It is Here...

Well in case you don't read Lacey's blog we have become the stewards of twenty three and half acres in Liberty, NC. Which for us has become a dream come true. The hardest part of farming is acquiring the land, once that is accomplished the rest is just all work. The property is basically a long rectangle, that is about four hundred feet wide and about a half mile long. In the front is a five acre field  and then back from that is an older forest. It seems that at some point it was probably selectively logged but there are some real old big trees still remaining. We hung a swing in one of them, so the girls could have something fun to do out there.

Already the farm life is becoming an eye opening experience. We don't have a place to live out there yet, we don't have water, and we don't have electricity. Which causes some limitations but overall has been a real neat experience. So we drive from our house which is only about thirty minutes away and just spend hours out there when we can. When you are out there it really helps you to appreciate what it must have been like to have just come upon a piece of land and started a life. All the little things that we take for granted in city life. So to put it plainly we are starting from scratch, which is extremely exciting.

We have learned that just like when we bought our house and gutted it, that we need a room or place of sanctuary. So we have put all grandiose plans aside and are focusing on a shelter something small like a picnic shelter that will allow us to get out of the elements and relax. On one of the sides of the shelter i want to build one of these. Its an all in one smoker, grill, and oven.

Also in the works we are learning about driveways, we want to put something simple in so that when you pull off the road you don't have to drive through the ditch. When i went into the research of this project i planned on just laying a pipe down and then dropping some gravel down on top of it and that would be done. Have you heard of number 3 gravel? how about number 57? crush and run? base rock? drive rock? these are all various rocks that have to be put down in a certain order and depth to get a proper drive. The good news is after about three days of rock research, i was told i should try talking to the DOT and they apparently will add a drive for you for free. In fact as we speak that DOT engineer is looking at our drive to get the appropriate work order.


Lastly we are working on a garden area, the soil there is real sandy which is strange because as long as i have been in NC all i have seen is the good old Carolina clay. So i am going to send off a soil test and learn a little bit about what this kind of dirt needs.


The neighbors say that there is a real issue with deer there so we are going to construct a woven fence around the garden that will hopefully keep them out. Below is some pictures of the start of that. We are using all the sticks/trees that we cut down in the front of the woods to thin them out.

                               

                                
We will keep you updated as more happens and as we get some of these projects closer to completion.