Jim Albert

Jeanine,

We live up in the Blythewood Area, I've been seeing your questions all over the permies.com site so I thought i'd say hello. We looked at purchasing over in the Hopkins area too but it just didn't work out.

Are you south or north of 378? I ask b/c the soils are very different depending on which side you live on. If your are north your soils are actually similar ours up here where it's got a good bit of sand. The soil south of 378 is lowland and can be swampy in areas, but if it's not swampy it can be really really good farmland. The property I looked at there was south of 378 and the soil was Norfolk which is prime farmland.

Anyway, I know you've been doing the PC thing and asking lots of questions so I hope things have been working for you.

I'd love to hear what's bee working and how you've put together some of your guilds.

Jim

Hello,

I am doing my PDC project by hand, and I am a total beginner to this. It's an 8 acre property (dimensions Front: 240', Back 528', Sides: 984' and 863') . I will have more experienced help with the final on the ground design eventually---this is just for my PDC course and to start to learn, but I still want it to be as realistic as possible.

1, What reference maps should I have made and what scale should these reference maps be?

2. What scale should I do my draft sketches and final copies for the mainframe stuff?

3. What size, thickness and type of tracing paper is best for the draft copies of a 8 acre property (I am thinking 24 x 36 for the final copy?? is that too small for 8 acres---should I do the same size for the tracing paper and the final copies) ?

4. What about dealing with trying to view different layers of draft sketches and final copies (to scale) and putting one on top of the other on a desktop---what type of desktop is best for this? I've seen light boxes, will they work for this, or a certain type of drafting table surface (I don't have a big picture window----it seems like a solid surface drafting table wouldn't work for layering)?

5. What size, type, and thickness of paper for the finished product (I am thinking 24 x 36, is that too small for an 8 acre property)?

Any other specific tools, materials, etc anyone might recommend for hand drafting a property this size?

Thanks for any help,
Jim