First Pictures: "The Land"

[blurrybill]

First Pictures: \"The Land\"

I've had little time to play with my wife's new digital camera, but thought I'd resize some pictures of our property and see if I could get them to post. Hope this won't bore anybody, but we're really excited about our dream piece of ground. We'll be building our "final" home on this 8.1 acres. I may post a pict or two on a new post in the Projects forum, probably under "our ultimate project2" as we get closer to construction.

Bear with me; here goes.

 

[blurrybill]

Re: First Pictures: \"The Land\"

Hey, it worked! The first picture is looking toward the NE from near the entrance to The Land, as we call it. The house will be between the big oak on the left and the "grandpa oak" with the spreading branch on the right. Most of the view will be beyond the crest. I'll remove quite a few Eastern Red Cedars to enhance the "layered look" from the house, but will leave many for wildlife.

This picture is taken from the western side looking again towards where the house will be. We jointly own the lane with our only neighbors. They use it to access their portion of the total 27 acres. We agreed to very restrictive covenants with them so there will NEVER be more than 2 houses on the 27 original acres.

 

[blurrybill]

Re: First Pictures: \"The Land\"

A DNR forester called our land a "prairie savannah." We're so thankful that the farmers didn't kill the oaks; some are approaching 300 years old - rare to find them in Iowa. The swing was my wife's Mother's Day present last year. The tree will be within 30 yards of the house.

 

[Harv]

Re: First Pictures:

<font color=blue>The Land, as we call it</font color=blue>

/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif My parents dubbed ours as "The Proppity" when they first purchased it. Now, some 30 years later, Mom and Pop have passed on, but the name lives on.

Man, TBN has been an amazing experience in terms of seeing, up close and personal, the various kinds of terrain, flora, fauna and yes, weather other folks live in/on/around.

Looks like you'll be living in paradise, Bill. You going for 9 or 18 holes? /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[blurrybill]

Re: First Pictures: \"The Land\"

This is a pict of the 275 yard lane I made by hand last year. I picked up fallen branches, raked the entire thing, rented a stump grinder and ground about 300 small stumps so I could run by little JD garden tractor on it, spread seed and this is the result so far. Think I need that bigger JD? My back is still shot.

We like to stroll through both the mowed area and the woods. This lane goes along the eastern side near a big ravine to the right. Love it.

 

[blurrybill]

Re: First Pictures:

Thanks, Harv. We are going to put up some kind of sign welcoming guests. We debated for months on what to call the place, but we always talked about going out to "the land." As we discussed names one day in the car, our 7 year old, in her wisdom said, "Dad, we always call it 'the land," why should we call it something else?" Like with your folks - the name stuck and now it just seems right.

Bill

 

[blurrybill]

Re: First Pictures: \"The Land\"

Another majestic oak on the east side. I get excited just posting the pictures!

 

[wasabi]

Re: First Pictures: \"The Land\"

blurrybill,

Your property looks downright pastoral! Those big oaks remind me of some of the live oaks we have here in the south. I especially like your seeded lane. Great photos!

 

[blurrybill]

Re: First Pictures: \"The Land\"

We call this tree "the grandpa oak," one of our oldest. The pict doesn't do him justice. The horizontal sweep of the branches is over 40 feet! On several of the older oaks, the branches touch the ground - reminds one of the live oaks in the South, again, rare in Iowa.

Not to be corny, but we feel a spiritual connection to this place and these trees. Very humbling and moving for our family.

 

[blurrybill]

Re: First Pictures: \"The Land\"

We never feel bad there, Wasabi. I was trying to post the grandpa oak pick, when you commented on the live oaks. My wife grew up in Louisiana and we travel there once or twice a year. Love those trees, too! We stayed at Oak Alley once a few years back. Thanks for the kind comments.

Bill