Zachary Carpacian

We're pretty new to this Homesteading gig and also to blogging, but we started one up about a year ago on WordPress over at https://summerhillstead.wordpress.com/

I like that it's free, despite occasional bugginess. Not having pay for it means that I don't have to have any ads or affiliate links or any of that stuff  to afford it. I just get to write about what we're doing and share some photos, and that's good enough for me. My family reads it, and someday we'll share it with our son so that he knows we weren't just sitting around all the time while he was in school

The challenge I think, if I were trying to gain some sort of noteriety, would be that blogs often need to be pretty visually entertaining. Usually (but not always!) that means embedded video. It adds a whole 'nuther aspect to the amount of time that goes into "having a blog". It includes video capture, editing, music, and in our case- uploading big files on a metered cellular network. Maybe that's not so much for me, but I'm playing around with it a little

Don't be too envious of the driveway- beyond the photo it's a 9-10% grade drop for 600 feet. I've already blown a hole in a tire too big for patching!

As a two-day owner I'm happy to recommend a Wilson Booster. We started off with a bar or two of cell service that would be very intermittent and pretty much non-existent within the house. The Wilson set arrived in a single box about one foot by two feet in size. The instructions are pretty straightforward, and you don't need to understand what it is that you're doing to follow them.

I use a free app called OpenSignal that can point to your closest cellphone tower. I used a rooftop exhaust vent from my bathroom to attach the paddle-shaped antenna and ran the cord down to a window on the far side of the house where it will be well-hidden. That cord screws into the booster unit, which plugs into a wall outlet. From the booster, an in-house antenna is run to wherever you need signal the most. Just plug in the booster and you're done- no software to set up or configure.

We get one to three bars throughout the house now with very few "dead" spots. I want to go back up and adjust the antenna a bit though, there might be even better signal to be had, since the antenna is directional and a small adjustment to where it points can make a significant difference in the signal it receives.

Good luck Dan!

So far we've got spotty connection through most of the house, but I've yet to properly adjust the antenna. I'll likely get to it tomorrow evening, but I'm not looking forward to going up on the roof again!

It's been months in the making, but finally we've closed on our old city home today, and have moved our lives out onto this marginal piece of land. 17.5 acres, half wooded half pasture, that we hope to slowly transform into our own permaculture paradise. 43 chickens came with the sale, and we're getting more eggs than we can handle, so we're donating to a local food pantry. Working on starting a blog to record our successes and failures. So far, failure number one was having to make 12 trips back and forth from the old and new house to transport our belongings, 60 miles each way....but we're finally passed that hurdle! The next step is in figuring out how to adjust this Wilson brand cellular antenna so that we can keep you all updated with our goings-on!

Thanks folks!

I'll need to revisit the property (We close in about 3 weeks!) to be sure, but I'm fairly certain that it's not common, or European Barberry that I'm dealing with, but rather it's shorter, bitter Japanese cousin. I hadn't heard of it being useful as a medicine, and I will definitely be checking out Mountain Rose herbs. Around here Extension recommends a gamut of methods for removal, including manual for the small plants, but also chemicals and propane torches. If they're worth anything to anybody I'd be happy to offer them up! Thanks for the link, and for the book recommendation!! I've also added my general location, thanks for the tip!

Thanks Eliot!

You've given me a lot to think about! From what I understand the assessed taxes on my property include the house and the whole 17 acres, with no additional or exceptional taxes placed upon the value of the woodstand or having any stipulations regarding how it's managed...but now I'm going to double check!

I would say that 18" DBH would be the maximum average size of a small portion of my trees....8" being the smallest and 12" probably being where most trees in the lot fall. This makes sense to me from a growers standpoint- if the seller of the property wanted to get the best value he would probably want to wait another 5 years or so to get more of the smaller trees up from pulpwood price.

Thanks for the advice regarding selling! Lots of great information that I didn't know about ! I'm thinking about being very selective about the trees I cut for firewood to open up the lot while preserving the best of the best hardwoods as "standing money", so to speak. Possibly to be sold off later if money is needed, or even passed down to my kiddo, if this is the kind of lifestyle that he wants to have when he gets older. I want to create a healthier, more natural forest by increasing the diversity of the trees and planting some shade tolerant species in the openings I create. Hopefully that will give the understory a chance to grow some healthy ground cover as well!

Be deliberate, be careful - sage wisdom! My family and I plan to "sit" with the land for a year or two while we get the house in order, learn, and make plans. I understand that we'll be running a marathon, and not a race. But since a marathon is *kind of* a race, I don't think it would be too unwise to get the ball rolling on a few fall/winter projects- namely the beginning of what may become a never-ending battle against the barberry!

Thanks again for the advice and the welcome! I haven't been here long, but I already feel like Permie's is becoming family! I plan to document my processes and work, for posterity, for learning, and for giving others the benefit of the mistakes I'm sure to make!

Peter Ellis wrote:Goats may be able to help you manage your unwanted understory elements. When you say "keep the deer at bay", what do you mean? IMO having a healthy forest ecosystem is going to involve having healthy fauna along with the flora, i.e., you're going to get deer. Consider what kinds of understory plants you want and cross-reference for what will work in your location (or reverse that order, look at what will grow in your location and figure out which selections you want). Sounds like a major portion of the work has already been done for this cycle, in terms of the spacing and your reports of the current stand. I would agree that coppice is a good plan, but if you haven't studied it, there's more involved than just cutting trees and letting them regrow ;)

My own twenty acre woodland hasn't been managed since it was last open land, roughly 100 years ago. Lots of work to bring this place into reasonable form ;)

- Regarding Goats: We do have an additional 7 acres of pasture and a barn, and goats will certainly be making an appearance in the years to come! This won't be for a while though, I'm not confident in our livestock-keeping abilities as of yet and I won't have any animal suffer for my ignorance. We're starting out small, with chickens (that come with the homestead)!
- Regarding Deer: Well, I suppose that I mean that I'd like to figure out a way to encourage them to not eat native plants after the barberry has been removed. I'm familiar with many native species in my region but I'd appreciate a little extra guidance on what might work well for my specific situation. I plan to begin growing some natural hedging in some areas that have enough sun to keep livestock in and deer out, but generally I've got 200 acres of woodland abutting my property that looks a lot like mine. Maybe the trees haven't been managed as much or as recently, but barberry is a general problem in the region. I don't want to go through the trouble of creating the best smorgasbord for deer in the county- but that might be the reality of my situation.

Thanks for the comment, very much appreciated!

Fantastic thread, I really enjoyed reading a lot of these recommendations! I'm going to be in the market for a compact tractor soon myself...and now I'm going to be absolutely sure to sit on a few JD's in addition to Kubotas.

Hiya folks!

I was able to take a trip up to the new property with the permission of the sellers last week- we're about 3 weeks from closing and I really wanted to do a quick cruise of the woodlot.

To put ot bluntly- I've not dealt with a woodlot like this before and I'd appreciate any suggestions about how to be a good steward moving forward.

This lot of about 10 acres had been managed previously- current owners say that the last time was about 40 years ago. There's no standing dead wood, I couldn't find a single tree to use for ready-dried firewood for this winter. The volume is probably right around 1 tree 10-18 inches diameter at breast height every 8 to 16 feet average. Absolutely everything is acceptable growth for milling. Trees are primarily Hickory and Black Walnut with some Red Oak, Maple, Black Birch, and Cherry thrown in for good measure. Most of the property is pretty easily accessible.

Despite the quality of the timber, I have no desire to sell - better for me to save my trees unless there's an emergency and I need the money. Some of them will be approaching veneer quality in a decade or two anyway.


Here's the issue. The understory is a pretty sad place. Most likely due to over-browsing by deer and very little sunlight getting through the mature canopy, I'm on a hill with up to around 9% grade (though mostly flatter) and have limestone boulders mixed with rich loam under an endless tangle of barberry.

My goals include harvesting trees for firewood to heat my home, planting saplings to replace what I harvest, increase diversity and fix nitrogen, plant easily accessible fast-growing trees to coppice (planting locust may kill two birds with one stone here), get rid of the barberry, keep the deer at bay, and encourage native, endemic ground cover.

If you have any advice that could help me reach ANY of my goals, I hope you'll share with me.

Thanks very much for your time!