Anyway. We bought 60 acres northeast of Troy. It has a five (-ish) acre fish pond on it. On Friday we caught 10 big fat bream in about 3 minutes. The pond has lost a lot of water over the course of the drought. You can see the exposed bank behind me there on the right. The vegetation line is where the water used to be. This picture is from late July and the water is even lower now. The fish feeder has since been removed from the dock, and one good thing about the water being so low is that we can get out there and do some dock repairs/small child safety adjustments (railing!).
We also have a creek. Well, technically, we have two. We have the small unnamed one that feeds the pond (and is really more of a swamp), and we also have a creek that flows through the property on the east side. Little Buckhorn Creek to be exact. Here is a certain small-ish type person to show it off:
The creek has part of a historic dam on it (the other part presumably blew out in a flood at some point in the past), and further down it has a beaver dam on it. We've seen him (her?) out and about. They can get up to 75 lbs which is as big as Lindy. I think this one is getting close. I saw it come out of the pond and go across the pond dam one evening. We also have a bobcat that I have not seen, but Tray has.
This picture is on our property looking north toward our gate, so this is the first area you come to driving in (only turned around looking back at the gate). That black speck up the road is Lindy. To her right is an open area with lots of pretty flowers, and then immediately to the left of the foreground is another open field.
The picture below is just to the right of where I was standing taking the picture above. Tray picking a few wild grapes off a small vine for Penny to eat (she loves them - especially the seed spitting part).
These are kind of in reverse order, but let me take you back into time. This is Penny running up the road from further south in our property to get to where I was to take the grape picture. Oh, and Artie too.
To the south of the two small open fields is a patch of piney woods. I love piney woods because there is very little understory. You can walk around without walking through stuff. And the ground is so soft and cushy from the pine straw accumulation.
This is the edge of those woods coming into the "big field." Note the cedar trees. No buying a Christmas Tree this year!
On your way into the big field is a massive grapevine covered in grapes. We've been eating on them for weeks now. I made a huge batch of jelly - some of the finest I've ever made. These are some seriously good grapes.
This is the gang seated across from the vine just eating and eating and eating grapes. Everytime we go out there Penny asks us to stop to pick some. We usually stop and get some down and then carry them with us on to the pond. And then at some point during the trip she'll request to walk from the pond back up to the vine so she can get some more. It's actually a long walk. I usually end up carrying her at least part of the way back.
And this is the "big field." When you come around the corner to it, the beauty can take your breath away. Right now it is covered in wildflowers. There is yellow and purple as far as you can see. And I know as the leaves turn colors, it's going to be even more pretty. The wood line you see in the background is the creek buffer.
If you go on around that curve, the road cuts through the woods going toward the pond. Here is Penny with her walking stick there.
Finally, here is Penny in the hammock under our pole barn on the hill above the pond.
I've got loads more pictures of the place, but hopefully that'll give some idea of what it is like. We have enjoyed it so much already, and we haven't really been out there all that much. It has been so hot and dry that we haven't wanted to, but now that the weather is cooling off we've had much more reason to head out there. We camped out under the barn this past weekend, and fully intend to camp there again this weekend. We love, love, love having some of our very own land. It makes all those years (and still counting) of relative "depravation" - no new furniture or decore and no eating out or cable tv - so, so worth it. We have sixty acres (!) and a creek and a pond (and a bobcat!) to call our own. Maybe we'll build on it one day, or maybe not, but for now it's just so wonderful to have land. Our land!
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