Purchased!
The land sale has finally taken place
After several months of waiting, the sale of High Point finally closed today, September 2, 2021. This photo was taken from a neighborhood just north of the property. To the right is the western peak, called Buzzard Hill. This serves as one of the edges of the tract. To the left is the eastern peak, called High Point, which is fully within the property line.
The biggest holdup to closing was the land survey, shown here. The property had not transferred in many decades, so a fresh inspection of where each corner exists in the roughly 175 acre tract was needed. As part of this process, we eliminated the dividing line and merged it all into a single parcel by filing a change with the county.
The property is almost entirely wooded. The one exception is a clearing on both sides of the road where a manufactured home sits. Prior to the mobile home, there was a dairy barn in roughly the same location. It unfortunately burned at some point, though other remnants of the farm still stand.
These three structures sit near the road as well, a little to the west of the clearing. They are on a small hill, so they don’t have direct road access. One has to follow the ridge starting at the clearing in order to get to them.
While eventually I’d like to build a permanent home for myself on the property (hopefully at the peak of High Point), I think my first major TODO will be a farm pond. After researching the topic a bit, I think it’s feasible to add a 60’ tall earthen embankment dam on the northwest corner, connecting Buzzard and one of the foothills of High Point. This would create a roughly 10 acre pond with a natural spillway off the northern leg.
I’ll need to get some permits from the state, clear the trees and pack some clay down over the 250’ span. Front to back distance needs to be six times the height with a gentle slope from the apex, meaning almost 400’ in this case. After getting a rather expensive quote from a contractor for building the dam, I realized a better approach might be to do it myself over several weekends. I’ll need to purchase a bobcat, since renting one would be impractical. When I clear the area, I can either keep the logs and use them as trail lining or I can sell them for lumber. In either case, I’ll keep the upturned roots as they make for great underwater structure for fish (demonstrated in this video series).
I will also need to clear some hiking trails. One of those will eventually become a driveway to the permanent residence. For that eventual house, I’ll need to drill a new well, install a new septic system and build a solar farm.
Additionally, I’m considering planting a permaculture food forest, keeping bees and/or chickens and creating a sitting area down by the creek on the eastern portion of the property. It’ll easily be a decade before all of this is done, but I have big plans and I look forward to taking it one step at a time, enjoying the journey as well as the destination.
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