Going off the road with our homemade trailer

A quile back we made marker poles with the chainsaw mill. That was before we had the offroad trailer. By that time I decided that we should leave those poles there at the place on our friend Carlos’ farm and wait for the trailer to be ready. We would have had to contract someone with a pickup truck and then we all would have to carry all the wood on our shoulders or drag it out with a horse.

Now that the trailer is ready and has been used on the road we set up to pick up the wood on Carlos’ farm. In the picture above we just entered the area and were going uphill. This isn’t actually Carlos’ land where we are but his neighbors. It is common and totally accepted that you can cross over your neighbors land to get to some spot on yours. The area is pasture that has overgrown and it has no significant obstacles so we chose to go up there because it is easier for the first test.

Still there are a lot of stones and holes and other things that you wouldn’t dare to enter with an SUV made for the city and much less with a regular trailer. As you can see the big 31” wheels on the trailer and the hitch high above the ground work very well.

After a few minutes we arrived at our destination. I put the Jeep in reverse and parked the trailer very close to the low barb wire fence so that the platform ends up on the other side of the wire.

Our friend Carlos’ had moved all the poles we made with his horse back to his house before we got there with the trailer. He told us he was afraid of people taking those poles because they turned out quite good and the guayacan wood is well known for its resistance against insect and funghi attacks. I forgot to ask him how he moved those poles with his horse but I assumed he dragged them. They are about 3m in length each so dragging seems to work.

That left us with the boards and a chunk of heartwood to put on the trailer. We then went to Carlos’ house to pick up the poles and brought them home.

However, while we were there we did come up with an idea for the rest of the wood. This stuff is heavy and it seems it can resist a lot of force. You see the log Luis is sitting on? We should come back and cut it into 4x4 cants that would make beautiful legs for a woodworking workbench.

There is more useable wood lying around. We have to figure out what to do with that. After all the tree is ours and it would be a shame to let it perish.

But then … It doesn’t get lost. Nature recycles everything. Look closely at the next picture. Can you see that out of the bark of this log new branches are growing? I find that quite remarkable. That log is supposed to be dead wood. It doesn’t seem to be that dead, if from the bark a new tree can grow.

Here is a closeup:

Speaking about nature. I saw another interesting plant there:

It is a little tree that in Spanish is called cuerno. Look at it closer and you’ll understand that you better keep a safe distance.

It’s got little spikes all over. That clearly tells a message: don’t touch me. ;-)

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