The Land

Now that I've show you the house, Sue asked if I was going to show you the property. The answer to that is yes indeedy. In fact, that's the reason I haven't blogged in a week. It's taken some time to get the photos and get this post written out.

We have five acres, just outside of town. This is convenient in some ways, but on the other hand, it isn't strictly rural. There is some farm land behind us, but down the road is a suburban type housing development.

The road is not a main road, and the several times we visited the place before we bought it, it seemed fairly quite. I was somewhat dismayed after moving here, to discover that there is quite a bit of traffic, especially in the mornings and afternoons when folks are going to and from work and school. However, this place did fulfill all our other criteria, and considering we've been looking for such a place for a number of years, I figure that a good privacy hedge along the road will be the improvement we need.

This is an ariel shot, courtesy Google, rotated so that the road runs left to right.

The gray blob just right of center near the road is our house. You can see that the tree lines on either side form two legs of a triangle, and indeed, the property is triangle shaped, coming to a point in the woods. We have a several cleared areas, badly overgrown.

Behind the house are two barn red outbuildings...

...and lots of pecan trees.....

Behind the out buildings.....

.... is a nice cleared area.

I confess that it this is after it's been mowed. It had not been tended to in a number of years and was becoming badly overgrown.

Behind this and all the way to the back of the property ....

... is wooded. It's mostly pines with a few hardwoods left. It slopes downward, giving good drainage. I'm pleased though because I found some muscadine vines growing back in here. (Wild muscadine jelly is my particular favorite.)

The clearing in the back connects to one to the east of the house.

This one is much more overgrown. We could have it brush hogged, but I think the best solution is goats. To do that however, we first need to put up a good sturdy goat fence.

Between that field and the house is a row of trees, badly overgrown...

.... some with yard plants that have gotten out of control. Also quite a few oak and pecan trees which have seeded in recent years. But also lots of poison ivy, and unfortunately, some kudzu.

The the west of the house, is more park-like....


And has a more pasture like clearing, which several clumps of trees growing in it....

We're contemplating what to do with this. Pasture? I tend to think Shetland sheep, but DH is partial to alpacas. Crops? Perhaps wheat and hay? All of this is still under discussion and would make a difference with what we do with those trees.

Coming up to the house from far side of the pasture...


You can begin to see where we chose to put a garden in this summer.

I'm not entirely satisfied with this as a final spot for a vegetable and kitchen garden, but for this year, it offers the most sun. It was grass, but a tiller killed out most of that. There is a volunteer pecan tree growing by the road, which will probably need to come down as it shades this spot too much in the afternoon. But it's a start.

And speaking of start, I'd better get back to some "real" work. DH is involved in his project outside, so I'd better get on with mine as well!

Copyright by Leigh 9 June 2009 at http://www.5acresandadream.com/