4 year into it!

We bought our 60 acres 4 years ago and we've made great progress.  It had an old house that was falling down and everything was overgrown with thorn trees and weeds, and junk left behind from a previous gravel pit operation.  In this time, we've rebuilt the house (as in almost exclusively the two of us), we sold off all the junk metal, cleared out lots of brush and trees, built raised beds, installed an orchard of 12 apples and 4 peach trees, a row of blueberries, 3 rows of various thornless blackberries, built a woodworking shop, planted beautiful flower beds around the house, bought and moved a small guest cabin on to the property, and built a nice fence around the back yard.  We've got so many plans and dreams for this place but I'm very pleased at how it is going so far.  The dirt is improving and it looks like we will actually be harvesting fruit this year.  When I look at pictures of before, I find it hard to believe it is the same place.  I feel like this land is my blank canvas, what I design for it (buildings and gardens) is my artform, and my very talented and hardworking husband is my paint brush.  Together, we make an unbeatable team.  I wake up each day excited to get something else done.  Do you ever feel that way?        

Hey Kay, that's fantastic. It reminds me of my first property. I admire your energy! Some pictures would be fun to see, and to inspire others. Cheers!

Yaay! We are soon starting our year three on our property. I can feel the excitement you are feeling too! So many plans and ideas and visions!

I’m mostly doing everything with a two-year-old so I’m not getting stuff done as fast as I wanted, but that can be a good thing. More time to consider things. Hubby helps here and there when he’s able and with things that are impossible to do alone.

We are starting to plant the fruit trees this year, it’s super exciting and a bit scary at the same time.

The feeling of accomplishent when one gets something done.. So great. And yes I do get the exciting feeling of ”what will I be able to do today!”!

It would be awesome to see some pictures from your garden!

I'd love to see photos if you'd care to share them!  

Thanks everyone.  I don't think it will let me upload pictures directly from my computer so not sure how to post them.  

In this thread:

https://permies.com/wiki/61133/Post-Image-Permies

if you scroll down a bit there’s the how to add images as attachment part, that way you can download them straight from your computer!

Here's a couple before photos and then the way it looks now.  If you'll notice the side of the house before it was renovated, it's very grown up.  We cleared most of that, built the backyard fence for our dog, and then planted blackberry bushes.  I went with 6 different varieties of thornless as an experiment to see which I prefer.  Some were set out more recently and will not produce until next year.  

Here is a section just down the hill a bit from the house where we have put the husband's workshop (he loves doing woodworking).  If you look close, you can see the concrete piers next to it.  We will start this month on building my workshop (I do arts and crafts).  There is an old shed under that big tree that is too far gone to save so we plan to build a barn before tearing it down.  If you'll notice the forest behind this area, we intend to rent a dozer and clear up 15 acres for a garden and berry orchard.  When my husband was young, this area was a hay field but when it was sold, it fell into neglect and is grown up with weed trees such as sweetgum, locust, elm, and cedar so it's got to go (we bought it back 4 years ago).  There are a few nice hardwoods that were there originally so we'll keep those.  We've got a long way to go but we've come so far already that I feel confident we can do this.  I just want to see this land be productive again like it was when my husband's grandfather lived here a hundred years ago.   The last picture is of my apple orchard.  This was covered in locust that we cut down and still has some stumps too big to remove but so far things seem to be going well.  I use 5 gallon buckets with a tiny hole drilled in them to water the trees.  That way I can come by with a water hose and fill them let it trickle in ever so slowly.      

Wow. So beautiful..!

That bucket system with the trees is really smart. I’m soon getting the first apple trees to our property. I could use that kind of system too with the watering!