Clearing the Land- Feb. 2009

From Briggs House Remodel

North Side of House, Post Cleanup
The month of February was spent cleaning up the property outside of the house. Very little had been done to the property for years. There were a few buildings that needed some work, as well as many trees that had to come down.
Besides the house, there were five outbuildings on the property when we purchased it: a garage, corn crib, granary, chicken coop, and tool shed. Some were in good shape, while others were falling in. Josh began the clean-up by tearing down the garage. It was a one car unit that was falling in on itself. It didn't take much to push it in and burn it. Underneath the garage we found a pit, a place where a person could stand under a car and change the oil. Apparently, the original owner enjoyed working on cars! While this was a cool feature for him, it is really just a big hole in the ground to me, a big hole that needs to be filled in before one of the girls decides to take a header into it!!
The corn crib is still in very good shape. We don't plan on doing anything with it right now. It will be used as storage. I do have plans for a Christmas wreath and maybe a barn quilt someday, though! The granary is also in good shape. Josh left it alone for the time being.
The tool shed was not in a great spot, so Josh drug it out of the way for now. I'm not sure if it will be kept or not. I could make good use of it for a potting shed. The chicken coop was in the way and falling apart, so Josh tore it down. The girls were a little disappointed, they had high hopes for chickens:)

From Briggs House Remodel

Spot where the garage sat, also view of tool shed (now moved)

From Briggs House Remodel

Corn Crib
The next project was tree removal. The lot to the west of the house was full of trees, many that were dead or fallen over. There were also a few trees closer to the house that were in the way or unappealing. So one very long weekend in February, Josh and couple of friends spent time cutting down trees, burning brush and cleaning up eighty years of farm "garbage". They cut anything that was rotten or had fallen over. This cleared quite a bit on the northwest corner of the property. We can see more of our neighbors now!
We also decided to take down the cedars that lined the west side of the house. The trees were planted as a wind break, at least 50 years ago. But they had grown to be about 40 feet tall with no branches for the first 20 feet. So they really didn't block much wind. They were also in the way for the septic system. Josh cut them down and gave the lumber to a friend. Hope he does something cool with it. There were also a few other small trees in the backyard that came down because of the septic system.

From Briggs House Remodel

House before cedar trees were cut (background)

From Briggs House Remodel

West Side After Trees Cleared
There was a lot of junk dumped around the place, most of it wire fencing. The guys spent many hours pulling up piles of wire and other metal scrap. They fought for 45 minutes to pull a tree stump that was surrounded by a huge roll of wire. By the time they were done, Josh had a dump wagon overflowing with scrap metal.
After he had all the trees down, Josh decided to have the stumps ground up. There ended up being 46 stumps! And that is not all of them; after the snowed and mud cleared, there are still several stumps that need to come out. The last outside project that Josh tackled was to take off the front steps. They were crumbling and with them gone, Josh could park the trailer right up next to the house. This will come in handy for the next phase in the project: plaster removal.