Sweet Spots

When you go to the beach and want to go out and play int he waves there is a spot , about neck high, where you are lifted by the waves and placed gently back on the sand. Further out you are dropped in water over your head, further in you are not lifted but bashed by the waves. That is your sweet spot.

When you are drilling holes in metal with a drill press you hold down with a certain amount of pressure and the shavings fly out of the holes. You hold down too hard and the bit smokes and then locks up. If you  hold down too easily and the drill bit just polishes the bottom of the hole refusing to cut. That perfect amount of pressure is your sweet spot.

Life is full of sweet spots and they are constantly moving. Just when you think you are in one everything changes and you are struggling to find the next sweet spot.

Businesses have sweet spots too, a certain product line or niche that they are specifically designed for , right place, right time, right product, right human resources and capital to pull it all together.  It is important to recognise when your business hits that sweet spot and know when to stop changing things. Thats the challenge perosnally and professionally know ing when it isn't going to get any sweeter.

You don't want things to put you in over your head or things to be grinding to a stop so always be aware and looking for your organizational and professional sweet spots and when you find them cherish them because they are few and far between.

Homesteader got married.

 On July 21 I became a married man.

 Here is my full family, together and happy for a while. We are never sure what the future will hold so its important to try not to get too wound up in plans and goals and forget to embrace what you have at any given time.  Dark days have come and gone and hopefully brighter ones are still ahead. The farm is not doing so well as disease ran rampant through the goats and destroyed my flock. The geese and chickens are doing tolerably well but te Sawmill coming together is the real news. 

I have been cleaning up the mess the dozer made and it is fantastic to have a decent road but the dozer destroyed so many young trees in making the road. I am harvesting them all for firewood and smaller logs. New wife and I have been working all weekend on cleaning up felled logs and damaged trees. We also expanded the clearing to have room to put the mill.

I have been examining better chainsaw chains, there are options for high speed steel or carbide tipped chains that could last longer between sharpening but they cost a lot more and require special diamond encrusted wheels to sharpen. I hate to sharpen saws and because of the dirt and the extreme hardness of locust and even red oak on the new property made short work - less than two tanks of fuel through saw and it was already dull. I bougth he best saw value I could a Makita 6421- from Bailey's logging supply. Ialso got a portable winch. I am planning to use them to keep the sawmill fed every weekend with mature and diseased trees off my two parcels of property.

My new wife tells me it is bedtime and she is tired after a day of cutting firewood and stacking up logs. So I'll post again sometime soon.