I got over my sickness this weekend and we went out looking at land.
We are focused on 5 – 10 acre plots, with some nice looking contours. One place we looked at, a narrow 6 acre place, showed some promise. We drove out to it down a long private road, and at the end of the trail was the bulk of the land with a black cow lounging about:
The land dips down behind the cow, with a wet weather creek running through the bottom to a reservoir off to the right of the property. Then the land ascends again in a pasture you can see on the top-center portion of the image.
I was wary of that cow and told Katie that I didn’t think we should get out of the car. She said not to worry, he was just an old kindly steer, so we got out and started getting the children out. Two things happened at once: the steer’s ears flattened against his head, and he started coming for us, and we heard gun shots coming from the property next door.
Katie and I both felt bullets land around us (from shotgun shells most likely) and debris hit us in the head and legs. My guess is that the neighbor kids (“Skeeter and Bubba” most likely) were shooting off their guns randomly and the bullets were hitting dirt and trees all around us. Between the cow advancing and the bullets I yelled at Katie to get back in the car. She jumped in as the cow circled around us, and we high-tailed it out of there.
Thanks be to God and our holy angels that we didn’t get shot by stray bullets or gored by a cow. It was something of a “sign” as we decided to nix that property from our search.
The good news is, we are narrowing down our search. We know the areas that we are looking around and the size of the land, what we want on it, what we don’t want on it, what to look for, and what we might be dealing with.
Our current plan is to build a straw-bale house on the land, have grid-tied solar power, dig a deep well, have sheep and goats for mowing/brush control, and a milking cow (Guernsey perhaps) for milk/butter/cream/cheese. Thanks for all your support and kindness during our search!
I leave you with this from U2. “Our Labor Day, has come and gone…”
Rose Wish List
What we want on the land: creek, fertile soil, trees…
What we don’t want on the land: stray bullets, angry steer, anything wanting to kill us really…
Sheesh! Glad you guys are okay!
Kevin, thanks man. Yes a creek or spring would be awesome. Good soil, some trees would be nice. We don’t know how close we were to being hit by stray bullets but my guess is they hit within thirty feet away or so, in order to kick up dirt or whatever debris hit us.
Regarding trees, if they are lacking on the property (typically this happens due to the fact that for decades the land was cleared and farmed), we will carve out a few acres of our land and plant acorns and nuts and seedlings to establish a little woodlot. We’ll do some fast-growing trees and then some slow good ones like oaks.
God bless my friend!
Devin