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Thread: Finally Bought Some Land

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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    For those of you wondering (quite rightly) about bird strikes on the windows, we are going to test out this product, specifically the high performance clear dot pattern. We've actually only found one bird (Common Redstart - a small warbler) after the windows went up. I asked the guys working on the house to keep a tally if possible, but they haven't found any since that one. There are a lot of waving pieces of house wrap and other distractions up now, plus all the banging and machine noise from inside. And it is winter. Spring and fall migration are the danger times. The bedroom corner window was what the Redstart hit, so we'll put the test dots up there. I am not sure how we'll tell whether it works or not - no dead birds? We'll figure it out.

    Meanwhile, I've been running this on my iPad while reading elevator (our NYC building) contract proposals. Ontario FeederWatch Cam | Cornell Lab Bird Cams
    Cornell Lab Bird Cams
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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    Quote Originally Posted by j44ke View Post
    I am not sure how we'll tell whether it works or not - no dead birds? We'll figure it out.
    I've found that there are two basic ways you can tell they're hitting the house: 1) you find the dead ones, and 2) you hear them hit the glass.
    Sometimes they aren't killed and still fly away once they've recovered from being "stunned" (to quote Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" skit).

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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    I laughed because at first I wondered how they kept the squirrels off those platforms, at my house the only governor on the squirrels is when they get too fat to climb the pole, and this morning the Cornell Lab one had two furry creatures chowing down.

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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    Obesity is really the only way to kill a squirrel.
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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    7F in Hillsdale this morning. I’m in the city. 16F there. Chill factor was minus something upstate. Guys working in the house asked for sand so they could get their work truck full of tools up to the house, so I alerted our plow guy and he said he’d go right away. 30 minutes later the plow guy texted back saying the sand spreader was frozen solid so it was going to take a while to melt things and clear the mechanism. Everything takes longer, moves more slowly, when it is really cold.

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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land


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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    Quote Originally Posted by j44ke View Post
    Obesity is really the only way to kill a squirrel.
    I ate a lot of squirrel stew growing up. My dad used to harvest them with a .22.
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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    Quote Originally Posted by ides1056 View Post
    Hey thanks! Totally missed that. It does have a similar form. And our architects originally planned on an exposed ceiling, but we rejected it because there's just too much dusting of cobwebs required on a ceiling like that, especially when you have a lot of windows. Looks like these people did a nice job on the renovation. Cat seems to like it!

    Quote Originally Posted by guido View Post
    I ate a lot of squirrel stew growing up. My dad used to harvest them with a .22.
    My grandfather auctioned off a bunch of stuff before he and my grandmother moved into a smaller house. He had an old small gauge shotgun that he used for annoying squirrels or ground hogs, etc. I think it got the top price of things sold in that auction. Several thousand dollars. My grandfather, "Oh that old gun?" I don't know what it was but it definitely was old. Shot a single shell and then you had to reload it. He had an English-made over-under that was two different gauges but I have no idea where that one went. I think he gave it to his secretary's husband when he retired.
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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    I’m planning a trip to my dad’s place for a late Christmas visit, which makes me think of this thread (because his place is never quite finished). Will do some work in the shop, mostly for him but a little to create space that my old truck can roll into. Maybe get in a little tractor time!

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    Saw someone got a new tractor for Christmas and immediately put the old tractor on the lawn with a "For Sale" sign. The old tractor doesn't look that old. A small John Deere with front shovel and back hoe. Small as in one step up from lawn tractor. New one is a shiny orange Kubota and looks about the same size as our car.

    Spent some time this morning looking at this shop from the Netherlands. Man they do some nice design there.

    I can see putting this out in the woods near the creek:



    With all the rocks on our land, this seems pretty useful:



    Nifty!

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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    Quote Originally Posted by j44ke View Post

    I can see putting this out in the woods near the creek:



    I've been wanting to do this. I was considering doing a metal feed tank or whatever their called, and buying the coils separate from the tub. Or maybe someone on here with a tube bender could do a special run for us? maybe with copper tubing?

    I've also been considering doing the very hip option of a cedar tub, but knotless cedar is quiteeee pricey.

    Hot tubs do really well on airbnb, which is part of our interest, not sure how a "manual" one would do though.

    We are currently under contract for another house in VT, luckily this one would be on 13 acres (the last was 1). Getting quite excited about it, but not ready to celebrate. Its a 1965 mid century modern with a ton of windows up to the roof peak (single pane of course). So we've got a ton of double pane glass units and a blower test in our potential future.

    If anyone is curios about our other house in VT, check it out at @jaunt_escapes on instagram, we just painted it black and pretty stoked on it.
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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    Quote Originally Posted by s_curran View Post
    I've been wanting to do this. I was considering doing a metal feed tank or whatever their called, and buying the coils separate from the tub. Or maybe someone on here with a tube bender could do a special run for us? maybe with copper tubing?

    I've also been considering doing the very hip option of a cedar tub, but knotless cedar is quiteeee pricey.

    Hot tubs do really well on airbnb, which is part of our interest, not sure how a "manual" one would do though.

    We are currently under contract for another house in VT, luckily this one would be on 13 acres (the last was 1). Getting quite excited about it, but not ready to celebrate. Its a 1965 mid century modern with a ton of windows up to the roof peak (single pane of course). So we've got a ton of double pane glass units and a blower test in our potential future.

    If anyone is curios about our other house in VT, check it out at @jaunt_escapes on instagram, we just painted it black and pretty stoked on it.
    That house looks great! I remember the before photos. You guys have done a terrific job. Looks like you did a bunch of shelves and other built-ins as well as a nice job on the exterior finish. Congrats!
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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    Updates. A bit squirrelly on the drive. Weird combo of frozen and muddy plus sand. The carpenters have been working on the outside concrete board. Electricians have been running wire all over the mechanical room as they finish up the boxes. Looks like a spaghetti factory gone wild in there right now, but they were all smiling this afternoon so must be going well. The sheetrock guys been hanging sheetrock on the ceilings - I think they are almost done. Then they will plaster and start the concrete board inside. Or vice versa. All the skylights are installed. Millwork should begin to appear in February I think. We have a meeting upcoming where all will be revealed re: the next three months of work. At some point, a big pile of rocks got dumped on the south side where the land slopes down to the parking area and ... it looks really cool and connects the stone behind the house nicely with the stone along the south side and the parking area, so I think we will try to create a boulder field in that area. Man-made glacial erratics as it were. Landscape architect meeting upcoming as well.

    It'll be spring before we know it, but not before January and February are done with us. And March. March is not spring, just winter getting tired.







    Last edited by j44ke; 12-31-2019 at 06:33 PM.
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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    As is the way with building, we've gotten to a point where 2-3 things have to happen in order for 7-8 things to be finished. Like the last bits of exterior concrete board are waiting for various roof and window trim and the last couple doors, then same with interior and cabinetry/millwork and bathrooms. The guys who are doing the concrete for the bathroom floors, shower and walls are amazingly good. Sheetrock guy is about 6'4" tall, which would help on the ceiling, he said, except that his crew is under 6'. So there are ladders and scaffolding set up accordingly. And the new millwork guy is great. We switched millwork companies mid-stream, and the new guy totally gets it right from the get-go. Instead of trying to carry measurements back to the shop, he's bringing in his saws and setting up in the garage and basically moving in until the millwork is done. Some things will still be done at his shop, but a bunch of the fit work will be done on-site due to all the tight tolerances on this crazy house. Our architects brought a group of architects working in the area over to see the house, and now they all want to hire our GC. I guess there are a small batch of houses in the works for Columbia County. Not sure we can claim any credit for it, but our general contractor sure is happy. And the landscape architect sent rough drawings and they all look great - no non-native plants used at all, and most of plants are naturally occurring on our property already (as per our plant census in the fall.) GC projected completion date - "Order furniture to arrive last week of April." May it is then!















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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    Is your landscaping going to include bird-friendly plantings?

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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    Quote Originally Posted by lumpy View Post
    Is your landscaping going to include bird-friendly plantings?
    Yes. Most of the open areas will be turned into mixed height/mixed species meadows, interspersed with a couple small tree groups and some clumps of native bushes. The area immediately around the house will be low plants and rock connected by paths "paved" with thyme. No mowing. Plenty of self-reseeding annual native plants. Some areas are going to be planted with plugs and seeds, so that the plugs will help hold soil until the seeded areas grown in. So the whole thing will take about 2-3 years to really reveal itself. In the meanwhile, lots of fun watching what happens. And plenty for birds to eat and hide in, though I hope they don't eat up all the seeded areas before the seeds have a chance to grow!

    We've also been experimenting with some anti-bird strike materials. I asked the guys to keep track of any birds that hit the windows. So far we've had only one - an American Redstart. I've looked at the windows for dust marks from strikes. Birds leave behind feather dander and feather oils when they hit a window. I haven't seen any evidence so far.

    Of course, we also have about 80 acres of land attached to the house, and other than planning some paths through the forest, that's going to be left relatively undisturbed. Plenty to eat back there. We'll do some cleaning up of potentially dangerous trees, but leaving dead trees is very valuable for a whole bunch of cavity nesting birds, from pileated woodpeckers down to chickadees. We put up a small birdhouse just as a sort of bit of whimsy (guest house) and the chickadees have been using it as a bunkhouse on cold nights.
    Last edited by j44ke; 01-28-2020 at 12:04 PM.
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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    “As is the way with building, we've gotten to a point where 2-3 things have to happen in order for 7-8 things to be finished.”

    Looking good Jorn...we always refer to those chain of events as the critical path and when one takes the time to map out those events, many contractors have an “Ah ha!” moment and actually begin to wrap things up. I recently dealt with the challenge of getting a 4-light traffic signal project up and running as a part of a larger development project and amazingly enough, the signal contractor did not itemize the events that would lead to the signal eventually being activated. We are talking about a $1.6M event that until fully operational, would hold up the sale of $20M worth of commercial and residential lots. 2 hours in a job trailer with all of the key players present, allowed us to “map out” the process, identify responsibilities and even make phone calls to suppliers, so that we were all clear regarding expectations, obstacles and risks.
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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    Quote Originally Posted by rwsaunders View Post
    “As is the way with building, we've gotten to a point where 2-3 things have to happen in order for 7-8 things to be finished.”

    Looking good Jorn...we always refer to those chain of events as the critical path and when one takes the time to map out those events, many contractors have an “Ah ha!” moment and actually begin to wrap things up. I recently dealt with the challenge of getting a 4-light traffic signal project up and running as a part of a larger development project and amazingly enough, the signal contractor did not itemize the events that would lead to the signal eventually being activated. We are talking about a $1.6M event that until fully operational, would hold up the sale of $20M worth of commercial and residential lots. 2 hours in a job trailer with all of the key players present, allowed us to “map out” the process, identify responsibilities and even make phone calls to suppliers, so that we were all clear regarding expectations, obstacles and risks.
    Total thread drift but this is where we're going to see incredible time and cost savings from computers in the future. Project management AI is getting pretty damn good and will only continue to get better at mapping out requirements and ensuring the millions of small parts click together correctly.

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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    i'm bidding a rather large project here in Austin, and just recently some clarifications from the architect came out referring to "bird frits". that turned into an hour of googling and learning all about birds flying into glass, which is something i had never even thought about.
    Quote Originally Posted by j44ke View Post
    For those of you wondering (quite rightly) about bird strikes on the windows, we are going to test out this product, specifically the high performance clear dot pattern. We've actually only found one bird (Common Redstart - a small warbler) after the windows went up. I asked the guys working on the house to keep a tally if possible, but they haven't found any since that one. There are a lot of waving pieces of house wrap and other distractions up now, plus all the banging and machine noise from inside. And it is winter. Spring and fall migration are the danger times. The bedroom corner window was what the Redstart hit, so we'll put the test dots up there. I am not sure how we'll tell whether it works or not - no dead birds? We'll figure it out.

    Meanwhile, I've been running this on my iPad while reading elevator (our NYC building) contract proposals. Ontario FeederWatch Cam | Cornell Lab Bird Cams
    Cornell Lab Bird Cams
    -Dustin

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    Default Re: Finally Bought Some Land

    Quote Originally Posted by rwsaunders View Post
    “As is the way with building, we've gotten to a point where 2-3 things have to happen in order for 7-8 things to be finished.”

    Looking good Jorn...we always refer to those chain of events as the critical path and when one takes the time to map out those events, many contractors have an “Ah ha!” moment and actually begin to wrap things up. I recently dealt with the challenge of getting a 4-light traffic signal project up and running as a part of a larger development project and amazingly enough, the signal contractor did not itemize the events that would lead to the signal eventually being activated. We are talking about a $1.6M event that until fully operational, would hold up the sale of $20M worth of commercial and residential lots. 2 hours in a job trailer with all of the key players present, allowed us to “map out” the process, identify responsibilities and even make phone calls to suppliers, so that we were all clear regarding expectations, obstacles and risks.
    Just to clarify, the 2-3 things are coming from elsewhere or are the product of a running change, so everything is generally pretty well organized, especially since the weather has been reasonably good since things melted in December. We did just have a big meeting on the 25th though (my idea but definitely implanted in my brain by RW over the last year,) and that was a lot like RW's 2 hours in the job trailer except that we were in the house where the heat is. Architects, general contractor, new (to us, he's worked on projects with the GC for years) millwork guy, our stone and concrete guy, the sheetrock guy, the master carpenter and the metal fabricator who is building the stairs. Oh and the landscape architect. Everyone liked the meeting so much, we're going to have one on Feb 29th. Then March 28th. Then hopefully we'll be done. Or done-ish.

    Also my wife found out how much our nephew would make at his summer job, so we offered him more money to work at our place this summer building paths, making benches, clearing brush, stacking wood, and other fun things for a couple months.
    Last edited by j44ke; 01-29-2020 at 10:05 PM.
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