Decisions, decisions...

As of this past Sunday, we've narrowed our land-grab down to two competing finalists, each with their own merits and pitfalls.

One, the original, is two lots in the town of W. that are side by side, totaling 10 acres. This property is a nice flat piece of land, flanked on two sides by W. State Forest, and is relatively clear and ready to go. I'd say 5 or 6 acres of the total is exposed to sunlight, making it excellent and ready-made for putting up the yurt, building a straw bale village (did I not mention that yet? More on that in a subsequent post), having what could amount to a vast garden for our subsistence, chickens, goats, and possibly alpacas as time progresses. It's also in a bit of a valley, and the water table looks close to the surface, especially as indicated by the spring-fed pond on the northern border. There is also a perfectly usable shed immediately off to the side, near a large berm of trees that obscures the 800' -or so-frontage. If it sounds perfect, there are a few caveats.

One is that there is some old farm-waste on the land. This includes (and hopefully is limited to, but who knows what's buried underground) a huge old cement foundation from the barn that used to stand on the property; said old barn itself in a huge pile of rubble set back from the foundation several hundred feet (who knows what's under there?); an old short trailer with what looks like a latrine in it, an old pickup truck (probably a farm truck that is kept unregistered for use around the property, it's not rusting into the ground by any means and still looks quite capable); a large pyramid of old tractor tires (about 30' in diameter, 7' high); assorted bits of waste and trash; what looks to be some seriously sandy soil.

All in all, just a few old things that need disposal and some soil that might need some rebuilding. The optimist would say not too bad. The tires can be repurposed to new and better lives; after all, they are a natural material, one that is resilient and would make excellent shoe treads, planters, obstacle courses and rope swings. The old barn wood can be repurposed to new sheds, fixes for walls, coops and barrows; what yuppie wouldn't pay a fortune for old barn wood? The latrine and the junk, not so much.

Another silver lining: the owner will remove all this stuff on agreement of sale. Why not before, I have no idea. But we're thinking of negotiating our price lower and we'll take care of most of the junk; they can take the latrine and the garbage and the pickup truck. Well, maybe the pickup would be useful too. So it seems like a win-win all around. Another negative: it's a bit far from my work. I should say, it's a bit far from my "work" or a bit far from my job. Which isn't a great reason to reject a place. Would you really want to select where you live, your HOME, with only regard for it's proximity to where you sell yourself so that you can maintain that home? I didn't think so.

The second piece(s) of land are two side-by-side plots in the town of L. These total 10.7 acres and are moderately to heavily wooded, rolling, but nothing too severe, and with some areas of huge rock outcroppings and boulders as well as old stone farm walls from the 18th century. The current owner has never lived on the property and in fact has it under chapter 61, which is a way of classifying land as "forest land", and allows the owner to pay no tax and to guarantee conservation of said land into perpetuity or until they decide to change the taxation method if they want to build on it.

This land will take some work to make into a homestead, but there are some really valuable points to make about it, both positive and negative. One is that, in the town of L., real estate appreciates considerably since, even thought it's in the woods, is adjacent to the town of A. where all the rich yuppies and collegiate types live.  Bonus points there for equity and money making, if one were ever to sell. A negative is that it is heavily forested, and although it has been perc tested, would take a considerable amount of work to clear out portions just for putting up a yurt, not to mention gardening and livestock management. I imagine 1/2 to one acre for these purposes in general. One possible issue is that it's on a hill or small mountain, which could make well digging tricky, deep and expensive. Another negative is that there is a guard rail running the length of the frontage of this property, which is about 1000'. How does one create an access point with that in the way? Do we need to pay the state to remove it, or a portion of it? Will they do it once the land is established for use that way? Will this take years of bureaucratic red tape to sort out? This is a big one. Finally, while we know full well we are in black bear country in either L. or W. (they are actually rather close to each other), we actually encountered a large black male bear when looking at the L. property. Biggest one we've ever seen, and we've seen a few. And he was galloping right through the center of the land in question. So, there's that to consider as well.

Now on to the yurt considerations. We know very well that people build and live in yurts and other alternative structures in W. township, this is a well established fact. So there shouldn't be any hurdles to get over there in terms of building what we want when we want it without hassle. L. is an unknown quantity, we have no idea what their zoning laws are like, and I've never seen a yurt or strawbale or earthship or geodesic dome in L. So there's that too.

We're trying to make our final decision on which one to buy, and we're in the midst of doing our do-diligence to make sure all is square and right with each one before we do it. Make sure you're educated before the fact and make the right choice. We're trying to do the same.