Buying forest land, implementing solar

Status
Not open for further replies.

swbluto

10 TW
Joined
May 30, 2008
Messages
9,430
***ADDENDUM***
MASTER LIST OF BACTERIA/IMMUNESYSTEM CAUSAL PATHS and their role in various disease processes - Page 34
THE MASTER LIST OF STRONGLY ANTIBACTERIAL FOODS - Page 32
MASTERLIST OF ARTERIAL DIAMETER CORRELATES - Page 8
MASTERLIST OF BACTERIA/IMMUNE ASSOCIATED DISEASES - Page 33 (https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=82223&p=1268837#p1268837)
COMPREHENSIVE LIST ON WHERE TO LIST LAND AND REAL ESTATE (https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=82223&p=1404682#p1404682)

MISCELANNOUS
------------------
MASTER GREENHOUSE ANNUAL PRODUCTION LIST - https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=82223&p=1277447#p1277447
THE EQUIPMENT WISHLIST IN THE FACE OF POST JULY14,2017 REVENUE SHORTFALLS - https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=82223&p=1308173#p1308173
VEGETABLE GARDEN PLANTING SCHEDULE for ZONE 9 July, August, September,October,January - https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=82223&start=1450#p1306954
NETWORTH AGE CALCULATOR - https://dqydj.com/net-worth-by-age-calculator-united-states/
Online market places and alexa rankings - https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=82223&start=5225#p1411780

**ORIGINAL POST**

I'm buying some land with an overgrown forest on it. I've never seen it personally, but I know it has trees and lots of heavy underbrush and vines.

The surrounding lots are all treed, so to make solar power more viable, I think I might cut down the trees and cut down all but the bottom 20 feet of the trunk. I'll then attach a solar panel to the top and then somehow make the 20 foot trunk stand straight back up. By reaching towards the heavens, I should be able to escape the shadow of my neighbors' trees (It's all forested, pretty much all around me, except for maybe the 5 feet of road in front of my property.).

I'm not sure if that's practical, however. Do chopped down trunks last and last in hot humid environments or is it only particular tree species? (I get a feeling power poles are made from a certain kind of rot-resistant tree, maybe cedar.)

Not entirely sure how to lift 20 foot tree trunks into a hole. They might be a bit heavy.

My property is 200 feet from NORTH to SOUTH, and 75 feet from WEST TO EAST. I should be able to get midday sun with ease, but morning time and evening sun would be harder to harvest with my neighbor's trees since I only have 75 feet of space from west to east that's mine (Rises in the east, sets in the west). I don't know how high they go, but I get a feeling they might be kind of high.

I have some other things I'll need to figure out, which I'll solve in due time. Like how to minimize costs for my equipment that will run off generator, battery and solar; I'd rather avoid buying $600 2kw inverters if I could and other expensive electronics. Luckily, almost all of my power hungry equipment runs off of a 24V power supply internally, so I should be able to connect that pretty cheaply directly to the batteries/solar somehow. (The generator only offers 110V AC, and 12v 8A DC.)

Tools for forest clearing.

Woodsman Pal
Loppers
Saw/Axe

If I really wanted to get fancy, I could buy a >25cc fast weedeater and run a brush cutter attachment off it. But, I'm not opposed to hardwork. In fact, I'd much rather work hard all day than breath in fumes I'm paying dearly for. (I'd be more concerned with a weedeater if I needed to clear a large amount of land quickly, but I'm assuming I could clear a lot with the above hand tools if I worked hard for at least 4-6 hours a day?)
 
I'm thinking about buying raw solar cells, and putting them in an encapsulant on a suitable substrate; each solar cell would have it's own separate square that it's sitting on and connected to each other via appropriate wires. I don't know what/where to source good material for this purpose. It seems I should be able to use something other than copper clad FR4 circuit board material for the solar cell to sit on (And conveniently connect to copper pads on the board).
 
swbluto said:
Do chopped down trunks last and last in hot humid environments or is it only particular tree species? (I get a feeling power poles are made from a certain kind of rot-resistant tree, maybe cedar.)

Cedar, redwood. Maybe even eucalyptus. Something tells me yours aren't going to be what you hoped. Some kinds won't do well at all.

swbluto said:
Not entirely sure how to lift 20 foot tree trunks into a hole. They might be a bit heavy.

Oh, tons. Maybe a nice engine hoist.

swbluto said:
My property is 200 feet from NORTH to SOUTH, and 75 feet from WEST TO EAST. I should be able to get midday sun with ease, but morning time and evening sun would be harder to harvest with my neighbor's trees since I only have 75 feet of space from west to east that's mine (Rises in the east, sets in the west). I don't know how high they go, but I get a feeling they might be kind of high.

My mother's solar is on the hill, not down among the trees. However tall the trees are, the solar will just have to be taller. You can get the kind that tilts with the sun. . . .
 
The actual log that the solar panel is attached to doesn't need to be huge. If...and I mean if...you can find two sturdy trees fairly near each other (ten feet?) Then you could lop their tops off to leave two ten foot tall stumps. Alternatively, you could find a tree in the perfect location, and then dig a huge posthole ND drag another log to drop in that hole.

With Two "poles" near each other, you could place a beam across their tops as a pivot. Then you drag over a pole of the right height, and using ropes, get it up and over the pivot at about a 45 degree angle. Attach it to the crossbar by any one of several methods, and the result is a rocking pole.

By using a winch (or your car) you can pull on a rope and pulley so that one end is pulled down next to the bases of the two parallel posts, causing the longer end to swing upright at its full height. In this way, you can swing the rocking pole up and down to perform maintenance and repairs on the solar panel. Perhaps changing it's axis once a month to optimize solar exposure?
 
Kudos on what sounds like a nice piece of ground!

This may seem crazy, but cutting down alot of the trees just to harvest sunlight with pv panels might not be the best thing. Instead of that consider simply finding a way to harvest energy from the trees, that have already been harvesting and storing the sunlight for some time. And cleaning the air. Woodgas comes to mind.

That's just my initial impression cuz it sounds like you want to cut down your entire property. Of course a good balance of some direct solar for a garden and panels is good, along with the many attributes trees provide.

So about what area is your property, and what area do you propose cleared, and about how many watts are you proposing of PV?

Ps, what diameter trees are we talking about wanting to cut down by hand and reuse as a 20ft utility pole?
I second SM on more of a transom for the panels, pref using existing rooted trunks.

Imo first figure what you want for shelter and garden and how much sun you want on it thru the year. A good mix of deciduous and coniferous with some clearing is typical to shade from summer sun but catch more winter sun. From there be realistic with how much wattage you really need from PV and try to integrate it there first.
 
So... stuff like "Savonius" and "HAWT" and "Vortex Bladeless" and "Saphon" NOT of any interest?
 
nutspecial said:
Kudos on what sounds like a nice piece of ground!

This may seem crazy, but cutting down alot of the trees just to harvest sunlight with pv panels might not be the best thing.

I haven't decided what to do with most of the land, but I plan on replacing the trees with fruit trees, vegetable patches and green house(s). Most of the solar rays are going to get soaked up by some photosynthesizing plant in the end, so all that solar is going to be used to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen one way or another. (As a bonus, some of the carbon gets converted to carbs in the fruits and veggies instead of just making lumbering tall things even taller.)

Just the thought of growing watermelons in the winter. Tickles me pink, lol. I might be dreaming.

I bought some land just north of Houston, TX. I tried getting closer to the equator, but Fry's electronics only goes so far south in America. (And, ha, southern florida; not quite there, yet. What is private land, is extremely expensive. I'll probably be there sometime after this upcoming recession recedes, building a house on one of those cheap homesite lots you see just about everywhere. Some time.)
 
LockH said:
So... stuff like "Savonius" and "HAWT" and "Vortex Bladeless" and "Saphon" NOT of any interest?

I was looking at HAWT for a while, but this particular area has little wind (I'm seeing 6-8 mph most days.), and I'll especially have a lot less wind being in the middle of a forest. Wind loves long linear corridors and open spaces.

I was looking at HAWT for this beach property I was going to buy, but I found out it was 700 feet away from a natural gas plant, so that killed the deal. I love the business freedom that Texas has, but the idea of industry effectively 'nuking' a limited, desireable resource like beach property (Making the immediate area effectively inhospitable) seems like a bad idea. And the 'nuke' affect was pretty apparent looking at satellite imagery.
 
Sounds amazing!

Great place to make your own dirt track. :)
 
^Some cool stuff in that thread.

We had a 10 acre farmette with chickens goats bees fruittrees grapevines and garden. A cleared acre is usually plenty for quite a variety of food enough to feed a decent family. Definitely more is better to spraw and for animals. Yes you'll miss some of the first and last sun with only an acre or two cleared, so eventually what I'd do is place the solar on top of a two story structure. That would be like a barn. The house (earthberm = cool) would be good facing south for passive solar, but with deciduous tree cover for less in summer and more in TX 'winter'.

I don't know quite how much you're talking about (also curious about what decent forest costs in TX /acre), but you're pretty brave to attempt with little or no gas saws (or tractors/etc?). In my experience it's enough work utilizing chainsaws winches and vehicles (utility tractor!!), to clear an acre or two of land and erect some stuff. And there will always be something to be done when living off the land. You don't have to worry about running out of hard work!

Hopefully you can share some pics and stuff when you get it going- Have alot of fun and enjoy, congrats on the purchase!
 
nutspecial said:
I don't know quite how much you're talking about (also curious about what decent forest costs in TX /acre)

For 5 acres and above, and near houston, I was seeing it average about 5000-6000 dollars/acre. If you go west towards the louisiana border where the rain averages around 60 inches per year (About 120 miles from Houston), 5+ acres goes for about $3000/acre. The greenness in that area looks absolutely breathtaking in my opinion, and I'm absolutely intrigued about having enough rain to grow fruitful bananas.

If you're around Austin near Roundrock in the north (Technology area), it seems like it goes for $20,000-$30,000/acre, lol.

120 miles south of Dallas, it seems like it goes for ~$5000/acre. The closer it is to the big city, the more expensive it becomes. It seems like white people, and all their money, go just about in every direction at a sufficient distance from the city center, and it seems like 20-100 miles outside the big city is where they usually like to take it(I suspect 'White Flight'). Houston seems to be the exception, and I /suspect/ the laissez faire culture of Houston and some of its nearby counties has something to do with it. (Where people have freedom, there will be those who will take the lowest cost route to adequate housing, which is often much less costly than most counties' building codes. In turn, it seems to affect property values and decrease prices.)

It's interesting that the laissez faire culture is so close to the french culture in New Orleans and surrounding counties. I'd almost suspect Houston has had a strong french influence, historically.
 
Louisiana will be almost 5 hours east of you.

Wanna have a heart attack? Check out the price of 1/7th an acre around Laguna Beach. As in multiply that by 7 to get the one acre price. http://www.landwatch.com/Orange-County-California-Homesite-for-sale/pid/318135536 My house is on 1/4 acre, (140 x 75) so this lot here could be big enough for 7 houses, eh? 7 is the theme. http://www.landwatch.com/Orange-County-California-Land-for-sale/pid/3141423 Don't know if mine would be more expensive in there or not.

So has your jaw hit the floor yet?
 
Dauntless said:
Louisiana will be almost 5 hours east of you.

Wanna have a heart attack? Check out the price of 1/7th an acre around Laguna Beach. As in multiply that by 7 to get the one acre price. http://www.landwatch.com/Orange-County-California-Homesite-for-sale/pid/318135536 My house is on 1/4 acre, (140 x 75) so this lot here could be big enough for 7 houses, eh? 7 is the theme. http://www.landwatch.com/Orange-County-California-Land-for-sale/pid/3141423 Don't know if mine would be more expensive in there or not.

So has your jaw hit the floor yet?

Lol, I figure those properties are "retirement"/"highly paid professional" properties. Either for the old guy with a cool 2 million in retirement, or the highly paid professional couple in a big wealthy California city willing to pay the mortgage payments. I really wonder what the price for Atlantic beach properties are, seems like there should be some relatively affordable properties somewhere (<$300,000). I was based in Charleston, SC for a year and the beach properties and beaches over there are quite nice.

Undeveloped oceanfront lots in SC seem to start at $700,000, and that's nowhere near a big city. Woah, not really that much cheaper than LA! lol (Now I'm wondering if oceanfront houses are cheaper, lol.)

Seems Maine and Washington oceanfront lots start somewhere in the $30,000 range. If only the summertime highs were higher than 70F, lol.
 
And... I will admit I did have a New Orleans reason in preferring Houston.

My illicit visit to the French Market last year was, dare I say, transformative.

Similar daring escapades led to my eventual capture and resulting Article 15, and about 2 months in military jail. Kept all my pay for the 3 months I had left. No matter, I'm actually making far more money now than I was making in the military and I actually feel like I have a sense of security now, a sensation no employer has ever given me (Especially given recent economic trends, globally.). And, my colleagues are doing shit work on a navy ship in those tiny, noisy sleeping quarters, god bless their souls. The only thing that makes it /bearable/ in any sense of the word is that your peers are going through the same shit and many believe they have a 6 figure payout waiting for them after leaving. That's true for some, but it's just as true for just as many enterprising business owners.

Let's see, these places I visited while in the region.

Jacksonville, Florida (Just to play a zombie game that was oh-so terrifying. I did scream like a little girl the first two times the zombies jumped at me, but it rapidly dissipated.)

Titusville, Florida (To see Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon lift off. Amazing sight/sounds from the peer. It looked like a tiny cigarette in the far far distance floating ever slowly upwardly being lofted by a giant ball of fire that lit the entire sky, making it into day, and the rumbling was surprisingly intense given how far away it seemed to be. You could definitely feel it, a rumbling that shook your soul, lol.)

French Market, New Orleans (I was greeted by a french resident, who mustered whatever french accented 'good morning' she could in her concerning voice. And I appeared to make an aspiring frozen yogurt shop owner extremely happy by being her first customer for the entire day, lol. Possibly even the week.)

Center Of Disease Control, Atlanta, GA

I really wanted to visit the Anne Frank and Sound of Music museums in Atlanta, but fate had other plans. (Well, honestly, some dickhead security guards had other plans. They had the exact same 'god complex' TSA agents have.)
 
First thing I'd consider, is talking to the neighbor.

Are these trees marketable? Would your neighbor consider selling you the timber? not buy the land, just let you harvest the problem trees. He'd get some money, you'd sell the timber, both from his and your property.

Then an affordable pole barn type structure can hold 1000w worth of solar. 10' up, it will of course be less in the shadow of remaining trees.
 
dogman dan said:
First thing I'd consider, is talking to the neighbor.

Are these trees marketable? Would your neighbor consider selling you the timber? not buy the land, just let you harvest the problem trees. He'd get some money, you'd sell the timber, both from his and your property.

Then an affordable pole barn type structure can hold 1000w worth of solar. 10' up, it will of course be less in the shadow of remaining trees.

It's interesting you mention that, because there's a quite noticeable character at the entrance of "The neighborhood" on google map with a prominently labeled "Tim's tree removal service". I'm starting to think he's the go-to guy for removing trees for people new to "the neighborhood", and I'm guessing that's how most lots in the area that got cleared, got cleared.

I personally want to be selective to create a certain shape to the property. I want to use the forest cover as a natural privacy fence because 1) It's easier if I don't have to remove it and 2) Privacy fences cost some good money. And, I personally like the wild look of the forest. I think it's a shame people have their entire lots cleared, I can't help but think that most people moved to new forested subdivisions because of "The forest look", but then everyone cleared their lots of the trees (Presumably because bulldozers are easy and quick, though indiscriminate. I'm assuming they're also cheaper than other paid labor alternatives.), so the neighborhood no longer looks like a forest, the reason why they liked the area in the first place. Seems ironic.

That's for the front of the lot. The back of the lot, to hell with it! My neighbors can gaze at my vegetable patches and fruit trees all they want! lol

In all honesty, I'll probably keep the very back(North part) of the property wooded. The sun is always south of me, so it won't interfere with the veggies/fruits. I'll remove the trees as needed - I may find out I don't have as much green thumb ambition (Or matching funds) in real life as I'm currently imagining. :D
 
Dang, cut the trees down yourself, its actually rather enjoyable. Although trimming the high spots is not for the faint hearted.

Laguna Beach is above average pricey, Anahiem is average. The suggestion is that even without the work I can't afford to do my house might have soared to $1m. It was $20,500 when first built in 1952 and let's say I'm paying 1/10 the property tax the next owner will if I sell. But I'll get hit for the next house if I move.

I doubt you'll see the explosive price jump we'll see, but if you do it means the cost of moving will include the hike in property tax.
 
I went through a bunch of driveway layouts, I like this one the best so far. Seems to offer pretty good privacy and limited access to the property, making the installation of a gate easier. Also retains much of the woods. (Not drawn to scale, anyone recommend a CAD program for these kinds of drawings/layouts)?

My realtor was trying to dissuade me based on the fact it's "Overgrown", lol. The fact it's overgrown is why I like it! Privacy, baby, privacy. :D

If I were planning on making this my longterm estate, I might put in a few well-positioned grecian themed statues and an ornate water fountain.
 

Attachments

  • propLayout.jpg
    propLayout.jpg
    16.8 KB · Views: 4,168
Thought about digging for a place to live? (Google search "house embedded underground".) No need to consume arable land with dwelling structures any more. :wink:
NevilleEcoHome1.jpg


5ef8d03b4c9ac22acdfe6a59b138a56d.jpg


Underground-Home-NI3.png
 
I've thought about digging out a simple hole for a tornado shelter. I've also thought about digging holes for compressed air storage, I suspect it might be a more affordable way to store a high amount of energy, over the longterm, as compared to batteries.
 
What kind of statues for the entrance

I'm thinking something like two statues of Artemis pointing her bow towards the driveway, on opposing sides.

I just get the distinct feeling I'll have to either employ someone to make it or make it myself.

I think I could actually make it myself, but I'll need certain equipment. And some good models.

Maybe two cherubs, standing on pedestals, armed with bows would work? That also seems kind of cool.

Though, Artemis would be cooler.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top