December was a busy month. First, we filled the greenhouse, which will run out of manure by the end of the month, unless our 8 cows somehow make enough to keep it going. It will keep working on water, but the manure doubles the production, I think. It brings in a lot of money, who knew locally grown vegetables would be such a hit?
Then we sold all the wheat. There were 123,000 liters, which sold for about 50,000 and took like 6 trips into town with our 21,000 liter trailer.
After we had taken care of the animals we looked forward to the winter to come. I didn’t want to sit inside all winter like I did last year. Instead, I wanted to do some logging. The problem was that all the forest around my cabin and the lake are very nice for hunting and shade, etc, and I didn’t want to log them. Also, there is no lumber mill on the map, unless you want to chip everything. The general sellpoint at the shop might have accepted lumber, but I thought I could do better. There is a lumber mill to build in the placeables that is built for the map, so that is the one we used. It cost 65,000. I was kind of torn between cheating in the money for the lumber mill and paying for it myself. I decided to cheat the money in, because if I was going to pay for the lumber mill, I think I should be able to sell the product of the lumber mill, i.e., the lumber. As is, all I can do is sell uncut lumber and it doesn’t make sense to buy the customer a car so you can sell him gas.
Also of issue is the land. Normally how I would do logging is buy land, log it, clean it up, and sell it. In my experience as a logger, land that has been logged sells for just as much as unlogged land, because in the process of logging it, you open up views, build roads, and clear all the brush. This is even true if you’re selling to another timber company, especially if you plant trees. The first time a property is logged the trees are often shorter and unhealthier as they all grew in too close together and don’t grow in very well. After it is logged and planted, the trees are better spaced apart and grow in a lot faster and healthier.
So there’s your forestry class of the day. But here, the problem is that we can’t sell this land because we built a lumber mill on it. Another issue is that it is way across the map from my farm, so incorporating it into my farm would be a bit of a pain. I will think about what to do with this land as I go. On this map, I think the idea is to bring in money and build whatever you want, so I’m not really concerned about cheating in money on this save, as long as it doesn't ruin my game by taking away the survivalism.
For logging equipment we started by buying a log trailer for behind a tractor for 9,999.
Cutting trees with a chainsaw on a console is really bad, because of how offeven the lengths are, so we were forced to look into a processor. At this point I realized we were going all in to this logging operation, because doing it piecemeal wasn’t going to work. We purchased a small excavator and processor head and had it delivered to our job for a small fee. I didn’t have enough to buy it outright, but we were able to finance it.
The truck driver didn’t know what he signed up for when he agreed to bring it out to the job.
We also bought the Biolbetz log fork for our front end loader.
This set up worked okay, but the older Fendt tractors don’t have the hydraulic power they need for this kind of work, and they aren’t called “El Limo” for nothing. They have the worst turning radius in the world. Also of note was that the older Fendt was still somehow worth 85,000 despite having a ton of hours on it and no power. I was able to buy the better Fendt for cheaper than that even. I traded in the old Fendt with all the hours on it on a brand new Claas 660 with weighted wheels. The difference was about 60,000. Plus we had to buy the front loader for it as well for 8,000.
We ended up spending about 340,000, including the land for now, but trading in the older Fendt for 85,000 back. During December we set to work to clear the forest, and earned about 120,000 back, so our final loan balance was at 52,000. We could easily make that, but I think we are running out of timber on our plot of land. We will have to buy another plot for January and February logging. I would plant some trees, but they take so long to grow with seasons, it wouldn’t be worthwhile.
I’m thinking to cheat in the value of the land with the sawmill and keep it, but not farm it. I’ll buy another plot for logging. Over time we will see what other placeables we will put by the lumber mill. It would make sense for a small town to start to form around the lumber mill as workers move in. The lumber mill is a long way away from my farm, so I won’t mind people moving in around it.
We logged about 12 loads of wood, which sold for about 10,000 each. Logging seems to be a good source of income, but the equipment to get started in it was pretty expensive, and it is much harder work. The cold started to set in and the snow began to fall. I am so glad I bought this new tractor, as it is nice and warm in there all day as I load these logs and drive them down to the mill. The heater in the older Fendt isn’t working very well, I will have to see why. Working on equipment in the cold months is very uncomfortable and there is no covered workshop on our farm. Yet another reason why I wonder whose idea this all was. This new excavator we bought will have endless possibilities, but I think I should have just leased it. We won’t be using it very much during the summer months and it wouldn’t have been very much to lease. I’m having buyer's guilt. Maybe when the winter is over I will resell it and lease next winter.