Actually I found one more bag of bulbs and just got them in the ground tonight.

The bulbs I planted on the north wall awhile back are all coming up perfectly.  They are 3 to 4 inches tall, all the way down the wall.  The south side of the wall was staggered but show signs of the bulbs starting to come up.  Hopefully we have a cold spell and the bulbs can catch up to the north wall. I will get a picture when I can.

My drone had a bad day.  I had flown it for 40 minutes getting footage of the flooding.  I then went to the house to film some of the yard again before the leaves come out.  The honeysuckle is already pushing out leaves.

I started with the daffodils that come up on their own and then...you will have to see for yourself.

The tulips I planted in the circle drive a year ago have come up and are looking well.  Even the crocus came up this year.  They did not come up at all last year. I had assumed the squirrels got them since they are planted shallower.



Also the primocane blackberries are already pushing out leaves.

The forecast for this coming weekend, 3/3 and 3/4, is finally looking decent.  No rain, no single digit temperatures, and sunny.  I don't know when that has happened last.

I bought the tractor almost a month ago and still have not been able to change the fluids and do maintenance on it due to constant rain. I plan to finally get that done this weekend.

Also the honeysuckle is leafing out already.  I want to get a bunch of it cut back before the leaves really get established making the job much more difficult.  I also have all sorts of branches that came down in the last month.  Not sure why.  One of my wood piles fell over as well.  I think I have pictures of most of this, just hasn't had time to process and upload them.

Weekend plans:
1. Change oil and hydraulic fluid on the tractor, change the air filter, and grease the joints
2. Cut down a lot of the honeysuckle that has taken over most of the property
3. Drag the honeysuckle to my big brush pile for future chipping
If I get those things done it will be a great.  Additional things are:
4. Clean up the garden area
5. Create trellis system for blackberry vines
6. Rebuild my wood stacks
7. Move the big log off to the side to open up the area for digging out the stump

I also still need to get my tomato seeds started.  I have other seeds started but still have additional vegetable and flower seeds to start.  I started building a new growing stations for my seedlings this year.  I just need to figure out how to protect the wood from moisture.  It is large enough to hold 6 of the 10x20 trays on each of the two levels.

I have my new growing station mostly finished.  I need one more board to finish the mount for second grow light.

Prepping the area and figuring out the demensions.



Rough frame shaping up.



First platform screwed in place.



Test fitting second platform pieces and a grow light.



Framing finished.



Painted to help protect the wood.



Light installed.  They can be moved up and down as needed.  The light is bright enough, 40,000 lumens, that it should be fine at that height.  The light fixture is 24" by 48".



Trays lined up.  The platform will hold 6 with a little bit of space.  I have 7 that need light at the moment.  The extra tray will move to the lower level once I get the light installed.



ETA:  Both lights now installed. I lowered the light on the top shelf.  I noticed it was broadcasting light at least a foot wider than the shelf on each side.  Now the main light is only about 4 inches wider than each side of the shelf.  Eventually I will have to readjust the height of the lights and rearrange the trays to coordinate the taller plants with a taller light.

I used to start my plants indoors. No matter what I did, they grew spindly.

Then I came across an article that said even grow lights don't put out enough light that the Seedlings needed, even with the lights almost on top of the seedlings. It was better to supplement with natural sunlight.

Now obviously, they didn't explain why grow ops did so well....

I've ran into that problem pretty much every year as well.  About 2 years ago I finally came across information that said plants need around 5,000 lumens per sqft in order to have great growth.  Last year I was running a setup where the plants were getting about 2,000 lumens per sqft and they were not spindly at all.  Distance from the light to plant matters as well. Last year the lights were just inches above the leaves.  The light fixture in the growing chamber puts out the 5,000 lumens per sqft but I don't know what distance that is measured at.  The plants this year should be doing great.  I will keep the thread updated as they grow.

Looks like the "weekend project list" is going to turn in the "March project list"!  I pretty much got nothing on the list done.  I did start several items and worked on several others...but mostly I slacked off all weekend.

See my edit above to my grow station, I added a couple more pictures.

I also worked on a video that I took towards the end of February when we got all the rain and everything flooding or near flooding.  Since the leaves were not out the video gives a pretty good overview of my place.

I have a pond!  Well I had a pond for about 2 days.  The water stays at or near the level of the water in the creek.

I did start clearing out some of the honeysuckle.  The sun had already set and there wasn't much light.  The picture quality isn't the greatest, especially the first one which was a snapshot from a video clip instead of a regular picture.

Honeysuckle is an invasive species.  There isn't much to the bush but it takes over because of several factors. 1. It grows really fast and the branches are brittle because of it.  
2. It starts out growing straight up but it grows so fast the branches start to lean over. It then shoots out side branches that go straight up.  The more it grows the more the branches lean.  The end result is a lot of branches poking out horizontal, covering the ground with shade and creating a physical barrier to keep people/animals away from the trunk.
3. It leafs out early and the last plant to lose the leaves in the fall.  Factor that in with the horizontal growing branches and it chose out anything else around it.
4. It puts out tons of small bright red berries which birds love.  They eat them and scatter the seeds everywhere.

This is what I started working with.  You really can't tell there is a creek or waterfall there.



After my initial pass just making a path to the creek.   Already night and day difference and all I did was remove about 8 smaller size bushes.



Now you can see the creek and the waterfall.  I'll be cleaning up more of it and getting better pictures.



Here is the brush pile.  It looks like a huge pile but if I stepped on it the pile would compress down to about a foot thick.  The branches grow very wide and shade out everything but there is actually very little material to the branches.

Picture of my tractor for no reason other than it wasn't raining and I had my drone out.  The hood is up as I reviewing what I would need to change the oil  I have everything except an extra long funnel for getting the oil back into it.

Here is a comparison of the creek water levels between mid-summer, normal, and flood stage.  The flood stage picture was Feb 22, 2018 after all the rain we had.  The main creek that the spring flows into was out of its banks but just to the top of the bank where I am at.

Low Water



Normal Flow



High Water

More Honeysuckle pictures.  All the gray/brown little twigs growing everywhere is honeysuckle.  You can see the areas that are cleared and what they look like.  All the wooded ares of the property have been taken over.  I put together a couple panoramic pictures and then the individual pictures.

From the area on the other side of the creek to the retaining wall is almost solid honesuckle, except for two paths that I have made.



Honeysuckle is the first plant to put out leaves in the fall and has a lot of branches growing every which direction.  It can make for a good privacy screen but that is about it.



On the far left you can see a light opening.  That is where I cut the honeysuckle back the other night.  Otherwise what you see is what the entire area across the creek was like.  I could not even walk through it because the honeysuckle was so thick.  Eventually I used a chainsaw and cut a trail around that part of the property.  This section of honeysuckle is only 15 feet deep, yet you can see any signs of there being a trail or clearing 15 feet beyond it.



Nice view of the creek, from a drone hovering over it.  It is impossible to get down to the creek to look, all you see is honeysuckle.



The night and day difference between part of the yard taken over by honeysuckle and part that has been kept cleared.



A better picture of the area that I cleared the other night and what is remaining.



Tired of hearing about honesuckle yet?  Because I'm just getting started on the project to clean it up.

I haven't gotten much done since my last update due to snow and rain.  However, I did notice one of my No Trespassing signs disappeared in my fended in back yard.  I have a trail camera watching it and caught what happened.  Kids being kids, which isn't an excuse but at least the problem isn't any worse than that.

The previous own planted a whole bunch of Maples and put tubes around them.

I will take them over Walnut and Hackberry.

On the subject of trees. My father said that that is something that can scab and scar Walnut trees but nothing he knew of that would kill them off. I've lost even more branches from the Walnut trees this winter, so an over load of walnuts is not the only cause.

Also almost all my Black Cherry trees have some type of fungus growing on them and they are all in bad shape. I also have a maple up by the circular drive with a fungus that is growing all the way through the tree and it needs to be removed ASAP to stop it from spreading. I have several American Elm trees and they are all doing fine. My woods is backwards, all the good trees die off and the trees that should be dying off are doing fine.

I also determined that I have a bunch of dead Black Locust trees. It looks like most died off at the same time, so I'm not sure if someone intentionally killed them off or if some type of bug/bacteria got them and killed them off.

easily the coolest thread I've read on here.  Keep up with the updates!

Have you thought of bringing in an arborist (sp) to figure out whats going on with the trees and fungus?

My brother recently visited the place and he does that type of work.  He is not officially an arborist but his line of work requires him to identify all plant/tree species, maintain wetlands/paries, and rebuild the natural vegetation on areas.  I showed him the trees and he was the one who told me the maple tree had a fungus on it and identified all the other trees for me.

I want to get a state forester out to look at things.  The property is a historic property and the site of the first paper mill in Kentucky.  In addition to trying to figure out what is going on with the trees I also want to make sure there isn't a rare or unique tree on the property that I would want to keep.

Taggage

Cool thread OP.

Thanks.  If there is anything you or anyone else wants to see, see more pictures of, or get more details on feel free to ask.

Ok, I've read through the entire thread now.  Really interesting!  Looking forward to more updates.

Your experience with the walnut trees reminds me of my efforts to grow grapes in our yard which also has quite a few very mature black walnut trees.  While the grapes that were outside the tree rootzone were ok as far as the walnut influence went, the ones that were even slightly under the canopy never thrived.  Grapes require a deep root system and there was just too much going on down there for them.  After lots of effort and money, I decided not to fight mother nature on that particular front.  I was going to lose every time.  Something to consider.

Another year I decided to try to harvest all these messy, stinky walnuts that were falling all over.  I kept thinking--black walnut cake!  black walnut cake!  Well, I got them harvested, husked, cleaned, (no small feat on any of those steps), and put them in mesh bags and hung them inside our shed, strung from the rafters to dry.  Apparently this was all the invitation the mice needed to make our shed their now-annual nesting place.  They also managed to somehow get to some of the hanging bags of walnuts (hmm, phrasing?).  So after all that work, most of the efforts went to waste and now I had mice influence in an area that had never had it.  And I never got my black walnut cake.  Lessons learned.

Good luck with your adventures.  That'll be a very cool place when you have it fixed up.

I collected the walnuts one year, put them in buckets and left them.  I wasn't sure what if any market there was or if they were worth the time to get the nuts.  I realized it was definitely not worth the time to get the nuts.  In the spring I dumped them in a pile behind the house.  The squirrels gorged themselves and went through about 15 gallons of nuts in 3 days.

I've finally made some progress and will have pictures later.  As usually happens one simple job turns into 5 other time consuming jobs.  An 8 1/2 hour day of working hard and all I managed to get off my to-do list was setting 1 trellis post. Still have 3 more to go.

Two weeks ago I wanted to put in posts to create a trellis system for my blackberries.  I went to move my truck and the brakes went out.  So I used my car to get the posts.  Somehow I managed to get 9 eight foot long pressure treated landscaping timbers in the trunk, though the back seat, and into the driver area enough to close the trunk lid.

As I was getting ready where to place the posts I noticed that there were several smaller trees that I really didn't want and if I cut them they would land on the trellis system.  So the trees had to come down.  I cut down a 6" walnut, a 6" hackberry, and another 6" hackberry which was only 1 of 2 halves.  The one hackberry was about an inch away from another one.  No reason to keep two. The other was one that had two main trunks with one trunk leaning out and covering the yard light.  The walnut came down because I'm done with walnuts in that part of the yard and it would compete with hackberries for light as they grew and then they both would grow crooked.  After that it has rained pretty much every day.

Today was an unexpected warm and sunny day.  I got the lawn mower out, checked it over, and did a quick pass on the yard.  Patches of grass needed to be cut.  I started a small fire and burned a lot of honey suckle root balls and other branches.  The wind was blowing just right that it created a very hot fire with little smoke. I kept feed the fire for about 6 hours.  I finally got a lot of sticks and debris cleaned up by the fire pit.

Then I went to finally put a trellis post in.  Digging the hole for the first one wasn't too back even though it was very close to a large hackberry tree.  I went to dig the hole at the other end, got about 6 inches down and hit a large solid rock.  I have a tractor with backhoe but had not changed the hydraulic fluid on it but had all the materials to do so.  The backhoe has a quick connect system and I decided to try it out.  It was very easy, pull two pins, drive the tractor forward a bit, and unhook the hydraulics.  Putting it back on is a bit harder as the alignment needs to be near perfect.  I then proceeded to drain the hydraulic fluid, remove the cover for a screen type filter, removed the filter, removed and replaced a regular oil filter type filter, pulled a second drain plug, cleaned the screen, put everything back together, and refiled the fluid.  Then I spent 30 minutes trying to get the quick disconnect system reconnected.  Most of that time was due to me trying to align the system with the hydraulic lines attached and I could only move 2 feet.

While the tractor and backhoe were apart and brought out my new pressure washer.  It is a Dewalt 4200 psi and 4gpm model that I got on clearance for 75% off.  Marked down from $1,000 to $250.  It was marked as factory reconditioned and they said it had a year warranty on it.  I decided to try it out today to see how it did.  The thing is amazing.  It washed the caked on grease and oil off like it was just dirt.  Once cleaned I then tried to grease both items.  Half the joints require the devices to be in certain positions.  The ones that I could reach were really tough, meaning it hasn't been greased in a long time.

One more things on the backhoe.  When I bought it the controls for left and right were backwards.  Someone must have done work on it and reversed the hoses.  I track it down and tried to take off one hose only to have ti start twisting the hose.  Then I figured out the other end of the hose had a different type of nut that could be loosens and not twist the hose.  I swapped the two hoses and now the controls work properly again.

Finally I had all the tasks done and everything put away.  I moved over to where I wanted to set the post and started digging. Sure enough I hit a big rock.  I kept digging and eventually pulled out a large flat rock.  Then another.  Then a bunch of smaller pies that were being broken of yet another large rock.  One I was down further than I needed for the post I decided to stop for the night.  Then with the last bit of sun I cut a couple more large honeysuckle bushes down.

I still only have 1 trellis post in the ground.  But I finally did get a lot maintenance on the tractor done.  I need to buy a grease gun with a flexible nozzle though and get the remaining joints.  Now we are expecting rain pretty much every afternoon and evening for the next 10 days.

Pictures from the month long and still going on blackberry trellis install.

On each side of the two trees cut up in the middle are the blackberry vines.  At the top center you can see one post in the ground and another post leaning against the tree.  The wheelbarrow and pile of dark material is leaf compost that I purchased.  For a frame of reference the shovel with the yellow handle is pointing to one end of the 8 foot long post and the smaller vertical shovel is at the the other end.  The hole is about 2 feet wide and 5 feet long.



A close up the rocks.  Just a few small rocks in the hole were I wanted to set the post...
It would have been a nightmare trying to get those out by hand.

Here is a picture of the front.  All the tulips have started to come up along the front wall.



Looking north


Looking south


First bloom

I was finally able to get some brush cleaned up.  I had to root balls from honeysuckle that I didn't know what to do with.  They were too big for chipping, wouldn't stack for firewood, and would take years to deteriorate.  I started the fire to get rid of those but then it was burning so well that I started grabbing any small piece of brush near by.  Now I can actually mow the piece between the garden and retaining wall.  The creek is also up and you see the green of the honeysuckle coming in.  It is going to take a lot of work to remove all the honeysuckle.



Water level is still up due to all the rain.  Honeysuckle coming in on the left.  On the right you can see the area that I cleared earlier this year.



Since I cleared part of the area across the creek you all get a new view.  The creek waterfall from the other side.



The best new view so far.  Looking up at the house from across the creek.  This view was not possible before due to the honeysuckle.

Subd to watch progress.

Doing a great job.

Wow! Grats on the deal.  Any chance you'd be willing to share where you got it?  I need one with those specs for peeling logs but hate to pay full price.  I realize you got a one off.

Get a shed cat. Its like a barn cat, but in a shed. And it sleeps in your house.... on your face.

Home Depot.  They discount their returned items. The deal I got was very rare though.  I previously saw one of the models going for $549 which is about half off.  I had been to this store a couple weeks before and never saw it.  It had stickers on it going back at least 3 months prior with much higher prices.  So I'm not sure if they rotate in clearance merchandise or if they just hide stuff they don't want to deal with until someone does inventory. Home Depot will clearance all sorts of items and have them placed around the store.  Just look for the yellow tags.

Looking Great!!
On grease fittings.. Check to see what size they are cause you may have a couple different sizes.. Take one of each to an auto parts place and buy a small box of each.
A plugged grease fitting isn't worth the time it takes to mess with it... replace it and be done.
You'll find the grease gun works remarkably easier.
If you can get rid of the turf tires on the back and get some agricultural to replace you'll triple your traction.
Ag tires are a little tough on lawns especially if you have the differential locked in. But the added traction will be worth it in the long run.
In the areas you have cleared.. Will the honeysuckle come back via existing roots?? If so Roundup is your friend and there's an applicator called a side swipe (looks like a hockey stick with a paint roller on the end) that allows you to brush the leaves the are above other growths and the roundup will kill the root system.
Additions to the tractor you'll find handy..
Weld grab hooks on the loader bucket. I use 3/16ths on mine and they're sufficient.
Also weld one on the back hoe..
Get a 10' chain with a grab hook on one end and a slide hook on the other..paint it florescent orange!!
A rusty colored chain will vanish in leaves...trust me!
Get a piece of 3/8ths cable 20- 30 ft long with an eye on one end and a grab hook on the other.
You can hook the eye around a tooth on your bucket and using a chain on the other end to pull down a tree that's hung up and won't fall the way you like it plus a myriad of other uses... Towing a big brush heap to the burn pile..
Enjoy the thread and watching your progress.
Hope these suggestions help..
Good Luck & BE SAFE.
FN

edit for spelling

Thanks for the ideas FN64GR.

The turf tires have almost no traction, especially with the backhoe off.  I had removed it to do maintenance and the tractor got stuck in the grass even using the differential lock.  I went with tractor with the turf tires though as I didn't want to tear up the yard.  Most of the use will be running around the yard not plowing a field.  I haven't run into a traction issue with the backhoe on but I haven't used it that much yet.

The bucket already has one hook that was welded on it.  I could use more though.  The hook on the backhoe is a great idea.  I can see where that would come in really useful.  I have lots of trees and branches that I need to get down or move and almost none of them are going to go the way I want.  There are lots of trees in or leaning over the creek that I need to get down or pull out. Hooking the a cable or chain around them and using the backhoe to get the trunk end elevated a bit would be very useful in pulling them out of the creek.

The Honeysuckle has a very shallow but wide root system.  It does not appear to spread from the roots but the plant is very resilient and even the cut branches will come back to life and grow roots if it can get enough water.  I broke off several sticks from a Honeysuckle bush to use as flower bed sections markers when I was planting.  A couple months later the sticks that looked dead when I stuck them in the ground were producing leaves and had roots.  I use a product called Shredder, which is just a form of 2-4D, and it not only kills poison ivy but it also kills Honeysuckle.  Previously I was digging up the roots to make sure I killed the plants, now I'm just cutting them off at the ground and hitting it with Shredder if it starts growing back.

Wow after reading all the way through this thread, I think your avatar should change from the striper boat to an aerial of the house. That is definitely where your time is going.

I'll have to cruse by the next time I am in Georgetown visiting the relatives. All your efforts really look great.

Those rocks are why the hole is so big.  I pulled the first one out and it would be useful so I kept digging.  There is more in the hole but it got dark and I didn't want to get too close to the blackberry roots.
I will finish the job as soon as the rain/snow/cold stops. The forecast for Friday and Saturday is more rain, below freezing, and up to an inch of snow. My friends blame me for it because it all started as soon as I bought the tractor. I don't think we have 5 days in a row of no rain/snow since.

For rocks I usually just drive around and find a road construction site, generally they have to tear up some rock.  Then I just pull my truck up and load them up before all the material gets removed from the job site.

The rocks I will use for the firepit came from a construction project.  Now that I finally have the area cleared I can start work on building the pit instead of just having loose stones stacked.

Let me know when you come through.  The house itself is still a construction mess but I will still do a tour.  I haven't had my boat out in 3 years.  I do plan on changing that this year though.

As for where my time is going, it feels like I have accomplished very little.  However, I'm looking at it from thousand point to-do list and not the what have I completed list.

This pictures show some of the progression of work.

August 2016


November 2016


March 2018


View of the fire pit area.

June 2016


March 2018


Closer view.

June 2016


March 2018

subscribed. I've passed by that house a bunch and would have never guessed it had 3 acres.

A marvelous post.  I'm a sucker for before and after photos.  The tulips from last year really popped in the photos, can't wait to see this years crop.

I've passed through Georgetown on my way to Frankfort a couple of times in the last 3 years.
I may be passing through again this July or August on my way to the Buffalo Trace Distillery.
Georgetown has one of the most beautiful historic districts I've ever seen in my many travels throughout the USA.

Here is a link to a walnut sweet recipie which is made with whole walnuts with the outside flesh before the hard shell develops.
It's been over 3 decades since I've been to Cyprus but I can still close my eyes and smell and almost taste this sweet delicacy.

http://www.cypriotandproud.com/2013/07/04/karidaki-glyko-walnut-sweets-with-sugar-or-agave-syrup/

Let me know if you do pass through.  I'll give a tour if you want and the walnut trees are always loaded and dropped fruit like in the recipe.  I'm not sure I could bring myself to eat one knowing what they do to the soil and skin.  But it is very interesting that people use them that way.

Oh those trees....I have done that with my P3P but it is back running again.  I use my P3P as my "junk drone" and my P4P for my good clean flights now.