Over the summer, we were approached about a possible land lease in Clarksburg through an amazingly open-minded and generous family friend. We immediately set our lawyer (not me, but Michael's persistent and patient dad) to work out the terms of the deal, draft the lease and attend meetings with Michael to get the lease secured. His tireless efforts paid off because about four (?) months later, we have a fully signed lease and are ready to go! Kudos to our lawyer for all of his hard work in making our dream come true and thank you (is there a bigger, better word to describe our thanks?) to our family friend who saw an opportunity and jumped on it for us to make it happen!
Here is a picture of Shirley, sitting at home in one of our new fields:
The new property is located right off of I-270, the Clarksburg exit, and has an access point off of West Old Baltimore Road (more on that later). It is directly across the street from Black Hill Regional Park. Because it is just raw land, we are spending a lot of time in the off-season making improvements. Our list is rather ambitious, but some things are necessities (i.e. a well to bring water to the fields) and power (to bring electricity to the Farm shed/office). Oh and about that shed/office, yeah, we need to build that, too.
But, first things first, there is currently a barrier blockading access to the property from West Old Baltimore Road (to prevent passersby from using the large, vacant land as a dumping ground). As part of the lease arrangement, the property owner agreed to let us get rid of the barrier so long as we put up a cattle guard, or equivalent. Apparently, right after the winter’s first snowstorm is the best time to install a cattle guard!
Here is Shirley with the “Awesome Auger” that I grew to love (and hate) by the end of the day! The first hole dug extremely well, the second hole…not so much!
I still cannot believe that my first time driving a tractor with a clutch, I was also responsible for operating the auger…apparently, Farmer Mike trusts me implicitly!
One side of the cattle gate is up. If only resting it on rocks would satisfy the property owner and sufficiently deter those junk dumpers.
But, alas…
We finally dug the second hole, which took twice, if not three times, longer than the first!
Good contractors (and farmers!?!?!) know the adage: measure twice, cut once! We wanted to make sure we dug the hole deep enough for the post and the concrete we set it in. If you look closely, you can see the tough rock we had to cut through.
The future entrance to One Acre Farm!
Success! I literally felt as though I conquered the world!
Until next time…
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