Finding and Buying

[John]

My wife and I were in upstate New York (western Finger Lakes region) this weekend looking at property. Now we have to decide whether to make an offer on it.

The big thing this land has going for it is that the price is right--it's just over 31 acres with an asking price of $40k, which even for the area (where land is relatively cheap) is pretty cheap. Now, there are some reasons for the low price, which I’ll get to as I describe it. First, there’s no road frontage, which we don't have problem with, especially as the right-of-way is well maintained. Heck, we rather like the isolation. However, once you get back on the easement, it's not currently possible to drive onto the land, as there's a small drainage ditch and a triple row of pines right there. The pines are too close together and need to be thinned even outside of our desire to actually get to the property.

The property is basically a rectangle, with the easement running halfway up the long side (it continues up to a hunting cabin—and another cabin was off the easement before it gets to the property we looked at). The pines continue along that entire edge. The back edge of the rectangle is basically a woods, there’s another thick row of pines bisecting the rectangle and parallel to the other trees, and then the other side of the rectangle has a woods as well. As to the open parts, the first one is fairly open while the second is fairly clogged with brush—both have some. I'm not great with trees, but the open space seemed largely to be maples (not, sadly sugar maples) and something else. The land itself slopes from west to east, with a slight south-facing slope.

Another worry about the land is that there’s no surface water and no well dug, which is worrisome, though not insurmountable (the book Finding and Buying Your Place in the Country says never to buy property without knowing it has water available on it). We can drill a well and take our chances, we can harvest rainwater if it comes down to that—the area gets plenty of rainfall. There are no structures on the property. Considering how much vegetation is on the land, it seems like decent soil, and also well-drained (it had rained the day before and most of the ground had drained well). I gather that the owner inherited it about 30 years ago and basically hasn’t done anything with it.

Now, if we were to buy this place, I think it would influence how we built. Since we already need to cut down a bunch of trees, it would seem to make sense to build with wood, then infill with strawbale. We’d probably use cob inside to add thermal mass. It’s a little daunting to imagine taking this land from nothing to a productive homestead, but it’s exciting as well.

Any thoughts or questions you have about this land, please feel free. I’d also love to hear about your own journeys toward the green building dream.

[[deleted user]]

My first thought is not to despair about the maples, since any maple can be tapped for making syrup. From all that I have read (from Euell Gibbons to modern writers) other maples and even sycamores produce the sweet sap for syrup just as well as the sugar maples..

Water is a concern, but if you are going to be doing above ground structures, and if you are not going to be doing a living roof, then you will have an excellent opportunity for rain water collection, which can provide more than what you need for personal use.

You say that the soil is well draining, but if you are going to plan on living off a garden, how well is the soil structured for that? Does it have some clay? Organic matter?

You are absolutely right to decide on building method based upon site rather than forcing a method onto a site. That is what has taken me to doing an underground house instead of cob, though I remain a big fan of cob.

What are the easement rights and restrictions? Will they interfere with what you want to do?

Sounds like the area might be a an active hunting area. Does that interfere with the life you want to live? For instance would your goats be shot if you were going to raise goats? Most hunters are respectful and responsible, but still this is something to consider. Even if only that the shots may spook some animals if fired close by.

Don't worry about inexperience with trees.. you will get experience! :) I had only modest experience last year before I started taking down snags for building my own home, and now I do not really hesitate to take down trees up to two feet in diameter. One piece of advice on that though, get a damn good chainsaw and sharpen the blade daily, as well as oil the bar of course..

Good Luck John!