Motivation and staying motivated

[Ryan'smilling]

I'd move.

I'm just happy that all those guys like it there, 'cause they can keep it.

 

[sirbuildalot]

Saiso is right. This will be my last post for this thread.

Centaur, I assume you live in southern CT or eastern MA. I hope you realize you can move West if in MA or North/Northwest if in CT and the cost of living is much, much cheaper, with more open land, and more for your $$$. My 24 x 36 cape on 21 acres in a central MA town of about 12,000 people was $225,000. Together me and my wife make about $180k/yr. and combined we work less than 100 hours/week. Neither of us travel more than 25 minutes to our jobs.

I honestly feel bad for anyone that has to work 100 hours a week to make ends meet.

Perspective.

Over and out

 

[Saiso]

Saiso is right. This will be my last post for this thread.

Centaur, I assume you live in southern CT or eastern MA. I hope you realize you can move West if in MA or North/Northwest if in CT and the cost of living is much, much cheaper, with more open land, and more for your $$$. My 24 x 36 cape on 21 acres in a central MA town of about 12,000 people was $225,000. Together me and my wife make about $180k/yr. and combined we work less than 100 hours/week. Neither of us travel more than 25 minutes to our jobs.

I honestly feel bad for anyone that has to work 100 hours a week to make ends meet.

Perspective.

Over and out

I like your thinking. Sounds like a sweet gig.

Thanks everyone for your replies! I got the answers I wanted and a little bit more

 

[farmer steve]

How did this thread get heated and went to who here works the most hours to which country is better to move to?

Hi @Sasio. How the 250 running.? There is an ignore button that you can use if you don't want to see some of the worthless crap posted by a few that don't have anything better to do. I applaud you for doing what you are doing. If I was only 28 again. The motivation comes from doing what you enjoy doing wether it be spending time with the family,sawing wood or your job. Time is precious,use every minute ENJOYING it. FS.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

Oh jeez, how did I not say this already!? Matt, if you want more motivation to get into the woods, you REALLY need to get that 291 off the list and replace it with something ported! A ported 372xp or something like that makes a guy itch to cut wood.

 

[SamT1]

I wouldn’t spend money on a tractor, that’s how lazy or old folks do it, it will slow you down and you can’t afford the expense unless your huge. Cut it into firewood where is falls and split it and then load it. IMO the only time a tractor makes sense is if it too muddy to get a pickup to the woods or you need to load a processor.
I did get me a cheap ($800) fixer upper tractor rescently so I can lift totes and load them and unload them to cut out handling. A skid steer would be the proper tool, but I cut a good bit of wood and still can’t justify one!

 

[Saiso]

I wouldn’t spend money on a tractor, that’s how lazy or old folks do it, it will slow you down and you can’t afford the expense unless your huge. Cut it into firewood where is falls and split it and then load it. IMO the only time a tractor makes sense is if it too muddy to get a pickup to the woods or you need to load a processor.
I did get me a cheap ($800) fixer upper tractor rescently so I can lift totes and load them and unload them to cut out handling. A skid steer would be the proper tool, but I cut a good bit of wood and still can’t justify one!

We currently have a 500 meter driveway and the homestead will be 200m. Tractors are more common here. Very seldom you see skid steers in homeowner’s yards, unless some kind of business.

 

[Saiso]

Oh jeez, how did I not say this already!? Matt, if you want more motivation to get into the woods, you REALLY need to get that 291 off the list and replace it with something ported! A ported 372xp or something like that makes a guy itch to cut wood.

Okokok. I’ll try to find out where to get one around my area.

 

[Saiso]

Hi @Sasio. How the 250 running.? There is an ignore button that you can use if you don't want to see some of the worthless crap posted by a few that don't have anything better to do. I applaud you for doing what you are doing. If I was only 28 again. The motivation comes from doing what you enjoy doing wether it be spending time with the family,sawing wood or your job. Time is precious,use every minute ENJOYING it. FS.

Running good so far. Keeping it inside the cabin

And yeah, you’re right but it kinda gives entertainment. Until it gets too much

 

[Ryan'smilling]

Hey Matt, one other thing, in the subject of tractors, you should check out Bombadil Tree Farm on YouTube. That guy is in Boreal forest in Maine. Similar to your woods perhaps. He's got great videos of his process for logging a fair size tract of land with a 40hp Kubota.

By the way, wanting a tractor to help maintain your 100 acres is hardly lazy. Also I've talked to old people who just got a nice tractor. They all say they wish they'd done it much sooner.

 

[DSW]

Assuming you can get your truck in the woods easily enough, you can put together a lot of wood with a pickup, saw, and a splitting axe.

People act like you're roughing it if you don't have a 6 way hydraulic splitter, a 50k tractor, and 4 ported auto tune saws to come up with 4-6 cord of wood in a year's time.




Logging is a different story. You do have to have the big boy toys to play in that game.

 

[DSW]

You ever thought about a small Wood Mizer?

You could make a buck and it wouldn't be so equipment intensive.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

You ever thought about a small Wood Mizer?

You could make a buck and it wouldn't be so equipment intensive.

I explored that route. Personally I think a tractor is a much more versatile tool with at least as much income opportunity. I can charge $50-70/hr to drive around in a circle with a bush hog thinking about whatever I want. People hardly want to pay $30/hr to run a sawmill doing dangerous work in a loud dusty environment doing mental math all day. That was my experience in custom milling anyway. It'd be different to mill wood and sell it, but obviously you need space to store lumber and you've got a good chunk of time and work between when you buy a mill and when you've got a sellable product.

 

[CentaurG2]

Saiso is right. This will be my last post for this thread.

Centaur, I assume you live in southern CT or eastern MA. I hope you realize you can move West if in MA or North/Northwest if in CT and the cost of living is much, much cheaper, with more open land, and more for your $$$. My 24 x 36 cape on 21 acres in a central MA town of about 12,000 people was $225,000. Together me and my wife make about $180k/yr. and combined we work less than 100 hours/week. Neither of us travel more than 25 minutes to our jobs.

I honestly feel bad for anyone that has to work 100 hours a week to make ends meet.

Perspective.

Over and out

Sure you are. You done dumping on us folks who actually do work 100+ week to make ends meet or you going to move to Canada to get your cradle to grave benefits??

 

[DSW]

To each their own. Logging and milling my own property at my own pace is interesting to me, bouncing around on a tractor cutting weeds is not. And I've done both.


I do agree about the versatility though.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

To each their own. Logging and milling my own property at my own pace is interesting to me, bouncing around on a tractor cutting weeds is not. And I've done both.


I do agree about the versatility though.

Totally. I like the logging part. Something about the air-cooled 4-strokes I just don't like. I love running saws and tractors. A band mill, not so much. Same with log splitters. I hate listening to those things drone on and on, that's what pushed me to go with a PTO powered one.

 

[muddstopper]

Things change overtime. I used to work a out of town job and only home one weekends. that meant I had two days to catch up all the work around the house. I treid to prioritize what had to be done from what I wanted done. Not easy when you have small boys that wanted to go fishing. I woud pick one weekend and try to get out all the wood i could. I hualed the wood home in log lenghts. I can cut and hual a lot of logs in a day, not so much if I cut and split before hualing. With the logs at home, I could take the saw and buck for 30min here and there and have everything ready to split in just a few days. Splitting I took the same approach, pick a day and try to get it all split or split a little when ever I had the time. If I wanted to work after dinner, just fire up the saw or splitter.

Now I am retired, got all the time in the world to cut wood, but also lack the motivation to go out and cut everyday. I pick up log lenghts from around new house sites and haul them home in my dump trailer. Usually get the wood loaded for me to boot. I dump in a pile and buck it up near my wood shed. Drag out the splitter and split when I feel like it. It doesnt seem to me that I spend a lot of time trying to scrounge wood. In the right situation, I can harvest all my wood in a single day. I can buck it all up in another day and if I work at it can have it all split in another day, or I can just peck at it until I get it done. Of course, I dont see -zero temps and snowfall measured in yards and only burn about 4 cords a year.

I will suggest some sort of trailer, preferrably a dump hooked behind a pickup truck. I would mount a small crane with a winch on the crane to drag logs to the trailer. cut the logs into lenghts to fit the trailer and load logs on the trailer and not firewood lenghts. This will allow you to hual more wood faster to your homestead. With the logs next to you house, you can pcik and choose when you want to buck and split and how long you want to work at each session. You can get a lot done just bucking for 30min if you dont have to load all your equipment in your truck and drive to the woods to work. You could probably have 30min worth of sawing done by the time you could even get to where you need to harvest the wood.

 

[Saiso]

You ever thought about a small Wood Mizer?

You could make a buck and it wouldn't be so equipment intensive.

Yup our local mill has 5 saw mills. All Wood Mizer. I already told him I would be interested in buying a mill once he wants to slow down and maybe get rid of a couple.

 

[Saiso]

Things change overtime. I used to work a out of town job and only home one weekends. that meant I had two days to catch up all the work around the house. I treid to prioritize what had to be done from what I wanted done. Not easy when you have small boys that wanted to go fishing. I woud pick one weekend and try to get out all the wood i could. I hualed the wood home in log lenghts. I can cut and hual a lot of logs in a day, not so much if I cut and split before hualing. With the logs at home, I could take the saw and buck for 30min here and there and have everything ready to split in just a few days. Splitting I took the same approach, pick a day and try to get it all split or split a little when ever I had the time. If I wanted to work after dinner, just fire up the saw or splitter.

Now I am retired, got all the time in the world to cut wood, but also lack the motivation to go out and cut everyday. I pick up log lenghts from around new house sites and haul them home in my dump trailer. Usually get the wood loaded for me to boot. I dump in a pile and buck it up near my wood shed. Drag out the splitter and split when I feel like it. It doesnt seem to me that I spend a lot of time trying to scrounge wood. In the right situation, I can harvest all my wood in a single day. I can buck it all up in another day and if I work at it can have it all split in another day, or I can just peck at it until I get it done. Of course, I dont see -zero temps and snowfall measured in yards and only burn about 4 cords a year.

I will suggest some sort of trailer, preferrably a dump hooked behind a pickup truck. I would mount a small crane with a winch on the crane to drag logs to the trailer. cut the logs into lenghts to fit the trailer and load logs on the trailer and not firewood lenghts. This will allow you to hual more wood faster to your homestead. With the logs next to you house, you can pcik and choose when you want to buck and split and how long you want to work at each session. You can get a lot done just bucking for 30min if you dont have to load all your equipment in your truck and drive to the woods to work. You could probably have 30min worth of sawing done by the time you could even get to where you need to harvest the wood.

Yeah I’ve been using that approach for the last couple years and I find it works best for me. I make a pile in front of the cabin with 8 ft lengths and whenever I can, I go out and work on my pile. It’s easier for me to be in front of the cabin door working than to be in the woods. At least my son can see and hear the saw/tools.

Thanks for your reply

 

[babybart]

How did this thread get heated and went to who here works the most hours to which country is better to move to?

That's just what happens on here. No matter the original topic.