Restoring Tobacco Road ..

[TruGrit]

... yeah, these red-bellies are still very popular and parts are readily available and cheap too .. this one is a 1953 Golden Jubilee .. it was the 50 year anniversary and the first upgrade after the 8N .. 30hp instead of 27hp and a number of upgrades that farmers had been requesting ..

.. I worked her hard today and we got a pathway in over the creek, enough to get a rider mower over to keep my trails over there clear .. dug out a bank with the scrape blade, then shoveled that into a wheelbarrow, then drug that 100 feet to the culvert ... I've decided I need a box blade and dirt scoop if I am to survive ..

.. anyway, this was today's progress .. until I ran into a huge nest of bees in that far bank .. got stung about 15 times .. waited an hour, went back and poured a quart of gas through their front door ..

[mannytheseacow]

Looks like you are really taming that land, Tru. We have a lot of those old fords around us, too. Pretty reliable machines, and like you say: cheap parts! Get yourself some good chains and you'll go almost anywhere with that thing. I often look at them and think of buying one, too. One of these days.

[TruGrit]

.. a bridge to somewhere .. finally across .. filled it in, one shovel full at a time .. but we made it .. this opens up another 3rd of the property, yay! .. now, I'm cutting another 200' trail up to the other culvert site to open up the last 3rd .. will prolly start that next week ..

[mannytheseacow]

Good job, Tru! That looks like a ton of shovel work... literally! I like that you put a much longer culvert in than the trail. I've seen so many culvert installations that only leave about a foot on each side and a year later they're smashed and bent from slipping, driving over, and material spread. It will certainly be good that you can access the rest of your property more easily know.

[TruGrit]

.. thanks Manny, for sure getting my exercise .. btw, your building is awesome, gonna have to put up a couple of those next year on my place, so I'm watchin' and learnin' ..

.. made it to culvert #2 location .. got a lot of clearing to do yet, and again .. shoveling of the dirt .. about double the amount of the last one .. but the reward of getting across will be worth it ..

[matt walker]

That is such nice property Tru, love the pictures of all the green. Like Manny said, great job on the culvert. That's a lot of digging man!

[pa_friendly_guy]

That's a beautiful little stream there Tru. If it is flowing that well in Aug I am sure it is a lot stronger in the spring. Do you have any plans for the water? Small dam, water fall, divert some for irrigation? It gives you all kinds of possibilities.

[TruGrit]

.. howdy folks .. well dang it, that was a real short Summer .. seems like I only got a couple things done .. but the Mrs points out .. they were big things ..

.. got the trail built to the 2nd crossing and installed another culvert .. now I have vehicle access to the whole property, which I just had to get done for gathering brush, firewood, mowing and such .. no progress without access ..








... I gathered the dirt to bury the culvert from a drainage ditch coming off the mountain .. well after digging at it for a while, decided to widen and lengthen the ditch into a road .. a road/pass over the mountain .. not a real mountain, but a mountain to us ..






.. and that's where I'm at now, building a mountain pass .. not much longer though, other things need gettin' after before the weather turns .. thanks for watching .. Tru

[TruGrit]

.. over the mountain and through the woods .. another trail completed over our mini mountain .. just love it up there .. once had a great blue heron fly by below me, it was awesome!

.. here's the first turn where I had to bust out of the drainage ditch, because of dead fall and head toward a better area to climb ..



.. this was the hardest bit, had to make the turn to head up and make a 4 foot elevation rise .. so I built a ramp thingy ..



.. didn't want to use any man-made materials, so I made the rise outta what was laying around on the ground .. and a hatchet ..



.. to defeat the slope, I took the dirt from the high side and put it on the low side ..



.. so, we're up and over, working now on joining this trail to the flat at the other end .. weather starting to turn, Fall is coming, much nicer working conditions ..

[TruGrit]

.. spent the week cutting more holes in the house (one of my favorite things) getting ready for Winter .. using Supervent pipe up the side of the wreckroom .. the new Soapstove can heat 2000 sq ft and will be at one end of our 900 sq ft house, so, I hope to design a cold air return system that goes through our full basement and warms that up as well ..

.. the stove won't be here till December, so in the mean time, I'll be hooking up my small box stove to hold us over ..


.. got the wreckroom wall insulated and plastic up, then framed out the hole and installed the wall kit ..



.. insulated Supervent pipe should provide a good draft .. there is one more 3 ft section to go on, plus the cap, will clear the peak by 3 1/2 ft ..