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.