Building Site Cleared and Spring is Here

 It took longer than expected, but we now have about a 300 x 200’ clearing in the middle of the woods along with the power easement cleared from the nearest pole on the property.

The easement required a 30 foot wide cut for about 800 feet in preparation for bringing power to the building site. The power company engineer will be out on Tuesday to take final measurements and place stakes where the poles will go. If they have to place more than two poles to get to the building site, it costs $100 per pole and $75 for each guy wire. So, the straighter the shot the better so as to avoid extra guys. Still, I hated to clear that much out of the woods, but we can make use of the space later for larger plantings, such as corn or wheat.

We drove around today to get another look at the fire damage and was surprised at how quickly the grass has grown. In fact, in open areas, you can hardly tell there was a fire. Many of the old dozer piles were consumed by the blaze, which is a   good thing.

Pole Barn Construction

I’ve been debating whether to buy standard 6x6” pressure-treated timbers or to use trees from the property for construction. There are many lying around and near the building site that would be suitable (not the tree to the right, but just wanted to share this beauty). I’m not sure if I’ve already mentioned what building technique I’m planning to take, but after kicking around different approaches, I’ve decided to use a combination of pole-barn and platform framing.

Pole-barn construction is cheaper if you’re not finishing the inside. Of course, I am going to finish the inside. Another advantage is that it’s quicker to get the structure up and cheaper than pouring a foundation. But the main reason I’m using this approach is that I  have “poles” all around me on the property and it is probably the most earthquake resistant of all building methods.

Even though I love working with concrete, it’s very expensive and pretty environmentally-unfriendly to produce. Consequently, the foundation will be posts or poles in the ground 3-4’ with 2x10 girders around the perimeter spaced every 6 feet.

Earthquake, you say? This isn’t California. No, but there lies within a short distance the New Madrid (pronounced “new MA-drid” fault which is predicted to let loose within the next few years and the last time it did (a couple hundred years ago), it reversed the course of the Mississippi river. Anyway, pole-barn construction is somewhat cheaper, easier, allows me to use my own materials for some of it, and is earthquake resistant to boot. I think it’s a good direction. More on construction details as we actually start building.

Spring

“What a beautiful day it is!” I told my wife as we drove out to the property today. “You already said that,” she informed me.  Yes, so I did. But what a beautiful day it was. Around here, the red bud blooms wild in the woods, followed by dogwood. Couldn’t see any dogwood (white blossoms), but the red bud was clear to see.

The oaks are just beginning to leaf out. Please indulge me for a one more picture. This is looking northeast from the west end of the property.

The little hill you see is known locally as Dove Mountain. The use of the word mountain is strictly an Ozarkian term that means little hill slightly higher than the other little hills. Hey, it’s all we have out here. Anyway, it’s reported to be the second highest point in Missouri and is the vestige of an old volcano. You can still find plenty of volcanic rock in the west end of my property.

The “Controlled” Burn and Driveway Progress

Paul started a fire to burn one of the big dozer piles Thursday, but because of the strong wind, it blew into the woods. That in itself is not a problem, since burning the leaves and underbrush is a good thing for a forest every few years. However, this fire quickly went beyond my property into the neighbors.

So, the rural fire department was called in to fight the quickly spreading grass and leaf fire. It ran through a glade on my neighbors property on which were closely scattered cedar trees. These caught and burned quickly, almost exploding with flame. Thanks to the quick work of the fire fighters, assisted a little by myself with a rake and a lot of stomping, we got it under control. It probably travelled through more than 100 acres, but didn’t do much more than burn grass, leaves, and underbrush. The real danger of letting it go was if it made it to Dove mountain, which could have caused some serious timber fires. As a plus, it burned through a few old dozer piles near the edge of my property (above).

We left the fire line on my property to let it take its course through the woods. It looked like a river of fire. I debated whether to leave it or not, but decided that since Paul had dug in some good fire breaks and that it was contained, we left about 11:00pm. I got up and went out at 5:00am to check on it and the fire line had made its way almost through the entire northern half of the 80 acres, leaving a blackened, but much cleaner forest floor. It started raining this evening, putting out the remaining fire.

In the mean time today, 7 more truck loads of “zero to six” rock (a mixture of rock from 6” down to just fines; cheaper and better for this kind of road) were delivered as progress continued covering the road bed from the gate into the building site. They made it in about three quarters of the way before the rains started. 

The building site is almost completely cleared. Just need to finish the edges, widen the road as it enters the clearing, clear the easement for the power lines (about 900’), and do some final grading. It’s turning out well.  This is a view looking to the east past a large white oak and over the pond. This is turning out to be a huge project just to get to the point where we can start the first building. But I love it.