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The "Journey"
I purchased the property back in April of 2001. The property is located in south-western PA about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh. It’s a few miles north of Moraine State Park and a few miles east of McConnells Mills. It's a total of 38 acres consisting of rolling hills, forest, pastures, streams, valleys, a large pond and wetlands.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into. My friend who owned 14 acres told me it was a lot of work. I didn’t believe him. I figured a few well thought out tool selections at Home Depot would get me where I needed to be. Boy was I wrong.
The land hadn’t been touched for about 15 years as far as I could figure. It was part of an old farm and contained about 12 acres of woods in two separate patches and the rest was pasture filled with trees, brush and other vegetation. The pasture was severely covered with Multiflora rose bushes and the grass was about 5 feet high. Now you might think having 500 rose bushes (some being bigger than my truck) would be beautiful. They’re not and there’s a reason they are on the states list of invasive species. We’ll get to them later.
I bought my friends Ford F250 monster truck because the land is so rugged and there were no roads. My friend "lifted" the truck and stuck on huge 35" all terrain tires. The hood of the truck is higher than my shoulders. It’s great for tooling around the land and it has yet to get stuck (crossing my fingers).
I’ve been slowly developing the land for 5 years now with the help of my girlfriend Geneva. Sometimes her brother helps me out and sometimes my friend Tim helps as well. I spend nearly every weekend there and usually 1-2 days a week.
A word about my girlfriend Geneva. She’s high maintenance and prissy. She gets her nails and eyebrows done every other week and wears outfits that cost hundreds of dollars. Her first "work clothes" were designer. The first time she wore her designer workboots she didn’t want to get them dirty. Well I’m happy to say that after a few years she’s taken to rural life pretty well. She’s not afraid to get dirty or run through the woods anymore. Many people are amazed just how much she’s changed. She doesn’t want to admit it but I think there’s a little bit of farmer in her. =)
When I started developing and cleaning up the land I had no idea about nature. In the city we had squirrels, chipmucks, and pigeons. On the land I started to see snakes, deer, rabbits, mice, moles, and CRAZY birds. I heard reports of bears in the area and saw a turkey just strutting around like he owned the place. It was like being at a zoo every time I was there. Whenever I saw something new I would go home and try to find out what it was via the Internet. While researching these animals I found they all liked different areas. Some liked forests, some liked trees that met the pasture. Some liked short grass and others tall grass. It’s then that I understood what having different habitats meant and it’s then that I decided to make as many different habitats as possible.
The first time I nearly killed myself was when I started to spray all those rose bushes with herbicide. I was walking around without a gas mask and without a shirt (it was 95 degrees out). I guess if you’re spraying a few bushes you’re ok but when you’re spraying 500 there’s cause for alarm. This wound me up in bed for about a week. A lesson learned - don't gas yourself.
In the fall of year #1 I planted 200 trees, yep 200 trees. With the help of my beautiful girlfriend and her designer boots we planted 200 poplar trees. I tagged each one with a yellow ribbon so that when I finally got around to buying my tractor I wouldn’t hit them. What I basically did though was mark each tree for the local deer. Come spring of year #2 I found that most had been eaten. A few did live to only be taken out by a freak deep freeze we had that spring. A lesson learned - deer eat trees.
I spent most of year #2 cutting down, burning, chipping, dragging, and yelling at all the rose bushes I killed the previous year. I got a lot of the property cleared but left some in various areas as habitat and food for the bunnies, birds, deer, and other wildlife. Some were just too big to move. I can’t say I won the battle against the rose bushes. I think we each just called a truce and decided to live with each other.
In the winter of year #2 I decided to build a pond. There was plenty of water supplied by springs on the property and the shape of the land where it was going was in my favor. I contracted Bill Thompson Excavating to build me the ultimate wildlife habitat. The pond was originally to be 6 acres but was shrunk down to 4.5 acres so that I could have other adjoining habitats such as wooded wetlands, marshes, etc.
The pond brought on accelerated development of the land which in the end I wound up with a shed, the building of a roadway through the property to get to the pond, and the purchase of a farm tractor with various FUN attachments.
The farm tractor is the best purchase so far. The tractor allows me to create new habitat that wasn’t possible (i.e. short grass), dig drainage ditches, haul rock and dirt around, and other things. It’s also the most dangerous item I own. With a yuppy garden tractor there’s the rare possibility that you can hurt yourself. With a farm tractor there’s a good possibility that you will kill yourself. I don’t know how farmers drive them around all the time. You can see the tractor in the "Hardware" section.
The pond took 1 month to build, 2 months to fill up, and another week of final work in June of 2003. It was amazing watching the pond come to life and turn from a mud hole into a place where life is created. The first form of life I saw was a water beetle swimming around so happy. I stocked the pond with crayfish, bluegills, bass, catfish, and mussels. Frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, turtles, dragonflies, dragon nymphs, and waterfowl all came on their own to help form this new and incredible community. And that’s what I have, a community. Nearly everytime I am there I see new animals that I’ve never seen before. Animals that I never knew existed in PA or even elsewhere for that matter. Sometimes when I’m killing myself on projects I stop and walk around the property. I see all the birds flying, bunnies laying on the road taking in the sun, and turtles doing ballet in the water. It’s then that I can appreciate what I’ve done and I’m sure the animals do too.
All of Geneva and my friends are yuppies. There's nothing wrong with being yuppies but I often wonder if they know they are yuppies. Sometimes it's hard for them to comprehend rural/farm life and the sheer amount of effort required to do anything just because everything is so darn big. Perfect example is that after the pond was built we needed to spread grass seed on 3-4 acres of land that surrounded it. Many people offered expert advice (which was appreciated) on planting the grass and all said to lay down hay to cover the grass seed. Hay was imperative they said. When we looked at them and asked if they were crazy they just couldn't understand the logistics behind spreading hay on 4 acres of ground. To them you buy a bale or two of hay and toss it down (or you call 1-800-fix-my-lawn and have someone else do it). They didn't understand I'd need 50-60 or more bales of hay and that I'd have to make 10 trips in my truck. I'd have to spread it and then I'd have to clean up anything that landed in the pond. Needless to say I chucked the grass seed down, turned around and said to the the little seeds, "Good luck."
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