MarkDSM's private DG course / trails and camp project

[MarkDSM]

Quick overview:

Working on a lifelong friend's old family farm.
He has recently built workshops on the property (a couple shipping containers) and poured a new drive and parking for it. @17 acres of mostly black walnut woodland with a recent crop area now out of production. Surrounded by wooded properties with horses and goats close to the Des Moines river. Woods include creek and remnants of an old pond. Wooded land is wavy with a few gullies. Has been barely walked in the last 40 years. Some ok elevation changes of 20-25 feet I think. Some meadows that need opened up. Creek will need a bridge or two.

Plan...
-Trail blaze and some old fence removal by hand to open up initial 5 foot wide or more paths. (just about done)
-Execute tractor access trail to meadow campsite and to the creek
-Begin campsite to include a big burn pit
-Have vegetation assessed proper. Need some variety.
-Build bridge
-Work out trail expansion and improvements towards DG planning
-Further look into AirBNB or similar to rent out and recoup some costs

There is lots to do. The big thing is creating a series of high quality paths and making the forest useful and fun. Putting in a full camp is a big deal. Outhouse, firewood crib, pergola, fire pit, seating, and maybe even a cabin this year. On vegetation additions I am totally lost, but it looks like I have someone taking that up. Very handy that I am near rock and gravel suppliers as I will need it cheap. My friend wants to restore the pond and that undertaking way out of my comfort zone.

For dreaming I want a bunkhouse for disc golfers to base out of while exploring the awesome courses of central Iowa.

 

[MarkDSM]

First two benches for the project. 48 x 18" built of pressure-treated two by fours. Serving well as short worktables on muddy ground for the moment. Made assembly of some moveable boardwalk sections for another project easier. Need to whip out a couple lighter weight trail benches next. ... or a proper outdoor worktable

 

[Martin Dewgarita]

Got any cool gnarly burls on any of them black walnuts? I'd come volunteer for a weekend if I could come home with some walnut burls. I come with my own tools and course building experience.

 

[MarkDSM]

Got any cool gnarly burls on any of them black walnuts?

I made a point to look for them today. Immediately saw a well formed button about the size of a baseball hat nice and clean on a black walnut. A couple locoust with some ingesting structure. Nothing stuck out after those.. I am very novice on specifically looking for burls or knowing what type of formations would create good figure wood. Owner is well on board for harvesting. Long term plan is diversity in age and tree species.

 

[MarkDSM]

Took a full property walk today with new owner friend who was able to give some insights.

There's a marshy spring on the northside that runs a year-round percolating up through the dirt. Found some old cuts that used to help feed the old pond who's dam blew out 30 years ago down stream on neighbors property that backed up into this property. Originally built before a split sale. (beavers and neglect killed the earthen dam). The engineering to bring back the pond, and particularly if kept all on this property, looks pretty complicated.

Nearly stepped on a big solo Tom turkey today. Very noisy run off he was. Same story with a hawk a few minutes earlier, but not nearly as dramatic. Big furniture sized owl I got to close enough to forcing a thumping takeoff.

No clear campsite/ cabin area yet and fluid on what that is going to be. Narrowed it down to one of two areas that I can build out with 'road' for a 5 foot wide bucket on a tractor to get to. Very handy that active material mines are within a couple miles.

... starting some prototype work on a product that would pay me and be made on the farm. I will tease it and post photos of the results later in the week.

 

[Martin Dewgarita]

I made a point to look for them today. Immediately saw a well formed button about the size of a baseball hat nice and clean on a black walnut. A couple locoust with some ingesting structure. Nothing stuck out after those.. I am very novice on specifically looking for burls or knowing what type of formations would create good figure wood. Owner is well on board for harvesting. Long term plan is diversity in age and tree species.

Cool, thanks for looking! I'd be interested in coming down for a weekend and looking at what you've got and picking up a few pieces of trees for wood turning, be it burls, or nice clean crotch pieces, or other interesting figure, I'm sure there's plenty out there. If there's a big tree that you know needs to come down for a fairway or camping area I could help clear it. Or if there's a hole or two that you want help clearing, or whatever. Not sure right off when will work, but maybe sometime between now and the end of the year I could make a trip down there

 

[MarkDSM]

Muddy and rainy, so focus on the front of farm comfort. Knocked out a 96" x 25" table for shop use, but no new trail work. By the end of this week, I need to figure out an initial gravel/rock order so I can tag onto another material order on the farm. (for two proper tractor access roads into the woods)

I made some capital investment towards a project that could earn you some cash while working on the farm and looking to extend my normal medical work hiatus.
I ordered a set park bench concrete end molds from these folks I should get Thursday. (Threw down another @ $150 for bulk price break on concrete precast 3/8 threaded inserts for about 15 sets from another supplier. Round-about $22 a set of ends in concrete and hardware it looks)

https://concretebenchmolds.com/

There is a mixer at the farm and one of my friend's side business is casting strongman Atlas balls which I have filled in for and cast a couple times. My family's business is cast sink and countertop for 40 years... so I got a lot a decent advice. This mold looks very ideally set up. If everything is super cool, I will likely modify and cast another two or mold sets locally. Focused on building up a little bit of an inventory quickly and then selling them. Perhaps including delivery and set up... or find me a friendly wholesaler / retailer.
*I have an email address for the tech guy guy too if anyone's really interested they can PM me.

I will track this side bench project in this thread.

Cara, The sales contact from this company was very friendly and helpful. Offered a $25 Amazon gift card for good photos and a narrative of the molds. Sounded like she may give you a good discount on a reorder.

Next project looks to be an outdoor overhead shelter for the concrete mixer and pouring/setting. Something between a firewood shed and one car overhead. At minimum get a decent tire put on and off the side of one of the Connex containers onto some poles.

 

[MarkDSM]

... decent Tarp, loop anchors welded on a container, a couple poles, anchors, and rope if proper overhang build drags.

 

[MarkDSM]

Got an sunny day for a couple photos of the southeast woods entrance. Not the biggest walnut on the property, but she is welcoming and was easy to clean out under the canopy.
Last pic is a pile of hand cut, dug and hauled multi-floral rose drying for a burn. Learned to just attack them hard and dirty. Their population has been significantly reduced.

 

[XC_Eddy]

Central Iowa disc golf is amazing! I graduated from Simpson about 5 years ago, and loved being near Des Moines. I have a close friend getting married in Des Moines in August, and I hope to spend about a week down there. I am not skilled labor, but I am young, able bodied, and willing to do anything helpful for disc golf. I know it's a ways out, but if need any help the week leading up to August 19th (day of wedding), let me know, as I will be in the area. At the very least I just want to play a round at Pickard Park because it's my favorite course.

 

[MarkDSM]

First bench end set out and curing a bit before boards. Have about 25$ materials each set. Looking good for this as a producing product to keep me out at the farm. Negotiating on a price for more molds. (I think I could have vibrated out more surface bubble, but not sure I really need to)

... as far as the disc course/camping area, I have the main routes cut to easily access all corners. The next projects on that are a few times of gravel ( not hard using the tractor ) and getting a couple or concrete piers set in the creek area. To access the back chunk of the property there's got to be some sort of bridge and probably a couple. It's very apparent that we need to figure out how to make piers to cross the marshy and ****ty slope Creek basin. Pulling in an engineer bud for a consult on that.

Hopefully knocking out a chunk a deck in the woods big enough to pad out my tent to get the camping area going glam this weekend.

 

[MarkDSM]

Not a great deal of heavy work in the last month in the project.
I have a much better understanding of drainage now. 'Campsite' is going in area in front of this giant walnut. Some honeysuckle in front of it now gets cut and dug out soon. One pretty weak tenting night thus far.

Burned a lot of dried rose, cuttings, and dead wood i dragged out to the field. Main trails getting walked a few times a week. Early spring perennial Rose and vine removal really paid off for acsess. I am more liberally limping up medium sized trees. Hopefully some wide wooded clearing once school gets out and I've got a couple teenagers to help.