“one of those places worth half a million”

If its sits on some shale oil, then you just may be right ;)

Hi Stephanie,

It’s been a while, but I think I started with Cooperative Extension’s list of licensed foresters in our state. Their list is provided by the state board of licensure for foresters and the individual foresters can then add information on the services they offer. We chose someone who’d been in business locally for many years, and would take care of finding the right logger for the job, and would take care of all the permits and reporting to the town for the timber tax. They paid us for the logs and pulpwood and when it was all done, they sent the town the paperwork showing how much was harvested (we got a copy and I double-checked it with our payment slips) and the town sent us a bill for the tax owed. This is in NH of course - if you are in another state, procedures may be different, but checking with cooperative extension is a good starting point.

Karen

I would love to find out more information about how you found the forester, and used them to clear some land. I have 2 acres to clear. Thank you, I am enjoying your blog!

I understand what you’re saying Debra, I really do. There is a fine line however, and in my mind, they crossed it. Maybe I’m too territorial, or overly protective of my animals. But I’m not running a petting zoo. Now, if they had walked down the road and up the driveway and politely asked if they could see the sheep with their daughter, I would have been happy to take them over to see them, and would not have been upset if the man had decided to “BAA” at them then. But, they did not ask permission, and I think the fact that they climbed down off the wall when they saw me watching them says a lot. If they had stayed in my neighbor’s yard and done their “baa-ing” that would have been different too. As I said, it’s a fine line, but to me an important one.

I’ll tell you another story. We have a right-of-way through the property for the man who owns the property behind us. He was having some logging done. One day, one of his friends buzzed through in her SUV with two big pit bull-type dogs in the back. She went to his property and pulled into his log yard, and one of the dogs jumped out the window and started sniffing around (I found out later he nearly bit the logger). She then got the dog back in the car, and started driving back out. She stopped her car at the closest point to the sheep paddock, and let her dogs bark and growl ferociously out the passenger side windows at them. I came up on the driver’s side and said “HELLO” rather loudly. I was not projecting much of the friendly farmer at this point, I’m afraid. She started talking about how her dogs had never seen “wildlife” before and how they were so excited (I thinking, yes, I can see that they would like to rip the heads off my sheep - can you?), and then asked a couple questions about the sheep, which I answered briefly in a monotone, while staring coldly at her dogs, who were now barking and growling ferociously out the driver’s side windows at me. She left fairly quickly. She’s been back a few times since, but notably without her dogs.

I realize not everyone sees farm animals on a daily basis. I know they are curious and that’s great. But, for some reason some people seem to lose their common sense and knowledge of common courtesies and I don’t know why this should be. I guess it’s one of the great mysteries of life. :)

Actually? Sheep are a novelty to most people, something they do not encounter everyday, unlike dogs. Something people (like me) travel to petting farms to visit and pat on the head and watch and smile at. If I was visiting friends who lived nextdoor to sheep I would have probably done a bit of baa-ing, myself, as I’ve done at petting zoos (and watched others do). I didn’t find that man’s behavior odd at all, for farms are lovely things to be shared with suburbanites, I think. (And I also understand shyness with people, but comfort with animals. Alas.) :) Blessings, Debra

Hey Karen…. I just now ran across this farm blog and thought of you:

http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/

Thought you might want to check it out! Hope you’re having a great day down on your own farm. :) … Debra

Yes, it’s a combo unit. It also has a fridge unit underneath. I’d never seen one before moving here. But the faucet isn’t long enough to reach outside of the sink basin itself, so no worries there.

That appliance is a combo electric stove and sink? One where you can swing the faucet over and run water onto the electric elements? This seems like an unwise feature set to me.

Yes, it sure is nice not to be buried in snow this year. And the temps have been fairly mild. Let’s hope this continues through Feb. After that the winter is almost over!

The price varies, depending on the pelt. You can see all the prices on the website, here: http://birchtreefarm.com/pelts.html

How much are you selling the pelts for?

Thank you.

Karin Johnson

I don’t know what all the technical jumbo means but it looks like it would keep my tushy warm in the winter:-)

Knowing what the property looks like, I can’t wait to see more pics of the progress leading to completion.

w00t! Looking good!

Yes, there is some risk to that. But, black bears are not as, um, ferocious as, say, grizzlies (which I am glad to say we do not have here). With Jake making all his noise, and me at the top of the slope, she probably just went a short distance and waited. That’s why I kept calling Jake back up to me though, as I didn’t want him actually contacting the bear, not that he seemed to want to do that. And that gave baby time to get down and take off.

I’m hoping that the local bears will learn to avoid us eventually. There’s plenty of woods around us so that it’s not as if they have to come through our back yard!

Well, that’s one species of wildlife I’m glad we don’t have on the croft. I’m more than happy with our eagles, hawks, badgers, foxes, stoats, pine marten and the like, so I’ll leave the bears to you.

Incidentally, isn’t there a risk that mother bear will come charging back to protect baby bear?

Oh! so cute!

Hmmm, maybe some of Jake’s “sent” scattered around the crest of the back bank might cause Mr. Sly Fox to think twice. I won’t go beyond that (except by private email :-) )

Give Jake a “pat on the head” for “Moi”

Hank is the same way - he is completely alert and will bark at anything out of the ordinary - a tractor parked in a new place, a piece of garbage that has blown in, rabbits, varmints … etc.
I have 2 geese and I have learned to wake up when Hank barks, evaluate what kind of bark it is, and run outside if Hank barks AND the geese go off.
I am sorry you lost a duck!

No, not all bad! But the noise is really an issue. It’s not so much that they can be loud, it’s that they have no discretion in what they choose to alarm at. And that they go ON and ON and ON. And the sound really carries. And they really do seem quite stupid at times. Yep, they were cute as babies, but this batch was really really flighty. They would pile up on each other and scream at the slightest movement. I think maybe we just got a particularly freaky batch of keets.

The ducks have started dancing. I love it! They are so cute. And nice and quiet. ;-)