Production Note, Vacation Cabin Rental, WP Migration

Farm vacations here we come…

Posted on by Farmer
In the next year and a half we hope to be offering farm vacations. For the past 5 years, with the exception of the last 2 winters, Carl and I have been doing computer work during the winter and for a few hours each week during our growing season, which considerably supplemented our farming income. Because of the economy, the hours at our computer job dwindled down to nearly nothing eventually to where it wasn’t worth our time switching gears to work at the computer job when we could focus on the farm, making us realize that we need to either find other computer work that provides more hours or figure out a way to earn more income off the farm. Don’t get me wrong, even while we did the computer work we were still full-time farmers, but this lifestyle required us to put in a ridiculous amount of hours annually just to live our dream.
Our ‘Life Goal’ is to earn all of our annual income off the farm so that we don’t have to commute or constantly juggle the farm jobs with off the farm work. Earning an income completely off the farm is very difficult to achieve because we don’t have additional acreage for increasing production nor do we live in an area where we can find the labor to support an increased production level.
So in order to reach our ‘Life Goal’, we are building a rental cabin that we hope will offer families an incredible “farm vacation experience” on a production farm. We don’t know of many production oriented farms that offer farm vacations, but we think children need to see where their food is grown and that by seeing veggies growing in the field then picking and eating those veggies, can be exciting and we hope to offer such an experience thus perhaps expanding the taste buds of younguns who visit the farm. We do know that while we are in production mode our farm isn’t always neat – equipment laying around, weeds, harvest/compost, projects underway – so keeping the farm ‘neat’ will be a challenge for us. Email us your suggestions for making this a success!
We have been contemplating this for a couple years, but because of the initial investment required for building a vacation rental cabin, our computer jobs seemed a lot better for us financially. Now we must take the plunge for our long term financial security of living off the land and begin offering farm vacations. As Carl and I age (further) we won’t be able to physically do the work required of farming so feel this diversification is necessary for income as we get older. Most farmers sell off their land for retirement, but we hope the next generation can farm this land, even while we are ‘put out to pasture’ on it.
We want to build the vacation cabin as sustainably as possible so our first step is harvesting enough wood from the farm to build the cabin. We have felled trees for firewood, but never large trees to be sawn into lumber, so meet Lee Stover from Maine, who for the next month will be teaching us a little about the trade of ‘Forestry’. Lee is staying with us for the month of February, and in exchange for room and board, he is showing us how to safely harvest trees using sustainable and low impact logging practices, mostly so that we can harvest and saw our own wood for the cabin and eventually a house.  About 10 years ago we hired our neighbor to saw trees that had fallen from a tornado, those trees were used for building our barn, so we do have a little experience building with ‘rough’ sawn wood.
I am a little sad to be taking trees down but do know that this 130 acre farm has plenty of trees so harvesting a few trees will not be noticed from an aerial photograph. We will be harvesting a lot of hemlocks because most were killed by the woolly adelgid, and there are a lot of large hemlocks on this farm that seem very intimidating to fell, so I am thankful that Lee is showing us how to safely harvest these trees.
Here is what I have learned this week:
Carl and Lee analyzing the fell line for a tree to be harvested. First you identify the trees you wish to harvest which is a blog post in and of itself so I will get into this into more detail another time. Once you identify the trees, choose one to down first, then analyze the area for the fell line. In analyzing the tree for the fell line you must take into consideration the lean and wind. Once the fell line is identified you must note our escape route. This may require you to harvest trees in the felling path that are small, which then become firewood, also verifying that nothing will hang the tree to be felled. The tree can hang on the canopy of surrounding trees making this quite a dangerous job. If a windy day it is best to get your tree ready for felling by cutting your 90 and complete your cut after a gust of wind.
Carl and Lee analyzing the fell line for a tree to be harvested. First you identify the trees you wish to harvest which is a blog post in and of itself so I will get into more detail about this another time. Once you identify the trees, choose one to down first, then analyze the area for the fell line. In analyzing the tree for the fell line you must take into consideration the lean and wind. Once the fell line is identified you must note your escape route. This may require you to harvest trees in the felling path that are small, which then become firewood, also one must verify that nothing will hang the tree to be felled. The tree can hang on the canopy of surrounding trees making this quite a dangerous job. If a windy day, it is best to get your tree ready for felling by cutting your 90, then complete your cut right after a gust of wind.
Lee felling a small poplar because it is located in the felling line of a tree we are felling for the cabin. No waste on this farm as this poplar will become firewood. We are starting with small trees and once we have learned the safety tips of felling a tree then will move on to felling large trees.
Lee felling a small poplar because it is located in the felling line of a tree we are felling for the cabin. No waste on this farm as this poplar will become firewood. We are starting with small trees and once we have learned the safety tips of felling a tree then will move on to felling large trees.
Lee next to our first tree that we will us to learn the proper felling techniques. Carl has cut trees this size before but never choosing a fell line.
Lee next to our first tree that we will use to learn the proper felling techniques. Carl has cut trees this size before but never choosing a fell line nor using an undercut.
Meet Lee Stover who was a forester for Georgia Pacific for 20 years managing their xxx acre forest. Lee now manages his own 120 acre timber farm and operates a saw mill selling wood locally. He sells lumber each year from his woodlot and is teaching us his technique.
Meet Lee Stover who was a forester for Georgia Pacific for 20 years managing their 120,000 acre forest. Lee now manages his own 120 acre timber farm and he has his own saw mill for selling lumber locally. He is teaching us how to manage our woodlot using our small farm equipment and harvesting wood using sustainable and low impact techniques so we disturb the forest as little as possible.
Lee showing how you would first cut the 60 degree angle. The saw handle is designed to align the saw with the 60 degree angle if the saw is held correctly like in this picture. The saw also has lines that you would align with your felling line, providing one with the spot on the tree for the cut, which if done correctly has the tree falling on your felling line.
Lee showing how you would first cut the 60 degree angle. The saw handle is designed to align the saw with the 60 degree angle if the saw is held correctly like in this picture. The saw also has lines that you would align with your felling line, providing one with the spot on the tree for the cut, which if done correctly has the tree falling on your felling line.
Lee making the initial 90 degree cut facing the fell line of the tree. The 90 degree cut is called the undercut.
Lee making the initial 60 degree cut facing the fell line of the tree. The 60 and 30 degree cut is called the undercut. Note how he is holding the saw that creates the correct 60 degree angle
Lee showing how you would next cut the 30 degree angle up. The 60 and 30 degree angle forms a 90 which keeps the tree standing steady prior to your final cut. The saw handle is designed to align the saw with the 30 degree angle if the saw is held correctly like in this picture.
Lee showing how you would next cut the 30 degree angle up. The 60 and 30 degree angle forms a 90 which keeps the tree standing steady prior to your final cut. The saw handle is designed to align the saw with the 30 degree angle if the saw is held correctly like in this picture.

Lee making the initial 30 degree cut facing the fell line of the tree. Note how he is holding the saw which creates the correct angle.
Lee making the initial 30 degree cut facing the fell line of the tree. Note how he is holding the saw which creates the correct angle.
The final wedge cut is a 90 degree angle which is oriented towards the fell line.
The final wedge cut is a 90 degree angle which is oriented towards the fell line. This is a great example of the undercut.
Lee making the back cut, which is an inch above the undercut, leaving a hinge for safety. The back cut is done by plunging the saw into the tree.
Lee making the back cut, which is an inch above the undercut, leaving a hinge for safety. The back cut is done by plunging the saw into the tree.
Lee putting in wedges in the backcut to hold the tree from binding the saw while the final cut is made.
Lee putting in wedges in the backcut to hold the tree from binding the saw while the final cut is made. The wedges also serve in directing the tree towards the fell line once the final cut is made.
The tree ready to come down after making the final cut through the hinge.
The tree ready to come down after making the final cut through the hinge.
The tree down right on target and Lee limbing the tree, which will then be bucked so that we can pull the logs out of the forest.
The tree down right on target and Lee limbing the tree, which will then be bucked so that we can pull the logs out of the forest. Bucking is analyzing the tree and identifying sections to obtain the most board feet then cutting the tree into sections.
Farmer

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