Looking Ahead to 2016

If you're wondering just what Neta and I intend to do in the coming months, this is your lucky day.   This is an outline of the tasks ahead of us and what we intend (hope) to accomplish for 2016.

1.  Finalize our house plans - We've been working with our builder on this, going back and forth and it looks like we're near completion on this one.  A final change to accommodate an old bathtub should round out the last of the major changes/updates.  The house plan for the Cabin is pretty simple and finalized.  Pictures of the plans will be forthcoming.

2.  Clean out both houses - This has actually already started.  Much of the family was here over Thanksgiving and took furniture and other items that they wanted.  Some other items were claimed over Christmas.  We've rented a large PODS container and will store what's left while the house is being torn down and rebuilt.  We'll spend the next few weekends packing boxes, moving furniture and cleaning things out.  The Cabin needs a clean out and some demo work.  We'll do the demo work ourselves to save a few dollars.  Most of it involves tearing out the existing interior paneling, insulation (if any) and one partial (non-loading bearing) wall.

3.  Renovate the Cabin - Pretty self-explanatory.  It's a two-room cabin with a bedroom, bathroom and a living room/kitchenette.  It'll get all new insulation, walls, siding, roof, windows, bath fixtures, new kitchenette, electrical, plumbing and heat & A/C.  It'll be a nice little place when it's all fixed up.

Rough draft - Old floor plan of the cabin

Rough draft - New, Improved floor plan

4.  Clean up/Grade the yard around the Cabin - There are some low spots and some debris where the trailer once stood.  Most of this we'll do ourselves, but we'll probably need a load or two of dirt and probably do some landscaping as well.

5.  Demolish the Farm House - Sadly this must be done.  The original house (the right side) was built sometime around 1892 (as best we can determine).  While most of it is still in good shape, there is just too much work to do and too much expense to renovate it.  The left side and rear (added on in the 70's) is the part that is dragging the rest of it down.  We hope to salvage some of the old wood, including some large beams in the attic, and use it in various areas of the rebuild.  The old cedar tree to the right will be cut down too, as it's in the way and not looking as full as it once did.  If all goes well, we'll have the trunk and some of the larger limbs milled and build a nice table (or something) out of it.

6.  Build a new house - Okay...we'll let the builder handle this one, but we'll be as involved as we can be.

7. Buy a tractor - My favorite item on the list!  Yes, more than the house (Neta's leans more toward the house as her favorite).  We'll wait until we get the financing settled on the builder's loan and mortgage before I shake hands with the tractor dealer, but we hope to have a new tractor, bush-hog and tiller residing on the farm sometime later in the year.  We'll also sell the two tractors that are currently in the barns.  Neither of them run, it would cost a lot to fix them and they don't come with a 5 year warranty that a new tractor would.  Though one is a (somewhat) rare antique, it's too far gone to explore restoring it.

Ford 501 Offset Tractor - Propane
Circa 1957 - 1962

Ford 3600 Tractor

Side view of the 501 Offset Tractor

8. Get the land ready for gardens in 2017 - There may be some gardening this year, but if anything it will more than likely involve landscaping around the two houses.  We don't know if we'll have time for a proper vegetable garden this year, but it can't hurt to hop on the tractor and till up some ground.

9. Clear/Thin some of the timber - There is approximately 13 acres of planted pine trees on the property (property outlined in red) that Neta's uncle intended to one day have cut down and sold.  We plan to honor that...somewhat.  We're not cutting it all down, though we intend to pay him for the current value of the trees.  We had a "Timber Cruiser" come in and give us an estimate on the value of the trees.  Most of the trees are small, less than 25 feet tall, having never been thinned or maintained (we've learned a lot about timber recently).  A few can be used for sawmill timber, but the rest can only be used as pulpwood.  As I-16 borders us to the north (top of picture), we intend to only "thin" (approximately 40% cut down) the trees outlined in yellow.  We want to keep that as a noise barrier.  We'll eventually plant a "wall" of evergreens out by the highway to help with the noise.  The areas outlined in light blue will be cleared completely.  They don't affect our views as there are other woods around or beyond them and it won't affect either.  The area in light blue to the right (and possibly middle left) may be used for fruit trees and other plantings at some point.

Map of our property and the stands of pine trees

10.  Clear brush and small trees along the lane - We have some beautiful Live Oaks, large pines and a few cedar trees growing along the lane (actually a county maintained road) leading up to the Farm House.  The oaks have a little Spanish Moss hanging from them in places, though it's not like driving down a street in the middle of Savannah, let's be clear on that.  We plan to cut down the brush, small scrubby trees/bushes and some of the smaller trees to give the lane a much cleaner look.  This project may carry into 2017, but we'll see.

That rounds out something of a Top 10 (there is so much more) of our hopes, dreams, ideas, projects, etc. for the upcoming year.  We're curious to see how our continuing blog entries along with an end of 2016 entry will look when it's all over.  It's going to be busy and exciting.  Aside from a couple items, we've never done anything like this before, especially on this scale.  The taking care of this much land is daunting, throw in building a house, renovating another and just getting it all under control so we can "take care" of it, is downright intimidating.  But WOW...it's going to be fun!