NY Upstate - Hudson Valley/Catskills - Skills Pool/Tradeshare

Hello, hello

First time poster.

I just wanted to make a reference post for like minded people in my area to share resources, skills and tricks. I browse the forums often and I don't think I've come across a thread like this (If there is one PLEASE let me know and have the mods throw this into the proverbial compost pile!)

I have about a 22 ac wood parcel in Sullivan County, I'm slowly turning into a homestead of sorts. I main skills are in construction planning and millworking. I'm about 30-47 y.o. depending on what my knee tells me when I wake up in the morning.

By like minded I mean:

Resourceful, Respectful, Sustainable, Efficient, Generous people that feed the hungry and and care for the home(community)less. People that have opinions, maybe even political ones, but don't regurgitate what the talking heads tell them like blind sheep. People that see America for what a is, an awesome place that needs an incredible amount of work (Like a north facing slope with old growth trees in the spring...). Lovers of people, sharers of burdens, family to the fatherless and widows. People who will join you in chasing off those annoying kids that atv on the back of your property, yeah that part of the property you just planted your blueberries and  locust...People who love diversity in people and as much as they love diversity in their food forest. Writers of poetry, fixers of tractors, puckers of guitars and digger of holes. Moonshiners, Bricklayers, Backbreakers. And better yet people who might not be like minded yet, but desperately want to be.

If anyone one in the area needs a plan for for a custom plan for a chicken coop, work station, workbench, sauna, shed, etc I'm your man. But post post what you can do and share and other can find you.

hello I am nearby in delaware county bordering otsego! I am a 25 yr old floundering around up here. I have built a rocket mass heater, am in the process of building an outoor kitchen with a rocket oven and cookstoves/earthen countertop. And more builds planned for the spring and summer. Always looking for more...

Hi Dave!!! Nice to meet you. I’m not currently in the Catskills, but I’m looking to relocate there. I hope to build something along the lines of a “passive” barndominium, but I’m still working on my finals plans. I’m looking to start my own self sustaining homestead, with hopes to do some small scale breeding. I’ve always visited the Catskills and thought it would be a good place to relocate my “family.” We are pretty non-traditional - I’m a cancer survivor in my 20s, my boyfriend has high functioning cerebral palsy and we are bringing my 77 year old grandmother! Since I’m not able to have children of my own (my cancer was genetic) we plan to foster. So I’m trying to think about something that will work for us all and can be a *forever* home. I don’t have many skills (yet) that I can offer up but I have a lot of knowledge (spent a lot of my sick time reading and learning) and I’m really good at interior design. My current home has been featured in magazines, blogs, etc. Design isn’t my professional career but it is my passion. Happy to connect with everyone and I look forward to working together on growing community!

Hello all,

Just landed back at my agro-forestry project in southern Catskills/ Forestburgh NY 12777 for a season of work.  

If anyone wants to compare notes, exchange site visits, trade work, etc, just let me know.  

Best, Patrik

Hey Patrik, can you describe your project a bit more?

Thanks for your interest David...

212ac: several parcels, degraded natural northern hardwoods mixed conifers, no hardwoods regen, going white pine, conditions going oak-hickory, no migration mechanism; legacy plan to establish financial & sustenance self-sufficiency; preparations for fire as benefit

116ac in NYS DEC 480a, 15 years heavy pine thinning for deer exclusion matrix, 30 year transition to quality hardwoods selection harvest; forest inventory & management plan updates in progress now

homesteads + 87ac adjacent recent acquisition hard hit 2018 stormado + salvage logging; 90% establishment quality hardwoods 2019 replanting 3ac; seedling nursery; orchard plantings; significant wetlands; agro-forestry inventory & development plan underway now including edible forest, community food scraps composting, orchards/ gardens/ greenhouse/ hives, seasonal subsistence base

adjacent property historical Japanese 'palace' & 'gardens' ruins under restoration, invoking over-boundary hydrology, custom large precision beam milling, traditional joinery, forensic reveal/ remake of forest-overgrown landscape, fish farming, etc

involved in adjacent 1900ac community forest management, etc

Could immediately & next four weeks trade help one-for-one: doing forest inventory plot sampling, planting out 5-gallon maples & sumacs + black walnut seed, GPS->GIS mapping, collecting shagbark hickory & black locust seed, re-opening firelanes, etc.