permaculture

["darren" <darren@permaculture.biz>]

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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