We spent a long weekend looking at properties with which we could work to have a proper (our own definition, not the socially accepted interpretation) farm for our girls.
We looked at quite a few properties. Two full days worth of them. But we kept coming back to one we had been watching on the internet listings for well over a year.
Other than being hayed, it has not been a farm for decades. It has been someone’s recreational and hunting property. At the moment, it is 23 acres of wildflowers and butterflies, and 17 acres of mature woods, bordering 110,000 contiguous acres of county land, national forest, and direct, fairly exclusive access to a class 2 trout river.
We checked soil types on all of the properties. This one is sandy to silty loam for the most part, which is rare for the area.
There are ancient apple trees scattered across the property, most of them heavy with apples. Might be fun grafting cuttings from them onto new rootstock if we find we enjoy eating them. There are a lot of old varieties which no one knowingly has any more. Looking forward to knowing if these are just for the wildlife, pies, fresh eating, or cider.
This photo is from a section cut out of the woods which held an apiary. The old bee boxes are there, under the wildflowers, and the post you can see to Patti’s left, is one of 4 which created a barbed and electrical wire barrier around them, in the distant past. Just scraps of wire and insulators on the posts now.
We fell in love with it. There are some issues, and some contingencies that have to be met, but we put in an offer and it was accepted. So long as the well tests clean and functional, the power, which has not been used in decades is still viable, and the house and old garbage is removed, it is a go.
The original homestead house is white cedar, and not really salvageable for anything. Need that, the associated broken glass, nails, and a pile of tires removed without damaging the big pines around it, so not burnt where it is.
The tires I could probably utilize, but would prefer a cleaner slate, and there are enough mosquitoes up there as it is.
https://www.whitetailproperties.com/agents/mike-cashman
That is the agent we used for the weekend, and I have to say, it was a lot of fun working through all of the properties we went to see.
So, while nothing is final until we sign on the dotted line and cut a check, as it stands, before the end of the year, we will have a place to plant and play with that is our own. Time to start working on figuring out what trees we want to get into the ground this fall, and what perennials we want to start transplanting up there from our house here.
