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Building our Retirement Timber Frame Home

Building our Retirement Timber Frame Home

#2 Breaking Ground: The First Real Movement at Timber Oaks

  • angelaglong
  • Apr 11
  • 2 min read

Updated: Apr 29


March 17, 2026 marked the first major step forward on the Timber Oaks lot. ClearSite LLC arrived early, unloading an excavator and guiding it down the driveway toward the trees marked with pink X’s. The father of the father‑son team worked with steady, practiced ease — pushing over each tree, lifting it cleanly, and laying it aside in a growing pile. His movements carried the quiet confidence of someone who has done this work for decades.

We worked really hard to minimize the pink Xs, but we had to take quite a few trees to clear the way for a driveway.
We worked really hard to minimize the pink Xs, but we had to take quite a few trees to clear the way for a driveway.

Father and Son team
Father and Son team

A Second Excavator, A New Set of Tools--Around midday, his son arrived with a second excavator equipped with claws and a chainsaw attachment. He moved through the downed trees with the same calm precision: gripping each trunk near the stump, trimming it cleanly, and sorting the pieces into organized piles — stumps and branches in one, long straight logs in another. By afternoon, the clearing had begun to take shape.

Second excavator arrives.
Second excavator arrives.

Turning Trees Into Material--The next morning, the team returned with a massive radio‑controlled shredder — a surprisingly captivating machine to watch in action. Matthew guided it toward the downhill area designated for the future raingarden. Once the feeder ramps were lowered, he began feeding in stumps and branches, transforming them into a growing mound of mulch. Meanwhile, more trees came down, more limbs were trimmed, and the log pile continued to grow.

The gigantic, remote controlled shredder.
The gigantic, remote controlled shredder.
Shredder at work.
Shredder at work.
The log pile, mostly oak and beech.
The log pile, mostly oak and beech.
Sawdust pile at Timber Oaks
Sawdust pile at Timber Oaks
For reference the sawdust pile at Timber Springs in 2002, with two very young girls standing on top.
For reference the sawdust pile at Timber Springs in 2002, with two very young girls standing on top.

A Beautiful Cleared Lot — And a Mantle for the Future--As the work neared completion, the crew asked Craig to help locate a large dead tree tucked behind the septic field. Within minutes, it was down, limbed, uprooted, and processed like the rest. Before the team wrapped up, Craig requested that they set aside a ten‑foot log of good diameter — a future fireplace mantle for the Timber Oaks great room. They selected a beautiful piece and placed it carefully aside.

A beautiful, cleared lot with lots of trees left!
A beautiful, cleared lot with lots of trees left!
A future oak mantle for above our wood burning stove.
A future oak mantle for above our wood burning stove.

A Missed Question, and a Useful Detail--After the equipment rumbled away, Craig realized he hadn’t asked who their sawyer was. The sawyer purchases the logs from ClearSite, which in turn reduces Hess’s clearing costs — a small but valuable detail he wished he’d captured while the team was still onsite.

 
 
 

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