At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Russ, thanks for letting us slide. We'll put the garden on the north west corner like you suggest. However, right now, that's where our stack of logs sits. It's a big stack and I can't say that moving it excites me. We'll see if putting the garden close to the NW corner will be adequate until the logs are gone. I figure we've got enough firewood to last quite a long time.

 

[Obed]

Here's the house site. The pictures were taken looking toward the west. The garden clearing can be just seen through the trees in the upper left hand corner of the first picture. We are on the ridge line so the property slopes downward on the left side (south side) and the right side (north side). A 4 bedroom septic was installed in the fall of 2008. The drain field runs through the trees on the north facing slope and run east to west.

 

[Obed]

After 20 years of marriage, 6 months ago my wife got pregnant. This event has rocked our world. This will be our first child. What a blessing! The wife is due this coming February. The baby sealed the decision to sell the 61 acres. We are building a house and having our first baby at the same time. The wife has been so busy dealing with the house project, she's not had time to get stressed over Junior. However, Junior's arrival makes getting out of the camper a little more pressing.

 

[TheGoose]

Congratulations!! It's funny the way life works out.

 

[ruralruss]

Russ, thanks for letting us slide. We'll put the garden on the north west corner like you suggest. However, right now, that's where our stack of logs sits. It's a big stack and I can't say that moving it excites me. We'll see if putting the garden close to the NW corner will be adequate until the logs are gone. I figure we've got enough firewood to last quite a long time.

You don't want to put it too close to the corner for a few reasons. First the trees will suck up the water and nutrients more than you might imagine. Second it will get a little more sun out a bit, and thirdly the deer. You probably will will have to fence it. A wise old man told us once "you won't have any problem with the deer as long as it is easier for them to go around it instead of over it". For 13 years his wisdom has proven accurate. We started with a 50' by 40 foot plot with a 4 foot fence. Never had a deer in and we have hoards of them here. a few years later we added on a 50' by 100' area with the same fence. The deer got in and wrecked the place! My extreme animal loving wife said, "if I would have had a machine gun I would of mowed um down". You see she puts a lot of work into our garden. We put up a 7' chain link fence and have not had a problem yet, about 10 years. Very wise man indeed.

Oh, congrats on the young one. Just imagine the things junior will see by the time he is your age!

Russ

 

[dave1949]

Congratulations on your baby! I can understand your desire to get into your new home.
Dave.

 

[Cook123]

There really is nothing like rugrats! I enjoyed the whole story. Thanks

 

[Diamondpilot]

If that camper is a rock'n____________. Well you all know the rest. Congratulations. You did right by going with 400 amp. You never know and now is the time to do it. Plus with 2 sepeate systems you have a backup on that long of a run. I had my wire break underground after 12 years only 15' from the pole. Guess which end they started digging at to find the break? Yep, tore up the whole yard. Same thing happened with my dad, he has 2 200 amps also. One failed.

That part of the country is neat. I travel to Lake Norris about 3 times a year. First time I ever saw a public road that took 4 wheel drive to get up. The area we visit is in a housing boom and to watch the guys work on a 80deg slop with a dozer then build a house is nuts but neat to see.

Chris

 

[Obed]

The deer got in and wrecked the place!

Russ, just curious. Did you have any dogs around? How effective are dogs at keeping deer out of a garden?

Due to the woods, I'm sure the deer are going to be a challenge for the garden. We plan on getting a dog after we move onto the property, maybe a German Shepherd. I hope we can let the dog roam free. However, if the dog starts roaming the adjacent neighborhood, we'll have to lock it up.

 

[Obed]

You did right by going with 400 amp. You never know and now is the time to do it. Plus with 2 sepeate systems you have a backup on that long of a run.

I should clarify. We will have 2 separate runs from the transformer to the house, only 50 to 75 feet. The 900 ft high-voltage underground run from the street to our transformer is one system/line. There's no backup. If the power fails along that 900 feet, we're in trouble, especially because our natural gas and phone are in the same trench 2 feet above the power line.

Obed