Forestry Management and Big Plans

We've been thinking a lot lately about what we want to do with the land out here. Of course the woods are beautiful and we love all the trees, but the fact is, we can't do what we want with all the trees out there. So, we are getting the property logged.

Sometime this week we are getting an estimate for what one company will pay us for the timber. After that if we give them the go ahead, it should only take another couple weeks for the job to be done. Before getting the estimate, we had to mark the trees we do not want them to take.

We want to save most of the bigger trees around the house to keep a cozy, woodsy feel. But just about everything else is fair game. Eventually we want to dig a pond in the back yard so we figure they can take all those trees since they'll have to be gone anyway.

 

These trees are keepers, but some of the other trees we had wood stacked in between will be cut down, so we had to move a BUNCH of wood.

 We made about 4 or 5 trips after marking all the trees, so we were pretty worn out by that point!

It was really good to get some work done outside. It had been a while, so it was fun and a good reminder of why we bought this property in the first place.

Our ultimate goal is to be self-sufficient and be able to grow ourselves most of what we eat. We moved out here towards the end of summer last year, so we didn't get a chance to plant a garden. But this year, we're going all out! As it is now, there's really no good place to have a garden because the trees won't let the sunlight through. But after we get the property logged, we'll have plenty of places for vegetable gardens.

Our long-term plans include a big pond, fruit orchards, vineyards, corn fields, Christmas tree farms, wheat fields, and places for more animals like goats and ducks. Of course it will take us a while to get there, but logging is the first step towards making all that happen. So excited we're getting the ball rolling!

~Tammy