect place for our new log home. It's at the end of an approximately 1/2 mile dead-end road, with only two other houses on the road. 20-30 minutes to work, depending on traffic. Woods all around, a creek about 1/4 mile through the woods.

So we made an offer, it was accepted with only one counter-offer, and we closed on May 29. We were so excited and didn't know what to do first. We decided that the first order of business should probably be to bush-hog the property and see what we really bought :-). So, being very frugal now that we are land poor, and not wanting to spend the money to hire that task out, we decided that of course we can do this ourselves! There just happens to be a tractor and bush hog up at Paulette's dad's house that has just been sitting in the shed since he passed away. No we haven't exactly done this before, but how hard can it be?

Meet the newest addition to our family...we think we'll call her Bessie...

We aren't exactly sure how old Bessie is, but we did find a label on her today identifying her as a Henry Ferguson...best we can tell from limited research is that the last one was made in 1938, then Henry Ferguson joined forces with Ford then later with Massey.

Yes, she's been around the block.

She's a bit tempermental. We had to stop and burp her occasionally, talk to her, jiggle wires, etc. and on we'd go. But not without a few rests (ok, smoke breaks...her, not us).

Did I mention NO brakes? NO brakes.

Only those that knew my dad could appreciate the lengths he went to in order to keep this machine running...yes, that is a piece of screen door screening for a filter, and yes that is a real bungie cord. And you may have noticed her fake front right leg (it's a CAR tire :-)) Gotta love my dad.

It was quite a day...taking turns on the tractor, running right into the unknown.






Mike made a discovery. They just don't make cell phones like they used to . Can't even hold up to a little bush-hog.

We only had one scary episode (no, we didn't consider it scary when the two front tractor wheels would raise off the ground). Mike discovered a hole about the size of a small grave (maybe dug for perc test?), when I say discover, I mean he realized the tractor was on it's way into the hole before he realized it was there. (did I mention the 4-5 foot sage grass). He was getting ready to abondon tractor, and it suddenly pulled up and out.

A lot to do on the next trip.


All in all it was a really fun day and we're really looking forward to going back out and attacking the back 40.

Sort of, kind of, but not really...

...ok, here's land. Not exactly what we were looking for. It's not exactly square (not even close), no green grass, no woods and slopes on the backside (there are woods as you see, just not on this piece of property, however, it does have a nice treeline dividing the property in two). Basically everything you see that is brown and at least 4 foot tall is the land for sale. But, it is 5.6 acres, and it is in the country. And we do have big imaginations.

Land Search

We've been looking for this perfect piece of land for over 3 years now. We decided we want to build a log home and we are sure we'll find that perfect 5+ (but less than 10) acres, in the country (but not too far from town) square of course, with green grass. And of course on the back side there'll be woods and slopes for Mike to build mountain bike courses.

That's possible...we're sure it is...