Foxglove Farms is here

So, we moved onto our new property a week and a half ago in Southern Oregon, and it hasn't stopped raining. I was hoping to be able to make this post with pictures but the rain has made that impossible, so that will have to wait.

We bought 80 acres that is partially wooded and moderately sloped. It has one developed pond and one drainage ditch that could be developed and a couple of seasonal streams, that are currently roaring. Two houses, a pole barn, a fenced raised bed garden, a small hoop house and some fruit trees.

It is the property with the off-grid solar that I posted about in the solar forum. So I have a lot to learn about solar.

A lot of work has been done improving this property by the previous owners, but there is still a lot more that we are hoping to do. Getting livestock, planting more everything. The trees are mostly pine, cedar, scrub oak and madrone, some of which are too close to the houses and need to be removed. But that should get me some wood chips. The soil is rocky, and definitely needs organic matter, so cover crops are in order for some areas, like the former driving range that I would like to turn into pasture.

I will update with pictures as soon as the weather permits.

It sounds fabulous!

Congratulations, Stacy. I look forward to seeing the pictures, and to hearing about your adventures.

Good luck!

-CK

I'm so excited for you!! Congratulations!

Stacy Witscher wrote:So, we moved onto our new property a week and a half ago in Southern Oregon

Congrats on your escape! I'm new here, so apologies if you've answered this question elsewhere, but what area of Southern Oregon, and why did you choose there?

We hope to finally move in 2020. I lived in Northern Idaho many years ago and love it there, but my hubby loves Oregon. It's been tough deciding on where exactly to go.

Thanks for the inspiration!

So I tried to upload some photos, having internet issues. Will try again tomorrow.

Kali - just saw your post, sorry, I've been busy. Some of my family is still in the Bay Area, and our property is only 6 hours away. Originally, we were also looking in the Grass Valley area of California,  but we liked the properties more here in southern Oregon. My daughter works for Costco, so we needed to be near one. Her commute will be about 1/2 hour here. We wanted something rural, but not too far away from a sizable city. Medford has all the things my daughter is used to. I didn't want to be surrounded by conventional ag lands, so we opted for an efu zoned property with some forest, some slope, some water, and lots of privacy. Compared to the Bay Area, southern Oregon is very reasonable, we bought our 80 acres with two homes for less than we sold our standard suburban Bay Area house. When we had settled on southern Oregon and we were deciding on cities, we concluded Ashland, Talent and Jacksonville were too pricey for reasons we didn't care about. Rogue River was too woody. We liked Eagle Point, parts of Central Point and White City, but settled on Shady Cove when we found a great property. Good luck for your search, it feels so good to get away from the Bay Area.

I'm uploading some pictures. I can only do a couple at a time. But here it goes.

Here are some drone shots of the property.

7 weeks on the property and I now have internet at my house. We have been having major water issues. My daughter was back in California for 5 days, and we lost water in her house, turned out to be a leak with an irrigation system, which we cut off. But, it had sufficiently drained the storage tanks that the gravity fed pressure was terrible, so we tried to turn on a pressure pump under her house, that didn't work properly. Long story short, we had to replace the well pump, re-pipe and replace a sensor on the pressure pump, and now there is a leak between the well and the storage tanks which they are going to try and locate tomorrow. All that being said, we still have water, the pressure just sucks, and we need to limit use, and some of the emergency backup water could use better access. All and all, I'm not terrible confident in the well, and want more rain catchment tanks. We have plenty of roofs to collect from (interesting enough the grammar police didn't like rooves, which is what I would have said).

It's amazing how your plans get thrown out of the window when you get to your property, and are faced with reality. I'm happy, but stressed and exhausted, largely because my daughter isn't coping well. I spend a lot of time shoring up her psyche.

This is the view from my kitchen window. So while we are only 2 miles from town, we are tucked into our own little valley.

Absolutely beautiful, Stacy.

Thank you. I really wanted a property with privacy.

Gorgeous, congratulations!