The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

The long view

From the west

Mom: I need you to share some photos of your new farm.

Anna: What do you think I've been posting for the last couple of weeks?

Mom: Those are nice. But I want long shots.

Anna: Ah! Got it! Here you go....

Homestead approach

When you turn off the road, you drive up a short hill to reach our new trailer. This photo is taken from maybe fifteen feet above the road and showcases the gravel our construction crew delivered on their last day of work --- crush and run that would have disappeared into the swamp of our old driveway in short order but should do well on this much drier site.

Septic leach field

Pretend you parked where the car is in the previous photo and walked along the front of the trailer to the door before looking back down toward the road. The area in front of you is the septic leach field (being graded smooth in the image above), which will become a grassy lawn with dappled shade from several honey locusts. A line of Austrian pines and smaller shrubs separate this area from the road. Our health department contact says this area shouldn't be garden but can provide grazing for chickens or low-density goats.

West of the trailer

If you walk back to the car and look southwest away from the trailer, you'll see the recently deforested zone that will become my garden. (Yes, that electric pole on the far left has a serious tilt --- they said they'd fix it before they hook us up.) A big pile of stones looks handy for edging flower beds around the trailer, and beyond them (not really visible) is the foundation of an 18-by18-foot building that never quite got built.

Walk uphill a bit then gaze back toward the trailer and you've returned to the first photo in this post. Of course, there's a lot more to the property than that, but most of it is steep hillside, which you toured previously. I hope that helps you get your bearings and gives you a better idea where we're at!



Anna Hess's books
Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.


Another year and all will be grown in with grass. Hopefully it won't be too muddy this winter and spring!

Do you plan building a wide porch on the side? A little paint on the faded beige siding?

Looks like the start of a nice place to live.

Comment by Eric Sun Oct 22 08:54:55 2017

Hi Anna and Mark,

Sounds like your 'health' department is not into humanure? Can you get raw milk and can you slaughter your own animals?

Good luck,

John
Comment by John Sun Oct 22 14:12:27 2017





profile counter myspace



Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.

Required disclosures:

As an Amazon Associate, I earn a few pennies every time you buy something using one of my affiliate links. Don't worry, though --- I only recommend products I thoroughly stand behind!

Also, this site has Google ads on it. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to a website. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to various sites. You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting this site.