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Sustainusfarm
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 17:28
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No it wasn't the dreaded tornado...This spring we decided to have 5 of our acres logged by the amish by hand using horses...We thought it would be less invasive than having a big loging company come and rip the crap out of the grounds, driveway and pathways. So here are the before and after pics...I'm still getting used to it!
Outhouse view before
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Outhouse view after
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Outhouse/shower before
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Outhouse/shower after
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Sustainusfarm
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 17:31
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And a few more before and afters
Driveway before
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Diveway after
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view off porch before
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view off porch after
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Sustainusfarm
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 17:33
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And the last few before, during and afters
Cabin Before
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Cabin during
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Cabin after
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My favorite tree came down without a fight... :(
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sparky1
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 17:45
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Quality People.
Quality Work.
The Amish near me , are Quality People.
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 18:05
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Does that mean they don't do quality work? I was a bit dissapointed that they left such a mess! We had 9 people working for 8 hrs with a chipper and we only finished the driveway! ther were huge ruts in th edrive from the horses dragging the logs around and I still feel like there are an awful lot of good logs still laying on the ground and they say they are done....??
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OwenChristensen
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 18:15
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My dad and I screwed up and didn't thin the plantings for thirty years, then after his death, I had it done. After a fifty percent cut, the next spring there was ice storm and hundereds of trees toppled.
Owen
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 18:46
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Ohh...this is the first cut for us..I am guessing the trees to be 25 years old....we don't get ice here very often though...just heavy snow...in fact the snow is often 2-4ft deep in the roof! I hope nothing happens to them this winter or during any storms this summer!
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MJW
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 18:53
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Quoting: Sustainusfarm I was a bit dissapointed that they left such a mess!
That was my thought when I looked at the pictures.
Don't they clean up the mess?
OK, so I am kind of ignorant about logging. 
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 19:02
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MJW...I guess I am too! LOL ... Apparently I get to do the cleaning up and I got to pay for a new tire on the truck that picked up the logs! A log rolled under the truck and popped a hole in the sidewall.... How that is my fault I will never know??!!...I will be cleaning up until next spring ...this winter we will burn some large piles out in the newly clear cut area instead of chipping....
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Anonymous
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 21:43
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When we had logging done on our property it was done in the early spring when the ground is still frozen. That way the skidder won't tear up the ground. Loggers are there to harvest the wood not clean it up. That is up to you and why it is a good idea to do logging away from your primary viewing area and just do selective cutting around the cabin.
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 22:05
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This project was started in early Feb...then the amish guy doing the logging came down with apedicitis and had to have surgery! It took a while for him to heal...by the time he got back to work it was early spring and the ground had thawed...I think he was still less invasive than a large company of trucks and tree cutting machines. Most of the trees were selectively cut with the exception of the area we clear cut so we could have a view of our prairie area... It took awhile to get used to but I really like the view now and we actually get a nice breeze on the porch now....
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Kudzu
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 22:14
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You are lucky to get someone to cut such a small area, count your blessings and drop off a turkey or two to the loggers. (or do it yourself)
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2012 22:37
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The amish approached me... They are my neighbors and needed work... We split the money the pulp mill gave us 50/50. He says he is going to bring me a turkey this year! I bring them stuff they need from the city on my return visits and his wife teaches us how to cook on a woodstove... We have a great relationship. Loggers in Wisconsin will log any acreage big or small, so there was no luck there.
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sparky1
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# Posted: 21 Jun 2012 08:23
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Before I Bought my Place (southern Va.) Pro's ?? had taken a lot off my place (what a mess) 10 years ago I let Amish strip some-1/2 of mill price...they did clean up a lot-I "chipped up the small stuff" to put along the drive way-I think they are great People "My 2 cents.
sparky1.
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 21 Jun 2012 09:02
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Yes...they are great people and they always want to help! I have 75 amish families around me and I love the fact that that means it will always be very rural and farmy...oh and quiet! 
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TomChum
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# Posted: 21 Jun 2012 10:07 - Edited by: TomChum
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Tearing up my own personal forest would be difficult for me. I would keep them away from my cabin. My driveway is so pleasurable I would have a hard time logging near it too. This is something I will probably have to come to terms with someday, so am interested in your experience.
Was as the amount of $ received in line with the amounts they estimated?
Are you satisfied with the amount of compensation for what you 'lost'?
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 21 Jun 2012 11:18
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TomChum...I had procrastinated about doing this for the last 10 yrs! It was very difficult for me to decide to do this as I really liked the closeness of the evergreen trees and how they protected the cabin from strong winds and storms. I also wanted some extra cash to put in a well and I knew the trees needed thinning for their own health! I chose to clear cut an area so I had a view of our valley and to be able to eventually plant some fruit trees and a garden. The rest of the property I had the logger selectively cut out every other tree or close to it. I also tagged some trees directly around the cabin that I wanted gone so it would be easier to drill the well and put in septic in the future.
As for money....I am happy! It ended up being 3 semi loads of wood, 12 cords per load and we ended up with about $3000 that Amish Joe and I split. I really dont think I "lost" anything....
In the end I am very happy with how it turned out and I will tell you that a lot of small trees are already filling in the empty spaces...I will have more diversity for wildlife and overall visual appeal. Not to mention, and I have said this before, I have a very nice breeze on the porch, so hot days are not as hot anymore with the increased air flow! In addition it is not as dark in the cabin like it used to be!
As far as the original estimates, we were right on target and I am that much closer to getting a well. Amish Joe was the contractor and it was up to him to cut logs and stage them for pick up and to arrange for a truck to pick them up and haul them to the mill for weighing. He also is the one they wrote the checks out to and as a result I will not have to pay the taxes on the money recieved . He Will!
So..was I traumatised when I first saw the devastation? YES! I think I cried for 10 minutes!
I am getting used to it and now I really love how it turned out!
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 1 Jul 2012 11:30
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The last of the logs have been hauled to the mill!! Yeah!
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TomChum
Member
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# Posted: 1 Jul 2012 14:24
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Congrats!
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 2 Jul 2012 17:52
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Thanks TC....It really is turning out to be a great change having cut and thinned the trees...som much light in the cabin now, nice breezes on the porch and I have some new views to look at! I am glad I did it...oh and the small trees are already coming up and filing in...I have all kinds of oak and white pine seedlings coming up and with all the rain up there this year they are really growing! I would bet that in 2 years it will be an entirely different looking place...for the better!
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Sustainusfarm
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# Posted: 8 Jul 2012 09:30 - Edited by: Sustainusfarm
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The final logs have be picked up and hauled away to the mill...or so I thought....Got news that the gas company is going to be replacing a gas line that goes thru an easement on our property. It is at the far north end and cuts only thru the tip of our land, however it will be a 50' swath they are clearing and I calculate that to be another $1000 load of logs at least! I am negotiating with them now about how to tackle this and who will be responsible for what....
To be continued.....
Drive is cleared of logs...yeah!!
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clean up almost complete
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cleaned up drive
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Finished
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2013 08:48
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Update....one year ago the trees came crashing down....this season with all the rain the under growth is quickly filling in and has made it possible for us to burn through the summer! 
image.jpg
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image.jpg
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image.jpg
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image.jpg
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TheWildMan
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2013 09:09
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it looks like they did a heavy cut, almost a clear cut. it doesn't look like quality work (from a foresters perspective, and I marked lots for logging for a living).
the lot is decimated, in a few years it will be thick with seedlings and weeds. it will take decades to grow larger trees again. a better harvest would have been a shelter wood cut (leaving a good number of trees, they would grow faster and produce desirable seeds to outcompete the weeds).
from a professional standpoint I think you got ripped off, loosing quality for a very limited income.
selective cut or loggers choice is also a foolish way to harvest, they take the best and leave the junk, the lower quality trees are left to reproduce and they pass on poor quality traits to the future (this maximizes the logger and landowner profit now but reduces the quality of future harvests, the low value junk trees reproduce more junk).
around here foresters refer to "loggers choice" as raping and pillaging the forest (a foresters job is not to maximize logging profits, its to maintain healthy and productive forests for future harvests)
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2013 09:25
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Wildman.... The second pic is most representative of the entire property....there is an area we did have them clear cut so we could plant some fruit trees and have a garden with more of a view, but that is only an acre...this was all done last winter 2012 then the drought came and we then we got a beetle infestation which killed a bunch of trees.... I chose the trees they cut and keep in mind that they only took trees off of 1/3 of our total acreage.... In person it looks much better and in fact there are a tone of small oak, maple, birch, white pine and prairie plants coming up everywhere! We have seeded the clear cut area with a medium height prairie mix that is coming in great due to all the rain this season! Overall I'm happy but there is a lot of work to still do.... some of the pics below show what most of the logged areas really look like!
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TheWildMan
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2013 10:14
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Oh, I misunderstood, since you had selected the trees to go you took charge and planned it out, and already planned to replant with a different forest type (orchard). we don't have pine beetles here so I did not think of them right away.
I did something similar at my place removing ash trees ahead of the EAB and replanted with apple and pear trees (I left the oak and black cherry up).
I thought the outhouse/shower view was the typical. considering beetle killed trees and owner planning you got a fair deal.
I saw the phrase "logger choice" and that's usually what people use to describe letting loggers take whatever they wanted (around here the logger choice stands are full of low value and low quality junk, the property owners are thrilled with handfuls of money but don't realize they got ripped off and will never get a good timber sale again). since you had decided what to cut and what not to that is a different harvest all together
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Smawgunner
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2013 19:53
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Quoting: sparky1 The Amish near me , are Quality People.
The ones near me are allowed to operate puppy mills unchecked. It is absolutely unspeakable. The way the treat animals is horrible.
Excellent cabin BTW!
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christian1
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# Posted: 20 Mar 2014 09:22
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Sustainusfarm
Sustainusfarm, where is that property? I am looking at a piece of land that is just about the same size and layout. It is a pine plantation with trees that are probably 30 years old. Going through the process right now and trying to decide whether this is THE one. Logging the pines has been one thought I had, but as many have said it is hard to get someone to log such a small piece and they leave a complete mess.
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 23 Mar 2014 11:22
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Chrisian1... We are in central Wisconsin ....are we gonna be neighbors?? It wasn't hard to find sOmeone to log for us...I had a local Amish do ours but I also had a big company willing to do it as well.
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 23 Mar 2014 11:34
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Christian1 , did I mention that is am a local Realtor!?
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christian1
Member
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# Posted: 23 Mar 2014 12:20
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Sustainusfarm, send me an email. It will be easier.
chrisfrnsn at Yahoo
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