Clearing the Lot...

One of the things that Mike and I have been discussing recently is how we are going to clear the lot.  Initially we were discussing doing it ourselves (with help from friends and family if they wanted to come help), but we also discussed having someone come in and clear it for us.

It's sort of a catch 22 for us.  On the one hand, if we clear it ourselves, we save money.  The con, however, is that we also will be spending many weekends over there cutting and clearing and then- what do we do with the logs?  On the other hand, if we have someone just go in with their equipment, it could be done in the matter of a few days and they'll clean up after themselves and take some of the logs.

We both were under the impression that maybe we had enough logs to come clean.  So, my Dad knows this guy who's a logger and can log what we want in a quick fashion and be out of there in no time.  So we called him!  He's an extremely nice guy and even offered to help if we decided to do it ourselves.  He told us upfront that there wasn't enough logs for him to just come in and clean up- so we would have to pay.

So- do we just do it ourselves or pay him to come in and do it.  Again, a catch 22.  Plus there's the fact that we don't have a driveway in yet- so it's not like he can just go in- he'll have to push some (as would we) in order to get back there with his equipment.  We have a small section of wetlands that we would need to cross too in order to get back in there... now it's all frozen so it shouldn't be a big deal, but we just don't know what it will require.  The logger told us that he could help us with that too- and get all the permits we would need for him to clear.  He would just need us to meet him so we could sign the permits since it's not his land.

I think in the end, it would be best for him to come and clear the land that we want.  It's still a catch 22, because I was hoping to use that money to put the driveway in, but at the same rate, we can't do that without clearing first anyways and it could take us a couple months of weekends to do it.  The last pro to having him clear is that he's only going to charge us about half of what he normally would- but that's because of my Dad! :)  Sometimes it really pays off to know people!

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.
Joseph Addison