Friday, July 1, 2011

Form over Function

Topographical overlay
Here's the topographical layout of Pine Grove. As you can see, just to the East of the middle of the Southern border is the lowest point.

Using this natural shape of the land as a guide, that is why if I were to ever construct a pond on the property, I would have it located here.

I am not sure if I will ever undertake that task, but as I make progress on cleaning up the parcel, I will have this in mind.

For example, when deciding where to clear out the trail which will one day become the driveway, my thinking is that the entrance is at the NW corner. Then the path goes down towards the SE and around what would be the damn side of the pond, loops back up towards the NE corner and that is where the log cabin would be located.

I think that I've always liked this stage of projects. When it's all just a bunch of theories and plans, and anything is possible, nothing is set in stone. It's easy to make changes because one only needs to erase a line and redraw it somewhere else.

Eventually, things will be decided upon and the real building process will begin. From that point on, we can make minor course corrections, but to change the destination becomes increasingly difficult.

2 comments:

  1. It's good to have a piece of land, and walk over it with your wife. Decide what goes here, and what there. Nothing makes a man feel more in control of his own destiny. I can understand why people took such terrible risks and suffered great privation in the early history of our country to get a bit of land to call their own.

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  2. Yeah, I agree. When I looked at the parcel maps I always try to think how the mindset was even 100 years ago. Why nobody would want less than 80 or 160 or 320 acres.

    These days, living on a 40'x70' lot seems like a luxury to some people. Back then what on earth could you possibly do with less than 80 acres, and as soon as one of those parcels were split into two 40's it was time to move because it was too dang crowded!

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