Restoring Tobacco Road ..

[TruGrit]

.. lol, good ones fellas ..

.. here's some more shots .. I'm getting these up now cause once the temps go up and this snow melts .. I'm outta here and back into the woods ..

.. this is about half way down the mid-road, about even with the pack house above .. lots of dead fall on this part ..



.. the whole road is now lined with cuttings, branches and logs .. will prolly rent a giant chipper, drive it down the trail and pave with woodchips .. lots of woodchips!



.. road block! ..

[TruGrit]

... had to skip by this big fella the first time, blades were dull, we'll catch up with him later ..



.. down around the 'zag' corner heading to the valley floor ..



.. and another surprise .. a Ferguson B21 Disc Harrow .. complete and just left by the side of the road ..

[TruGrit]

... down on the flat of the creek bed there is an old collapsed drying barn .. we think it was built late 1800s, converted to fuel oil from wood fired, then came tumbling down .. it was built on a rubble foundation that washed out on one corner ... my plan is to raise the roof, put in posts and turn it into a sawmill ..

.. had to fence it in cause it's full of jagged metal and my pups are just too curious ..

[pa_friendly_guy]

Your place is just full of surprises Grit. I told you that you would find more treasures, This one seems to be a Diamond in the Rough, it will take a good bit of work to bring this one around. It seems to be Log construction, do you know what kind of wood the logs are? If they are chestnut you really have something there. A local fella here had a log structure, one room about 16'X 20 ' he wanted to sell. A furniture company from down your way offered him $8000 some years ago for the chestnut logs. He sold it to the local Historical Society who restored the building. My point being that if you want to restore the building because it is from the property and has a historical value to you good, that makes a lot of sense. If the building has no significant historical value to you and you just want a good saw mill you may be able to sell the logs and get enough money to build a good sawmill where you want it on the property. Again, you have options , a whole lot of options.

[TruGrit]

.. Guy, that's one thing we been working on, identifying trees/wood .. we're still not very good at it .. we know there is White Oak, Winged Elm, Ironwood, a little Cedar and a cargo ship full of Virginia Pine .. I hear the V Pine is only good at making Turpentine, ugh, don't have much use of Turpentine ..

.. we thought about taking the barn to Antiques Roadshow, but then thought better of it .. .. I'm gonna save, and work the wood, it's axe hewed square which is cool .. I need lots of woodworking projects up at the house .. might surround my RMH with some of it, and I need a new basement door .. I like those old plank doors with the x bracing on 'em.

.. I'm blessed, the Mrs loves rough cut lumber and thinks a 55 gal barrel in the living room would be just fine ..

[TruGrit]

.. this is the 'New' drying barn .. built when the other one fell .. in the 30's or 40's we're guessing .. it is located at the very heart of the property, the lowest part of the valley, at the intersection of the two creeks ..

.. this is where we will make our stand .. our off grid cabin .. just in case .... or, for a bbq and campfire ..

[DevilsBrew]

[matt walker]

I'm loving this Tru! It's gotta be so dang exciting for you, I'm excited from way over here. That old barn is a fantastic score man. I've been using old fence boards for trim and loving the character it adds to the room. I would love to have a source of old boards like that to use for woodworking projects. Very cool man, thanks so much for bringing us along.

Oh, there's a couple old disc harrows at my neighbor's place. We are planning on making some discada cooking pans with the old discs.

[TruGrit]

... thanks DB, we hope to have a lot of good times down there when it gets fixed up .. and you're all invited!!

.. Matt, when I get the mill up and running, if the shipping charges aren't too much, I'll send ya some .. .. and wow, what a great idea with the cooking pans, let me know how you do that .. I got a couple of rocket cookers that need pans ..

[Lollykoko]

Tru, it's good feng shui placement to have the land rise behind your home, as well as being good permaculture.

Are you taking note of erosion markings yet? Watershed development could be an important part of your future plans. Does the stream offer any opportunities for hydropower?