After much deliberation we have chosen and purchased a floorplan for our cabin. We are going to work with the company to makes some changes - probably adding an unfinished basement, but here is the layout and renderings of what we want it to look like.
In the past month and a half both families have made two visits to the property - primarily to meet with different contractors onsite. One Toman trip was a camping trip (more on that later) but with both trips we were able to document more wildlife and interesting trees.
We saw nearly a dozen eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina caroline) just hanging out in weird places - like right on the edge of our overlook. They blended right into the fallen leaves and I was always worried I was going to step on one.
Asher was most excited to find this eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) and had to read up on it when we got home. Apparently this is the juvenile stage and as an adult they are green and live full time in water.
I was excited to see a lot of Sassafras saplings (Sassafras albidum) but I have yet to find the seed source parent!
We signed the closing documents! Sept. 13, 2021. FINALLY. The survey took much longer than expected but it is done and we are so happy. The Mudrick and Toman families celebrated with Deweys pizza and root beer floats. Official acreage bumped up to 35.6734 acres. I love that the official legal description of the property includes point markers such as "20 inch hickory."
We managed one camping trip this summer to the property. We went over Eric's birthday (also known as 4th of July weekend) and got to hear fireworks in the distance. We have rented a portable toilet to make the camping experience a little more enjoyable. Our new neighbor was also there camping for the weekend. He drove over his mower and mowed an area in the pasture area perfect for tent, camper and fire. This helped greatly with the ticks (!!) but they were still very prevalent. Cady chose to sleep in her hammock in the trees.
We did a little exploring, found more crags to climb, got a little lost on the property and found blooming rhododendrons!
I'm also making a mental note of all the different tree species on the property - I hope to make a geo-referenced map of some of them. Down by Laurel Creek I found an American Hornbean, Carpinus caroliniana, and some umbrella magnolias, Magnolia tripetala. The hornbean is going to be gorgeous this fall.
We want to use this property as soon as we can and that means we need to get something built, or at least a toilet onsite ;) From the county road we have a LONG driveway (~850 ft) along a ridgeline that opens up to a 1.5 acre pasture area. The entire pasture is sloping but along the top it is not too severe. We think the highest spot at the back of the pasture will be the best site for a house. We have no idea what it will look like or how big - we have a lot of research and work to do!
There are many small springs on the property - water just comes out of the ground or out of a rock face, but then quickly disappears again. The geology of the area is so interesting. We have one defined channel with a persistent creek that for now we are calling "Muddy Toe Creek" after our family names (Mudrick & Toman). But even this creek disappears underground for some stretches! Here we are in a "dry" section of Muddy Toe Creek although there is water in the channel just upstream of us. You can tell by the width of the channel that this section of the creek gets a lot of water at some points of the year!
We visited the property last weekend and the flowers were out in full force! This was the kids' and Eric's first in-person visit - yes we bought the property without Eric seeing it in person. There were fiddle heads for ferns all over the ground, especially nearer to Muddy Toe Creek.
There is one section of hillslope that we have labeled "Hemlock hill" that is thick with massive Eastern Hemlock with an open understory at the top of the hill and dense tall rhododendron downslope. I don't know how old these guys are but they are impressive. Here is Dan Mudrick on Hemlock Hill:
I wish the rocks and trees could tell us more about the history of the land and the humans that have been here before us. We have some evidence that the land has been occupied but by who and when we don't know. There is a small cave along the Cliffs of Insanity with a spring running out of it. Climbing into the cave we find the ruins of a steel barrel - evidence that the cave was at some point likely used to make moonshine.
While the waterfalls are cool, what really attracted us to this property were the cliff faces and many rock formations throughout. Along the western property boundary is a cliff face that is probably 50-80 ft tall (we'll get better measurements soon) and nearly 1000 ft long that we have named the "Cliffs of Insanity." Across the ravine (Muddy Toe Hollow) from the cliff face there are crags with shorter faces and lots of large boulders. We are all really excited to set up some climbing routes.
Below Eric is looking into a "head cave" that opens up into a 6' tall chamber within the Cliffs of Insanity.
