A Bit of Nature

I thought I would describe our land a bit. As soon as it stops raining, I'll try to get some good pictures to post. We have a shared driveway between five lots (65 acres total). The original estate of 200+ acres belonged to two brothers, who donated 118 acres to the state. Two heirs subdivided the remainder and we were lucky enough to purchase the most ecologically diverse lot. The state land, approx 400' to the north of our lot, has a road, trails, and a pond we have yet to explore. Jeremy is looking forward to getting his bike muddy!! On the east side of the lot (egress) the terrain is very level, with excellent sandy soils and contains numerous young trees, predominantly white pine and birch. There is excellent solar exposure to the south (our #1 requirement). We will need to relocate some of the birch trees to the north side of the homesite. The terrain then slopes down toward the west (on this slope is where the septic system will go). Generally, our site work costs will be very low (compared with almost every other lot we looked at). At the bottom of the slope - 15' lower in elevation - the vegetation changes to mature forest with a mix of deciduous and conifer trees. The forest continues to the west and gradually slopes down another 15' where a four season brook crosses the property on the west end. There are stone walls (typical of 18th and 19th century New England) as well as what appears to be the remains of an old stone bridge or grist mill at the brook where another small stream enters from the east creating a small waterfall. It's a lovely spot to sit and listen to the bubbling. Another big plus is that there are no wetlands with the exception of the stream bed and adjacent shoreline (less than 10 ft on both sides). Our first task is to build a trail from the homesite to the brook where we will be spending much of our time this summer enjoying the setting and roasting marshmellows with our kids.