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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Map making using GPS

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  • From: "darren" <darren@permaculture.biz>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Map making using GPS
  • Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 06:46:13 +1100

G'day Frank,
We have a 4 year old son, Zane, who loves the farm work but is still a bit young to be fully functional help. Our daughters, Isaebella (13) and Pearl (6) also like it, with Issi being a capable tractor driver, especially for mulching/slashing, though Pearly is still on my knee getting the hang of things, asides her legs aren't long enough yet.
The Lucas Mill (www.lucasmill.com.au) and Logosol Mill (www.logosol.com) are really safe and easy to use. They are both designed to be operated efficiently by one person. You would have to on Peyote or something to get hurt with these machines and even then!!!
If you have trees and need money then, IMO, the best thing to do is the following:
1. Contact local furniture makers and find out what species they are interested in, what board dimensions they like, how many cubic metres they would like etc etc. Maybe fell and mill just a couple of trees/species so you have some samples to take of your product.
2. Mark the trees to thin out and then thin, snig and skid the logs to a milling site/landing area.
3. Preferably get in a portable mill on site to reduce log cartage costs or take select logs into the local mill to break them down into the dimensions your end user requires.
4. Air dry (season) the boards in your shed until they reach they required moisture levels (<20%).
5. Sell your timber....or use it your self round the place.
On the labour front I reckon you should get an internship thing happening or participate in the WWOOF program. Perhaps you could convene a Permaculture Design Course, with the part intent of getting a couple of likely people to stay around for a while and help out.
Good luck anyway and we'll talk soon. Back to Viet Nam on Tuesday for a few weeks which is always fun.
Ciao Daz

FranksFarm@aol.com writes:
G'day Darren,
Too bad the software is PC only. In a few years, maybe less it really won't matter for Apple is committed to a plan that most PC software will be able to run on the new INTEL Macs with some sort of emulation program built in, or available at reasonable costs without the considerable loss of speed inherent in today's PC emulation programs.
Wow, that must have been quite a thrill -milling your own first cut.
You certainly are not afraid to tackle big jobs. Do you have sturdy sons to help?
One of my problems is that I live in a rural area so that getting help even if you are willing to pay for it when needed is very difficult. And then you never know if you will get an "honest" laborer.
Plus, doing that type of stuff alone can be dangerous or even fool hardy.
I've got enough timber to justify a large mill but given my lack of skills, and labor I feel it's actually cheaper to have someone with a mill custom cut it, and of course somehow getting the trees cut, and to the mill. Another skill I don't have, and am reluctant to tackle:)
All the best. Frank
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