On Sunday afternoon we took a long walk around the farm. It was a gorgeous day with mild temperatures and a bright blue sky. The dogs came along and enjoyed the mud, burrs, and animal scents.
We don't often spend time on the back part of the property. However, those of you that have hiked or hunted on our land know that the farm is pretty big. We own about 145 acres. So by "pretty big" I'm speaking in terms of a "small farm", rather than thousands of acres like farms in the mid west or the giant ranches out west.
When I think of our farm I think of a fairly small area. We have our house, then the barns and gardens around the house. These are the areas we use on a daily basis. I also think of our two hayfields, the creek and the cow pasture. All of that area is about a third of the farm, and is what we currently use. The other two-thirds are mixed hardwoods and patches of little clearings.
We don't really use the rest of the farm on a regular basis. It was selectively logged several years ago, and we'll probably do that again in the future. We also use the timber for firewood and fenceposts. Part of the reason for the walk on Sunday was to look for dead trees we can cut for firewood. We have a wood cutting crew coming next weekend! I didn't take any photos of the dead trees, they aren't very exciting.
The second reason for the walk was to see this:
...sigh. More on that tomorrow.
Well, "this" is far away from your used and enjoyed pats of the farm, thank goodness. "This" is also halping your local economy, along with your personal economy. In life there are tradeoffs.
ReplyDeleteThese are lovely views of your lovley farm. Wonderful descriptions, too. It's great that you took time to enjoy the beauty that is all around you. Will there be time for the wood cutting crew to do the same?
Very cool! It looks like you're constructing a mountain bike trail for me. It's also wide enough for x-c skate skiing. The surface would need to be smoothed out more for skating, you'd need snow, and John would need to set track with a snowmobile. But it does have potential!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like money for a new house to me.
ReplyDeleteUT - That's exactly what it is. Well, part of a house and no more student loans.
ReplyDeleteWith your creativity, nothing is impossible Farm Girl Mollie and Farm Man Johnald Dunkin!
ReplyDelete