On Road Construction-(1) Drainage

After purchasing our 55+ acres in the spring of 2006, I decided that my first task was to construct an access road. A crude road (path) was already there, most likely left from logging, but it was overgrown with weeds and briars and not at all negotiable by even a four-wheel drive truck. There were pockets that were clearly wet; water had no place to drain. My proposed roadbed also went between two slightly raised areas of forest; the roadbed sat at the bottom of a shallow "v". I didn't pay much attention to this discreet topography until I actually started trying to constuct a solid bed for an access road. The process has been very educational and reinforced several principals I had read about in a few books on Permaculture.

I will try to describe what I started with. After leaving a paved road, a crude car path ran through a 2 acre field. The state told us we had to move our driveway entrance due to safety issues (sight distances and travel speed). We had to move this access point to a much more inaccessible area which I will describe later. At the back side of the field the path entered woods and a clear stream crossing with steep banks was evident from a logging operation 10-12 years previous. Beyond that lies a second overgrown field transected by a stone wall. This field was in the early process of being taken over by trees and covered with briars and weeds. Deep skidder ruts criss-crossed this field and went up a shallow grade between two stands of white pine to the edge of a third field. Here the ruts ended when the path opened onto what was once another (fourth) field, now covered in 10 year old popple (quaking aspen) and balsam fir poles mostly. The second field and the shallow upward grade were very soggy. Initially I thought there was a small stream that crossed the path and went through the second field; this was not so. The path in its entirety was about a half mile long.

Shortly after purchasing the land, I bought a 30HP Kubota tractor with both a loader and backhoe. My goal for the first summer was to create a solid, dry access road. We decided to use the existing path as our access road This minimized the felling of trees and removal of roots plus this path was already compacted from previous logging access. At first, I thought that constructing a road would be easy and quick with my nice new tractor. A few days of work tempered my eagerness with reality. I realized that in order to build a good road, I needed to first focus on water movement, both above and below grade. If you read any good book on Permaculture (Permaculture: A Designers Manual by Bill Mollison is one of the biggies in this area of thought), it will talk about exploiting subsurface water movement to grow things. I wasn't yet thinking of growing things but I did need to think about moving water out from under my roadbed and away from it (see the next posting).

So, my first task was to manage the movement of water. Basic physics dictates that gravity rules. I needed to give water someplace to go downhill before I even started constructing a road. It was obvious to me that I needed to construct a drainage swale at the bottom of the shallow "v" grade and through part of the second (wet) field. A swale is basically a shallow ditch with graded sides. It provides just enough of a channel to both catch water and guide it away. A wet spring, followed by a wet summer (and then a wet fall) quickly turned my first task into a mud bath. Tractor tires, while nice and knobby for good traction can just as quickly make a puree out of a wet field. I found myself working the field until it rained again, waiting a week for the ground to dry out (if I was lucky), and then working it again. Yeah, I got stuck more than a few times.
Above is a shot of what the fields look like before their makeover. The weeds and briars were scraped from the field with the tractor blade and were buried. The larger brush was stacked to be burned later. I then used the back hoe to dig a one/two foot deep trench where I wanted the swale to be. The soil from the trench was used to fill in skidder ruts in the field. I then used the loader bucket to create gentle, sloping banks away from the trench. Most of the grading was done by back-blading with the front lip of the bucket. The soil was transported around the field in this manner, filling in the low spots and creating areas which sloped towards the swale. At this point, what had been an overgrown, briar filled field was now all soil. I’ll be the first to admit that I am somewhat of a perfectionist. Once the field was graded, I used an iron rake to hand rake the field. I collected and removed the rocks by hand and seeded with a conservation mix of grasses and clover (the deer love to graze here now). The field was covered with straw to keep the soil from drying out and the seed from disappearing. I now have a beautifully restored meadow. I even threw in some native wildflower seeds to see what would happen (http://www.americanmeadows.com).



Above are midway and after shots of one corner of the field to the left of the road. Note the swale running downhill in the second pic.

I should point out that I didn't resurface the field all at once. I'd get one part graded but another would be too wet to work. I'd rake an area and get fatigued so I'd seed and straw that and move on. So, I did it as I could, in about 6 pieces altogether. The finished section to the right of the road is shown below. Note the drainage swale that starts at the front of the pic and winds down through the field. I have only restored the upper half of this meadow. The rest will be restored next summer assuming things dry out enough. The meadow grew tall after I planted it. I left it this way till fall and then mowed it.


Now that the water had a place to go, I could begin the business of constructing a road.

On Looking for Country Acreage

My wife and I wanted to invest in a larger parcel of land; somewhere between 40 and 100 acres. We both still have no idea exactly of how much an acre really is, but our goal was space. Cost was also obviously an issue. I was very surprised at how two towns next door to each other could have such very different real estate values. I mean, this is the country and land is land, right? The simple answer is no.

In our current town, anything larger than 10 acres is difficult to find and surprisingly costly. We are very close (less than half a mile) to the next town and what a difference that makes in real estate values. This difference seems to have to do with perception. The first perception is the school district. Nuff said here. The second has to do with the proximity to grocery stores and urban centers. On our property half a mile away from our current home and in the next town (with the same driving time to shopping, etc), we paid much less per acre (and got much more land) than we could have in our current town. It really pays to do your research and compare land based on cost per acre of land (both listed and sold).

As I said above, my criteria for buying land was fairly specific. Most land in Maine has been harvested for timber at one time or another. I didn’t mind so much if the land had been cut. I was looking for land that had not been cut recently. The land we purchased was last harvested approximately 10-12 years ago. We purchased it from a logger who dabbles more now in real estate than logging. He was going to do some harvesting but we were able to get to him before that happened. As it is, there is not much standing on our property currently that can be harvested for marketable timber. There is, however, lots of potential with what is there as small tree stock for the future. Of course, when you are talking about trees, the future is much more than a few years away.

I was also looking for land that was of mixed habitat. Ideally, it would have some open space, preferably some field, and mostly forest. I was looking for diversity of tree species; both softwoods and hardwoods. Wood is a renewable resource harvested here in Maine; both for lumber and for a winter heat source. We are intending to build and creating a home heated by wood which is "home-grown" is appealing. It would certainly save on home heating oil purchases. We may also build a barn and other outbuildings after construction of our home. Having a source of timber that can be locally milled also makes sense to me.

I wanted land that was predominantly higher and dry although I don’t mind some wetland or swamp as these areas are important for aquifer recharge and animal habitat. As all of us in the country are dependent on wells for our drinking water, these areas are vitally important. I was also hoping there would be an area close to our house site that might be excavatable for a small pond for irrigation, fire suppression and again wildlife habitat.

Land that had multiple places to build on would allow options. I always like having at least one backup plan for anything I do. Having extra land that can be sold for house lots is a nice option to have if emergency cash is needed, especially if those lots are at the other end of your property and far away from your house. As the population density increases, land will become more valuable. Buildable land is always a good investment.

As we’d like to build a home with passive solar gain in mind, a south facing hillside would be nice. I also wanted land where there would be minimal habitat destruction around our house site during construction.

All of this sounds like a lot but we were very lucky to find a parcel of land within a half mile of where we live with all the above attributes.

There were concessions; there always are. Once we build we will be moving our kids to a different school district and all of us to a different county. The folks in our “new” school district have just voted to build a new high school. By the time our kids are old enough to go, they will be attending a recently built high school. As I said above, our travel time to go shopping or out to dinner will not vary. Our taxes should go down dramatically. I’m sure there will be other surprises but, right now, the trade-offs seem to be worth it.

Goals in Relocating to Maine

Our goals for moving here were several. First, we wanted a place in the country. Second, we wanted to be able to spend time with our two kids before they began going to school. Third, we wanted to acquire at least 50 acres. Fourth, we (okay, I) have always dreamed of building my own house. Fifth, we wanted to avoid working for “the man” if we could until we reached retirement age (10 years for me).

In one year, we have managed to fulfill almost all of our goals. We managed to save enough from the sale of our west coast property to buy a home here and invest the rest. The investments have been keeping the funds from slipping away quickly; they are, however, slipping away slowly. After losing 60% of my retirement savings by using an investment broker at Mass Mutual, I decided to do my own investing. Once my investment balance recovered, I removed everything and placed the funds at Vanguard (www.vanguard.com). Both my retirement and non-retirement funds are there. I earn at least 20% on my investments by choosing my own mutual funds and stocks.

My wife and I split our time equally; each of us spends 50% of our time with our kids. There is also time set aside as “family time” where all of us do stuff together.

The other half of my time is spent working on our land or doing miscellaneous carpentry. I started bartering my skills for my daughters riding lessons and a deck for the Horse Farm owners has turned into a job repairing two neglected barns. I am able to work when I want for lessons or cash and there have been other inquiries for my time as well from stable clients.

My wife has turned a hobby into a business. She started out making gift baskets for family birthdays, Mother’s Day, etc. and, with encouragement from family members, decided to turn it into an internet business (www.appletonbasketcompany.com).

I take the pictures of the baskets and do the internet marketing. Her sister does our web site and she creates and makes the baskets. We started slowly in October and received a few orders during the Holidays that paid the marketing bills. With that behind us, we are looking forward to a successful new year.

Owning a small business is a good way to establish some legal write-offs. Our cell phone bills and our internet bills are now business expenses. At $65/month and $47/month respectively, this adds up to $1344/year we can deduct. We will need a new computer soon and because we are using our basement as our company store, there are also some deductions there. Mileage is another deduction. One of my kids favorite parks is a few miles from my favorite lumber yard. Making sure those trips coincide isn’t a big deal and I can write off the mileage. Because we will be managing the timber and harvesting some of our forest land, there are deductions there I haven’t yet investigated. Maine also has a cost-sharing program where they will reimburse landowner expenses for pruning trees, etc. If you have something you can do for a small amount of extra income, the deductions you can take make this even more worthwhile.

As a former scientist, I like to evaluate and over analyze just about EVERYTHING I do (ask my wife). As a former educator, I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experiences so that others may benefit. Through this blog, I hope to chronicle my thoughts and my adventures as a modern homesteader and rock farmer.

Why Maine?

I had come to Maine many times as a child camping with our family. My brother went to college in Maine, worked here for a time after college, left for a while and came back. Maine folk are wonderfully good folk. I’m not saying they are better or worse than others. There is just something attractive about who they are and how they are. In many ways this is the final frontier of our country in the northeast. It’s still rural America. Maine is beautiful country with plenty to explore. It’s peaceful here. I won’t belabor the point further except to say that it feels right for us.

• I started with an AAA map, looked at metropolitan areas and drew mileage circles with a compass around each.

• I perched on the internet, mostly on www.realtor.com, and watched house and land prices for over two years.

• I flew out for a two and a half day power house hunting trip. I had a list of over 40 potential homes to look at in 10 different towns. We bought the first house I looked at.

• The house was still under construction. I walked in and met the builder and liked him immediately. He was building it himself.

• The area was beautiful. Rolling hills, small rivers, nice lakes… everywhere.

• The older I get, the more I trust my intuition. It works and so here we are.

History

I find it very helpful to reflect often and appreciate the paths I have chosen to take. Of course, I should take very little credit for those decisions as I feel they are mostly a combination of luck, intuition and my outlook at the time; all embraced by some sort of cosmic guidance.

I grew up in what was a small, quiet farm town in southeastern Massachusetts. Since the commuter train that connects Providence, Rhode Island to Boston went in, my small town has become a bedroom community of cul-de-sacs and half million dollar McMansions. The whole corridor between Boston and Providence has changed that way.

While I was growing up, I was blind to my parents desire to raise us in the country. They spent many years saving to get us there. It was their dream to live in an old house with a few acres in a small town. The three kids in our family are still drawn back to this place, this “home”. We come back for the smell of the old house during the summer’s humidity (this comes mostly from the ashes in the fireplace), the ever-burning small fire in the kitchen fireplace in the winter, , the creaky floors, the tick-tock of moms antique wooden clock on the kitchen wall, the pond in the backyard full of frogs…

My high school years were remarkably uneventful although I developed three wonderful friendships through a local church youth group. Together we became very good at being mischevious. I never learned how to study in high school; good grades came easily.

After finishing high school, I took a year off before heading off to college. It was the right thing for me to do. I had a job working at the local hospital as an orderly and that year helped me by allowing me to mature, play a bit (okay, play a lot) and save some money. I decided to go to a small liberal arts college in Wisconsin (Beloit College) (www.Beloit.edu). I started college with interests in art and science. I left with a degree in Biochemistry. As a New England boy, Wisconsin was a serious bit of driving from home. I ended up there at the suggestion of a private guidance counselor as the one assigned to me in high school was lame even on his good days.

Moving 1200 miles away to college helped me grow up and appreciate my intellect, especially at the college rathskellar. I almost flunked out my sophomore year because I never learned how to learn. I could listen and remember things but I could not integrate the pieces into the whole. It was demoralizing to have friends come to me for help and then get better scores on exams. I found it difficult to develop understanding from textbooks and instead learned to enjoy tinkering in a science lab. I found I was very good at explaining stuff if I could understand how to take it apart and put it back together again. I wrote an undergraduate thesis and graduated.

After graduating, I spent the beginning of a summer helping to restore an old playwrights house outside of Chicago and wondering what to do with my life. I had papered my office wall in college with rejection letters from all the biotech companies I had applied to. In late summer I received a call from my college mentor. He was going on sabattical to work in a research lab at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and needed a lab technician. Little did I know that this was the beginning of my career as a professional scientist. After my professors sabbatical ended I looked for other positions at the UW but none looked the least bit interesting. I ended up moving back to my folks house and taking a job, again as a lab technician, at Brown University in Providence, RI. I worked there for a bit over a year and, to my surprise, received a call from Bristol-Myers asking if I’d come for an interview in upstate New York. I took the job in Syracuse and within 14 years, I had relocated to Connecticut and then again to Seattle. Then the big BM asked me to relocate again to New Jersey. I looked out the window to the west, across the waters of Puget Sound at the snow covered Olympic Mountains and decided that I wasn’t ready to move again on a corporate whim. I really hadn't "sold my soul".

I stayed in Seattle and became a high school science teacher. This was more than a 50% reduction in salary. I must say that I have never worked so hard in my life for so little (in terms of my pay). How sad that our priorities as a country aren't where they should be. Switching careers was fairly easy for me because somewhere along the way (while living in Connecticut), I picked up a Masters in Science and Environmental Education and certified to teach. Call me crazy but I thoroughly enjoy high school age kids. My first teaching gig was teaching both regular Chemistry and super-duper advanced Biology in the International Baccalaureate Program in a northern suburb of Seattle. This curriculum is kind of like college in high school. It was intense for the kids but probably more intense for me. I gave up my life for the next two years until I had all the lessons developed. An opportunity arose to teach in the Seattle Public Schools in the neighborhood where I lived so that’s where I spent the last three years of my west coast teaching career. I really enjoyed my stint at Ballard High the most because of the ethnic diversity that existed. I was impressed at the quality and professionalism of the faculty and the kids were fun, lively and enjoyable to teach to.

Somewhere in between switching high schools, I met my wife. Next I knew, we had two beautiful children. My view of our city home and life changed. The buses on the street became louder and dirtier. The police and fire sirens became more frequent. The graffiti on our garage door spoke of gang turf issues. I wondered if the pop-pop-pop in the alley behind our house was fireworks or gunshots. My wife shared these concerns. We had both grown up in relatively rural areas and wanted our kids to do the same.

Our new home had to be on one coast or the other; I needed ocean nearby. 9-11 changed most all of us in some way; I felt I needed to be closer to my kin. When I was in my 20’s and 30’s, Seattle was a mecca for fun and I could always fly home if I wanted to. Now at 40, with children and having a choice, I wanted them to have the opportunity to grow up with space to run, night skies full of stars and woods to enjoy; probably most of the same things that my parents wanted for us as kids.

We sold everything before we moved. What we couldn’t sell we gave away. I camped out on Craig’s List (www.craigslist.org) and Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) for months getting rid of what I could. Craig’sList allows you to post things for sale on the internet, Freecycle allows you to post things you have to offer for free. We donated the rest to local charities. We sold our vehicles and our property. Our house went on the market the day after we left. With wet paint still on my hands, we boarded a shuttle for the airport.