Alstead Stories   1987 – 1992   Rip.

She was 8 months pregnant; he was dragging her around New Hampshire looking at his next project.

They found 50 acres on top of a mountain, the seller, Jesse Comstock had owned the land for 60 years.   What a name, he looked it, his property looked it, it fit perfectly.   It was his wood lot, he came up there every year and cleaned up the forest to heat his house.  Jesse told me there was a 60 mile view potentially, out on the point, if we cut enough trees.

The day we looked the property, my very pregnant wife just leaned herself against the car and gave me 15 minutes to walk it.  I ran, from top to bottom and side to side, using stone walls, barbed wire and the sun to guide me.   Then we went home, made the offer, bought the land, had the baby and rented the first of many bull dozers.

Romanticizing the past is always fun, at least for me.  The idea was simple, we would buy the land now and retire there in 30 yrs.  We had relatives nearby, I liked to build stuff, we liked a more rural setting, privacy and all that.

This will be easy. –

First problem, the only way to enter the property, you had to cut through Jesse’s brothers land.  He was polite and smart and gave us permission to cross his land once, to figure out how to get on and off the our property far away from him – he did not like his brother much nor the fact that Jesse sold the land to “flatlanders”.  Who knew we were flatlanders.

I have 3 or 4 partners in crime when it came to Alstead, actually more.  So .. Bill, (Bill is always ready for a project, he is almost always there at every left turn I have made since I was 16.  When Shelley wants to be rid of me, she says, “whats Bill up to?”)   …..  So Bill and I made the call to RN Johnson, please deliver a 350 dozer to Alstead.  We could not believe that anyone with a CC could just get a dozer, only in NH, live or die, but we figured with 2 days ahead of us, a standard learning curve, no problem.

We scoped out what seemed to be a good entrance, flagged the roadway in, we figured 200’ a day we would be good.  When you are 22 yrs old, you really do believe you can move mountains.  Hah, first thing you have to do is cut the trees, most were under 6 inches, perfect for firewood, 8 or 12 months from now.  Now we had used chain saws before, both of us were in pretty good shape, but there were a lot of those 6 inch trees.  Cutting is easy, it is the picking up the mess that is hard. We cut in approximately 50 feet, left the mess and went for lunch.

We were pleasantly surprised when the Dozer was there when we returned; we were give a tutorial and told to practice.   That first 10’ feet went smooth as silk, except for all the loam we now had pushed into a pile.  We then hit that brush and pieces of firewood, that dozer sat for the next 4 hrs watching us pick up sticks, stack firewood and exhaust ourselves. We then went for dinner.

When we returned, it was time for a fire and a battery powered light, set up a tent, standard routine.  Tents get musty when they are not put away correctly.  So we parked the pickup truck next to the dozer, on 10’ of driveway and slept in the bed of that truck.  It should be noted, these 50 acres were in the middle of hundreds of acres where there wasn’t much.  The sun goes down early in late fall.  The first time I fell asleep was around 7..  Nature makes a lot of noise in the night … you are always half awake, you get the picture.  The dozer slept fine.

We think we are going to get started early, except we needed breakfast and coffee.  We left the dozer again.  So now it is 9 ish, we start the dozer, review its workings, study the stump pulling claw on the back, we are ready.   The dozer pushes, we stump, we push some more, we move the drive a little left, a little right.  Now we have 20’ feet smooth and level, another 30’ of working mess.  It is 3pm, we haven’t had lunch, so the 3 of us have lunch, Bill, myself and the dozer, dozers need nutrition to …  We review the plan, talk cabin, admire the timber, listen to the quiet. Now it is 4 ish, the light is changing, we talk about traffic.  Make a plan to meet our dozer friend again another day.   I mutter .. “I think next time I’ll get a bigger machine”, that will help.