New guy here, new property story

Started by A.O., January 08, 2018, 12:30:28 PM

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A.O.

So I just found this place, lots of good stuff although doesn't seem like a bunch of recent traffic. Thought I'd introduce myself (Scott) and show off my recent property (3 yrs) purchase.

First off we were stuck in colorado for 7 long years and been trying to move for several years. Hard to do sometimes cause you have to at least a little follow the money to be able to move!

So anyway, we moved to South Carolina, bought an old 1954 house on 102 acres from the original owner! How many one owner homes that old can you find?? Ok, I lied a bit, actually the original owner died about 8 months before we bought it so we bought it from his son... close enough I think! ;D

The property was almost completely wooded when we bought it, mostly a Loblolly pine forest planted in 1984 after hurricane Hugo trashed the place. Part of the reason we wanted this parcel is its water, several springs on the property along with 2 decent ponds, one about 3 ac the other a bit over 1 ac. The property is also bordered on one side by a small river.

One of the ponds..



The house was not in all that great shape, but that's how I like em.. big property with a house I can fix up. Tore part of the house down due to it being too far gone, and added a new addition in its place. Still working on re-doing a lot of the old part of the house.

Here is the house we bought


And how it looks now.. still a work in progress...



I had about 7 acres logged off to give me a field for food plots and such to attract some of the native wildlife and deer hunting has been slowly improving.

Debating getting a small sawmill right now as I have probably a lifetims supply of tall straight saw timber..

And there's my story.

Adam Roby

Welcome to the forum Scott! 

Property sounds amazing, especially with those ponds.  Are they "swimmable"? What I wouldn't give for that much land... I am like you, don't care so much about the house as I do the land.  A house can always be built / fixed up, but the land is the land. 

Your story seems more like a quick summary that a story.  Do you have any of the building pictures, layouts... problems faced, etc.?  we love pictures here, if you can find a reliable server to store them on.

As far as traffic, it comes in spurts.  Spring and summer is much more active because of us northern folk... building often takes a hiatus until the snow melts enough to continue.  But there is still some traffic all year round.



A.O.

Quote from: Adam Roby on January 08, 2018, 06:47:31 PM
Welcome to the forum Scott! 

Property sounds amazing, especially with those ponds.  Are they "swimmable"? What I wouldn't give for that much land... I am like you, don't care so much about the house as I do the land.  A house can always be built / fixed up, but the land is the land. 

Your story seems more like a quick summary that a story.  Do you have any of the building pictures, layouts... problems faced, etc.?  we love pictures here, if you can find a reliable server to store them on.

As far as traffic, it comes in spurts.  Spring and summer is much more active because of us northern folk... building often takes a hiatus until the snow melts enough to continue.  But there is still some traffic all year round.

Well you could swim in the ponds, but...


And yes its more of a quick summary, its a nonstop project. Don't really have any of the layouts, changing the house was just done on paper by me, and by the time I was done the plans were pretty messy. Biggest problem I had was finding people to do different jobs. The original builder was a nightmare! Finally fired him and got another guy to finish up. This is the first rebuild I've done where I've hired on a builder, done the rest myself but I'm getting to old anymore to do it all myself.

NathanS

Looks and sounds like a beautiful piece of land. I like the new brick and changing the roof line on the front makes a big improvement.

A.O.

Quote from: NathanS on January 09, 2018, 05:09:37 PM
Looks and sounds like a beautiful piece of land. I like the new brick and changing the roof line on the front makes a big improvement.

Thanks, yeah the addition on the right side was originally a garage or carport closed in, didn't fit the rest of the building. Been wanting a brick house for years so we finally went for it. AND it made it look like there wasn't an addition added.


CabinNick

Looks like a cool piece of property; thanks for sharing. 

You mentioned you were thinking about getting a sawmill.  I think you can't go wrong with a mobile sawmill.  I was all set to buy one but then decided I just didn't have the time at this point in life - but there is definitely one in my future!   

We had some 30"+ ponderosa pine that died last year on our place, so plan on hiring a sawyer to come in this summer and cut those into interior paneling for us. 

A.O.

Quote from: CabinNick on January 10, 2018, 12:42:54 AM
Looks like a cool piece of property; thanks for sharing. 

You mentioned you were thinking about getting a sawmill.  I think you can't go wrong with a mobile sawmill.  I was all set to buy one but then decided I just didn't have the time at this point in life - but there is definitely one in my future!   

We had some 30"+ ponderosa pine that died last year on our place, so plan on hiring a sawyer to come in this summer and cut those into interior paneling for us.

Now is a time in my life I have some extra time, retired. Got more trees than I'll ever be able to cut down, and the equipment to move them. Just hoping my strength will hold out for a while longer! If I do it , it will only be a small stationary unit, a portable on a trailer would be great but out of my price range!

ChugiakTinkerer

Welcome aboard and thanks for sharing.  I'm starting to come around to the idea that hiring someone might be better than trying to do it all myself.  It's amazing how much energy a teen can have compared to my caffeine-infused shuffle!  The trick is harnessing that energy effectively.

If you haven't found it yet, check out the ForestryForum.com web site.  There's a sub-forum specific to Sawmilling, but it's got a host of other areas of interest for anyone cutting or growing timber.  The only downside, if you can call it that, to becoming a sawyer is that you will need support equipment.  But with 102 acres I imaging you've got that already, or at least see it in your immediate future.
My cabin build thread: Alaskan remote 16x28 1.5 story

A.O.

Quote from: ChugiakTinkerer on January 12, 2018, 12:12:11 PM
Welcome aboard and thanks for sharing.  I'm starting to come around to the idea that hiring someone might be better than trying to do it all myself.  It's amazing how much energy a teen can have compared to my caffeine-infused shuffle!  The trick is harnessing that energy effectively.

If you haven't found it yet, check out the ForestryForum.com web site.  There's a sub-forum specific to Sawmilling, but it's got a host of other areas of interest for anyone cutting or growing timber.  The only downside, if you can call it that, to becoming a sawyer is that you will need support equipment.  But with 102 acres I imaging you've got that already, or at least see it in your immediate future.

Yeah, stuff is just getting heavier and more difficult to handle!! Roll back to the year 2000 or so, I put a large addition on a place we bought in Oklahoma.. other than a concrete crew and a shingle crew I did it all..standing walls, raising trusses , sheetrocking, etc A little help from my brother here and there but thats it. just don't have the strength anymore..

Yeah been to a few forums on sawmilling, Arborist has a section, forestryforums has a section, but mostly at sawmillandtimberforum.com. They've been the most helpful, go have a look.

Seems on small sawmills there's a fine line between a decent little mill, and something that will barely get a tree cut without a fight! And it seems I'm standing right on that line pricewise trying to figure out what to do. :(


Adam Roby

Its amazing how we might look close to what we did 20 years ago, but the strength is just not there anymore.  I had to move a slow burning stove this past summer.  I couldn't budge it... I mean, not even to slide it across the floor... darn thing must have been 350 lbs.  My 21 year old nephew took it himself and dumped it into the wheelbarrow.  A few seconds later the wheel barrow's leg supports gave out and bent over. 

Maybe the kid is just a beast...  but yeah, age takes it toll for sure. 

A.O.

Quote from: Adam Roby on January 15, 2018, 09:12:48 PM
Its amazing how we might look close to what we did 20 years ago, but the strength is just not there anymore.  I had to move a slow burning stove this past summer.  I couldn't budge it... I mean, not even to slide it across the floor... darn thing must have been 350 lbs.  My 21 year old nephew took it himself and dumped it into the wheelbarrow.  A few seconds later the wheel barrow's leg supports gave out and bent over. 

Maybe the kid is just a beast...  but yeah, age takes it toll for sure.

It is amazing, and highly disappointing! My brain will say do this... and my body says think again! I hate it!

I hate having to re-learn how to do things.. but such is life I guess.

 

A.O.

Quote from: CabinNick on January 10, 2018, 12:42:54 AM
Looks like a cool piece of property; thanks for sharing. 

You mentioned you were thinking about getting a sawmill.  I think you can't go wrong with a mobile sawmill.  I was all set to buy one but then decided I just didn't have the time at this point in life - but there is definitely one in my future!   

We had some 30"+ ponderosa pine that died last year on our place, so plan on hiring a sawyer to come in this summer and cut those into interior paneling for us.

So here we are a few months later, someone posted and woke me up again. ;-) So I ended up getting a small stationary sawmill, cutting up mostly construction lumber and learning how to use this thing for now!





I just helped out a guy with some tree removal and got a bunch of oak and hickory logs, I have them earmarked for my kitchen cabinets.

Don_P

Looks like you've been having fun.
I'd saw the hickory first and get it drying, fans might be needed this time of year. If it dries slow or gets rewetted it is prone to a less than pretty grey/blue enzyme stain, not blue stain fungus but the same cause, drying too slow. I've turned a bunch into utility wood from nice bright boards at that stage. Pretty wood, harder than the hubs and high losses during drying but that heats and grills just fine.

john73738

I just bought a parcel in Arizona to build our retirement home. I wish I had at least 1 tree on the land. Guess I had to expect that buying in the desert. Planted a bunch of mesquite tree pods, will see what comes up.


A.O.

Quote from: john73738 on November 16, 2018, 06:14:54 PM
I just bought a parcel in Arizona to build our retirement home. I wish I had at least 1 tree on the land. Guess I had to expect that buying in the desert. Planted a bunch of mesquite tree pods, will see what comes up.

Good luck to you with your new place, the mesquites will take a while to grow... and then they will have huge thorns to flatten all your tires! Found that out the hard way down in TX and OK.. ;-)