Likes: Very very nice!
Micro climates... Yep. We started learning that lesson with a scorched dogwood. While another one thrives across the yard.
"The Fantastic Mr. David!"
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
Very very nice!
Micro climates... Yep. We started learning that lesson with a scorched dogwood. While another one thrives across the yard.
GO!
Canada Eh....
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
We have very similar tastes, if not means.Originally Posted by j44ke
-g
EPOst hoc ergo propter hoc
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Steher 10000
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
The best thing about having a covered porch is watching the weather come in, as it did yesterday afternoon: thunderstorms and torrential rain out of the Northwest. Love it.
We keep Guinea Hens to keep the ticks at bay. They become feral, so require minimal maintenance. No one will be able to sneak up on you- they make a racket at the drop of a hat. Ticks are variable year to year, and very site specific.
Issimo
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
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Re: Finally Bought Some Land
Was up there this past weekend walking the land with the architects. We worked on the position of the (currently hypothetical) house. They made measurements with GPS and compass to do the calculations later where the sun would be throughout the year in relation to the hypothetical house position. We talked about garages and driveways. We located the sketched out septic field area. The sellers got septic approval, but it had expired. However, the DOH said they would be willing to accept the design as current. Big headache lessened. Gripping stuff, but it was fun to start.
The only downside was plenty of ticks. I seemed to be the only one picking them up, but I was also the one doing all the bushwhacking. And I was following deer paths which also didn't help. I think putting in trails of certain width and cleanliness around the property will allow walking around with lower risk of ticks. We did not have any ticks in the fall when we did at least as much bushwhacking. All these "spring" ticks were flax seed-sized or smaller - not seed ticks, but still tiny. So spring emergence I figure. Snack size for guinea fowl. But we'll keep an eye on it.
We have so many trees that I think we are going to talk to someone from the county/state forestry dept. and see if we can develop a plan for managing it properly. I also got these super interesting books by Tom Wessels. One is called Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England and the other is Forest Forensics: A Field Guide to Reading the Forested Landscape. The titles are pretty accurate as to the focus of each book, and they are entirely complimentary to each other. I look forward to taking the Field Guide back to the property to check the border trees we know we have, try to calculate some age, figure out whether there were fires or windstorms (I think both) that affected the land, and which fields were agricultural and which were for livestock.
And of course, continue my tick census.
View from the current position of the hypothetical house.
Wall corner and rubble pile. Different levels to ground on either side may mean the field on the right was a crop field. Rubble would be rocks removed while plowing.
Old border tree (?) north and south side
My wife among the tall pines with some older pines among them.
Big old pine split into 3 trunks at base, possibly from logging or fire.
Guesses on my part with the help of the Wessels book.
Jerseys Too Tight
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
No need to do the calculations later, there's a great augmented reality app called Sun Seeker for your phone sun-seeker-3d-augmented-reality-viewer that overlays winter & summer solar paths on the camera view. Point the phone, see where the sun will rise any day of the year. Incredibly handy for $10, you can screen shot specific views to send your architect or to direct your forester for targeted solar clearing.
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The Tom Wessels books are fabulous, very glad you're digging into them. We brought Tom to Maine for a site walk on a potential project last year, his ability to read the forest in deep detail was incredible to be near.
Favorite thing I learned is that Hemlock forests in the northeast only have a bare & shady understory because of the lack of wild turkeys over the last era. Now that the turkeys have returned and are scratching at the duff again, white pine are starting to pop out of the soil and the historic forest tree cycle is starting up again, the shady hemlock grove we're used to is an ecological anomaly caused by the over-hunting of wild turkey.
25.4 seatposts ONLY
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
This has to be one of the best threads ever on vsalon. Posts like the one above and the "small piece of land" from Love and Death on the same page. From the sublime to the ridiculous.
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Re: Finally Bought Some Land
I will download that app. Looks like fun for a lot of reasons.
My wife is looking at the Wessels' Field Guide and wants to contact him. She is the sort of person who calls people up out of the blue to ask questions, so I expect she will carry through with her idea.
That's incredible about the turkey and hemlock mechanism. We have plenty of turkeys on our property. We've seen them along the road, but there are scratchings all over the place. But we have no hemlock - or at least, none that my relatively untrained eye has spotted.
BSA Spokesperson
Steher 10000
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
Hemlock are currently threatened in our region by the Wooly Adelgid. You should remove the pine trees around your house. Even if they look healthy, a single rotten limb can result in red rot inside. Don't find out the hard way. We had one come down on the cabin.
Find out what invasives there are on your place. Some are good for wildlife, such as glossy buckthorn, some are really pernicious, like garlic mustard. Don't plant anything listed as an invasive: barberry, euonymus, locust, autumn olive, etc. There's a tick repellent I use that you spray on your clothing, permethrin based, which lasts for several washings.
The winter wind comes out of the northwest. Build accordingly.
Put the bathroom in the warmest corner of the house. I'd use and Ondol masonry heater to keep the floor and tub warm if I were to build again. We have a masonry heater, Tuli-Kivi, and it burns soft wood efficiently.
Don't build with I-joists. Talk to the local fire chief if you want a second opinion.
Stack the plumbing. The design should allow dimensional lumber to be used in the dimension it comes in: eg, floor joists 12', so that time is not wasted cutting them shorter for no good reason. Design with electric chases planned in advance so electrician is not boring holes willy-nilly.
I expect you are not planning to build another, so design so you can age in place. I have had to deal with this issue for two relatives I am executor of. Not to be a downer, but it's something to consider before the need comes up: a room large enough for a hospital bed with an adjoining ADA compliant bathroom, sunlit, overlooking a pleasant view.
Go vertical or go home....
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
I have a good friend in RI who was really messed up for a while with Lymes. My daughter's new forest pony also had lymes. It was a complete pain to get the pony back to normal. If you are going to be bushwhacking, just bite the bullet and go the permethrin route. A tick census is no joke. This year with the warm winter will be particularly nasty.
My bane is poison ivy.
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Re: Finally Bought Some Land
If you look at the last photo above, the stringy tree in front is a burning bush (Euonymus alatus) that someone nearby undoubtedly brought in as an ornamental. They spread very easily because the birds like the berries they produce. We'll decide as we go along how many we remove.
Steher 10000
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
Euonymus qualifies as pernicious. I have some on my place, and have mowed it only to have it return. The area it grows in will be fenced in a few weeks, and I will run my Highlands cows in. They'll eat field juniper, but the euonymus is so woody I may have to mow and see whether they'll eat the new shoots. Multiflora rose is one thing they will not eat. Japanese barberry as well. I just pull them up as I find them.
I like the black house.
"The Fantastic Mr. David!"
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
If you need a connection to contact Wessels let me know. It's been a few years but he was the mentor of a young friend of ours, and my wife's had the pleasure of spending a day with him as he lead a group through Acadia National Park.
Where, coincidentally, we've been roaming the trails these last few days. So his name has come up...
This thread.
GO!
Steher 10000
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
Changes in the Land, by William Cronon, is the best book I have read about the ecology of New England.
Go vertical or go home....
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
Stacked Cabin by Johnsen Schmaling Architects
another stacked cabin
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Re: Finally Bought Some Land
Had we remained in Arizona, we were going to build a house in the Chiricahua Mountains that was going to be three containers covered by a single roof with breezeways in between each container, and with the containers arranged in a large U on a big square slab to create a central courtyard/porch. Sort of an indoor-outdoor house.
I've been looking at a lot of Scandahoovian architecture. They seem to have some good ideas about cabins.
Playa Arkkitehdit | Playa Architects
And then the same architects added a really nice but simple porch/deck to an older house in the same area.
Playa Arkkitehdit | Playa Architects
Also anyone ever use a Tentsile Tree Tent? They look kind of nuts but also kind of cool.
Also like the idea of the ENO hammocks.
Goodness knows we have plenty of trees to hang a bunch of hammocks.
That's Mr. Bob To You
Re: Finally Bought Some Land
Jorn...you're a trendsetter as I recieved this email earlier today. For reference, my Dad is 84 and my Mother is 81.
Hello Bob:
Dad and I have decided to build a one story home on a small lot next door to Cathy and Al. We would love to have your advice on selecting a builder and whatever else that you think we should be knowledgeable about, as we embark on this great adventure!
Love,
Mum
rw saunders
hey, how lucky can one man get.
Merckx
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