Getting Started

 This was the view of the shop site before clearing.  It is roughly the site of the old homestead and the only part of the property that is anywhere near flat.  A few weeks before the closing, we looked for potential sites for buildings.  The pink tape outlines where we decided to place the shop.  Final siting will be set after clearing.

 This view is the drive into the property as it looked before any clearing.  The road is Zion Rd. going west, just before it heads down a steep hill into the Indian Creek valley.  I will be taking pictures from this same spot to show the changes as time goes on.

 Towards the end of the day we closed, after the champagne toast, Jason (son-in-law) got to work clearing the shop site.

This is what things looked like at the end of the day.


The next day I met with the power company to set a pole and new service.  I also met one of the neighbors who told me that he used to own the land and had run a water pipe from the main into the property.  Luckily, I got back to the water company to cancel the $2000+ hook-up and changed it to a simple meter set and account ($80).  Next time we're there, I'll find that pipe and make sure it's OK.

That evening Jason returned with a bobcat to push the trees and brush into a pile.

This photo is taken from the entrance to property (Like other ones).

This is the back side of the burn pile.  Photo taken from probable drive to the new cabin.  Looking toward Zion Rd. 


We tried to burn the pile Saturday morning, but green stuff don't burn, duh.  So, now, it sits, waiting for our return in a couple of weeks.  By then, our power pole and drop should be in.  We'll dig up the water pipe and set a hydrant.  Then burn, baby, burn.  A bit more grading, then the Shop.

It's Ours!

We closed the purchase of our property on Wednesday, May 2, 2012.
We finally met the seller who had some interesting things to tell us about the land.

Our property and a great deal of surrounding land had been in her family for generations.  When her Great-Grandfather died, his youngest son inherited the land.  I don't know how much land it was, but the seller described it as stretching from Giant City Road to west across Indian Creek.  I will do some research into this, but the way she described it, it was probably several hundred acres.  The son who inherited the property was a gambler and sold it off piece by piece over the years.  Family members bought some of it and some remains in family hands.  Many of the family grew up in that area; attending school in a one room school house in a valley now under Spring Arbor Lake, worshiping in Zion Church and buried in the Zion Cemetery.  Our 20 acres once had a house and barns, where our seller's mother was born and raised.  Now, there is no sign of any buildings, only hundreds of daffodils to hint at once was there. I'm anxious to
 learn more.

 

After the closing we went right to work, but first, a toast.