Tuesday, February 1, 2011

D - The Land, The Land

Having grown up in Ardmore on 60 acres, Mike has never quite been at home living in "town," watching his high-fallutin' cable tv and not having to hitch up the wagon to go to the store.  Oh, he's made due by fishing in our pond, catching crawdads in the creek, and photographing all kinds of wildlife that the rest of the people around here have no idea lives in their vicinity.  But there just seems to be something missing from his life.

Well, no more.  Back in November, the Fergusons and the Bosleys joined forces to buy 'em some land.  Ahhhh - the land, the land!

Here we are, signing our lives away.

 Our celebration picnic the next day



We each bought 5 acres and we plan on building on it sometime in the next couple of years. 

If you look REALLY closely, you can catch a peek of Lake Arcadia in this one.

 
And if you climb a tree in the winter, you can see it even better!

But Mary and Neil have the real waterfront views around here.  Just take a look at their pond!

We have a lot of work to do to get this land the way we want it, and Mike has put us all to work.  This is how we have been spending our Saturdays this winter.

First, some fine dining in the back of the van,


followed by a lot of work.  Mike has the fun job of using his chain saw and pole saw to clear the mess from around all of the trees of any size.



I then have the pleasure of hauling all of the discarded limbs to a massive pile that we will eventually have to shred into mulch.  Fun!


The kids aren't immune to work either.  Oh, no!  Noah was so proud of downing his first tree.  You can tell by the sunlight that it took him an entire day to get this down with a hatchet.  He was pretty proud of his huge blister too.




And even our baby girl is hard at work.  She is an evergreen removal machine!


Once they earn their keep, they are allowed to have some fun.  They love to ride their bikes down the big hill.


And swing on the tire swing


Mike has Noah all set up to be a full-fledged country boy with his new bb gun and bow & arrow.



Even Katie is embracing the new life.


Like the fire pit she and Mike built?


Yes, the hillbill-ification of my family has begun.  But I'm not joining them.  Not yet.



3 comments:

KT said...

That's so exciting! Will you be very far from the Mauck's? I don't envy you the work that will be coming your way until it's done....or the centipedes that you'll find but I'm so excited for your new home!!

Unknown said...

Wow. I am so impressed. Is this the same girl I traipsed across Europe with? Shane would give his eye teeth for some land, but I want to be smack in the middle of the city, hence the house we are building just 10 feet from the neighbors. I keep telling him he can have land with the next house-maybe in a few years I'll be brave enough to live in the country!

Audrey said...

Yeah! This brings back some major memories. We would spend every Saturday all winter long trimming trees and removing stickers. You'll love it, trust me. For the sheer fact that your hubs and kids will love it.