# Family farm



## Pagey (Apr 7, 2010)

I've been meaning to do this for quite some time, but I never remembered to take the wife's camera with me when working around the farm.  These are pics from the family cattle farm owned by my dad and his mother.  My late grandfather ran cattle on it for many, many years.  Before that, his parents owned it.  I hope to some day buy it from my dad and keep it in the family for another generation.  It's a 75+- acre farm on the Cumberland Plateau here in Middle TN.

This is an old hay baler barn that's since been converted to wood storage.  The pile of split red oak on the right is actually 5 rows deep.






More of the split red oak:





Some white oak and chestnut oak rounds drying for use a couple of years from now:





After you pass through the gate to the right of the baler/wood shed, you turn a curve to the left, go up a hill, and come to the "lake" (big ass pond).  The view from the hill:





Now, the view from the opposite side of the lake when crossing the dam/spillway.  We camp on top of that hill in the spring, summer, and fall:





The deep, furrowed bark of a chestnut oak growing behind the lake:





There's also some shagbark hickory back there.  A nice specimen here:





Crossing the dam and going up the next hill takes us to the pasture area:





The wet weather creek you have to cross to get to the rear-most pasture:





Now, having crossed a small wet weather creek, we're in the rear-most pasture.  Looking back towards the previous pic:





Looking down the length of the rearmost pasture:





A large beech tree in the hollow after leaving the back pasture.  You can see the four wheeler parked to its left:





Next year's red oak inside the hay barn I've previously shown:





More oak drying:





OMG, teh oakz!





A beautiful red oak round beginning to check:





Looking out of the barn:


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## raybonz (Apr 7, 2010)

Man that is a beautiful place to be! Great pics thanx for sharing!

Ray


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## kenny chaos (Apr 7, 2010)

Very nice.  Thanks for the tour.
Still got cattle?


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## Pagey (Apr 7, 2010)

kenny chaos said:
			
		

> Very nice.  Thanks for the tour.
> Still got cattle?



A local guy rents the place and runs beef cattle on it.


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## firefighterjake (Apr 7, 2010)

I think I remember seeing this barn before . . . or one similar.

Loved the pictures . . . beautiful place.


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## quads (Apr 7, 2010)

Wow!  Beautiful!  I love looking at pictures of the land in other people's area.  I've only been out of Wisconsin a couple times in my life.  From those times, I always thought Tennessee was about the most beautiful state I had ever been through.  Your pictures confirm that!


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## Pagey (Apr 7, 2010)

quads said:
			
		

> Wow!  Beautiful!  I love looking at pictures of the land in other people's area.  I've only been out of Wisconsin a couple times in my life.  From those times, I always thought Tennessee was about the most beautiful state I had ever been through.  Your pictures confirm that!



I posted these with you in mind, mainly.  Every time I'd end up over there with no camera, I would think, "Damn, I bet quads would have remembered HIS camera!"  :lol:


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## Backwoods Savage (Apr 7, 2010)

That is a beautiful place. One of the first things that really struck me is how clean the woods is; hardly any underbrush. Then looking at the fields it looks like a good place for hunting deer. That pond is nice too. Overall, I can see why you'd like to have that farm.


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## Pagey (Apr 7, 2010)

Backwoods Savage said:
			
		

> That is a beautiful place. One of the first things that really struck me is how clean the woods is; hardly any underbrush. Then looking at the fields it looks like a good place for hunting deer. That pond is nice too. Overall, I can see why you'd like to have that farm.



I've jumped a small group of deer 3 or 4 times late last year/early this year, so they are definitely on the place.  The spillway area behind the lake is very free of any underbrush.  I'm not sure why.  Other areas are much thicker.  The area to the right of the lake is very, very rocky.  It's full of almost nothing but chestnut oaks.  They are definitely a niche tree - they'll grow in shallow, rocky soil where anything else would be afraid to take hold!  I don't see how they do it.  Of course, this makes them rather susceptible to drought, unfortunately.  The only upside to that is that they make fine BTUs.


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## smokinj (Apr 7, 2010)

Nice pics....


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## ColdNH (Apr 7, 2010)

nice piece of land! My next house will hopefully have quite a bit of land and hopefully a pond for the dog. Most landowners up in NH have acres+ some how I ended up with a 1/4 acre! :-S


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## Cowboy Billy (Apr 7, 2010)

Thats Beautiful Pagey

   I would definitely want to keep it too Thanks for sharing The only problem I have with Tn is that when I go there I do not want to come back home 

Billy


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## Pagey (Apr 7, 2010)

I will try to update things when we green up for spring.  Things are really kickin' in the valleys, but we always lag behind a few weeks here on the mountain.  The Bradford Pears are in full swing, of course, but other than that there's not much happening.  I can't wait for work to slow down enough that I can maybe take a personal day (or even half of a personal day) to just work and loaf around the farm some.  I'm going to resplit 2 face cords of that red oak for better drying and better size management for my Endeavor.  I also want to set up the dome tent on that hill overlooking the lake.  My ultimate goal is to have a small cabin on the top of that hill.  

I would like to have something similar to this cabin which my mom's brother built on the back side of his farm:


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## Cowboy Billy (Apr 7, 2010)

Very nice

My Dad brother and I have 120 acres in Michigans eastern UP.  At times all our family goes UP. I have two brothers one married with a 8 yr old son. And a sister with a 7 yr boy and 10yr girl. Right now we have a 26 foot travel trailer and built a 12x20 room that hooks up to it. Its off grid and we have a forklift battery and power inverter for electric with a generator to charge the battery back up. Rather than building one big cabin we plan on building 3-4 small ones so everyone can have there own place when we all go up. 

That cabin you mom's brother built has real possibilitys! Any pictures of the insides? 

Here's what we are staying in now.






My sisters kids swimming in the pond I pushed out with the dozer. To hold water for the fire hose pump when I was burning a brush pile.











Billy


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## Pagey (Apr 7, 2010)

Unfortunately I do not have interior shots of the cabin.  I need to get up there, though.  He's done a lot of work inside recently as far as insulation, cabinetry, and finish work.  I bet it looks like a different place inside!


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## Adios Pantalones (Apr 7, 2010)

A slice of heaven there.  Thanks for sharing


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## quads (Apr 7, 2010)

Pagey said:
			
		

> quads said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I never leave home without it!  And neither should you, with great stuff like that to take pictures of!


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