Rural/Farm Life

I finally found what I want after a whole lot of looking and am about to close on a lot purchase! I am so excited and just love the lot I found. It's 8 acres of fairly flat, wooded land right at the base of a mountain and bordering Shenandoah Natl. Park! There are trails right there leading into the park. I'll have a couple of nice mountain views, one to the west, so I anticipate some beautiful sunsets. There is a small town with a few stores only a few miles away and Waynesboro, VA is only 20 minutes away but the property is about as far away from the highway as you can get in that area. No highway noise is important to me. I can, however, sometimes hear a train in the distance from there, which I love!

All the advice here was so helpful for getting to this point, knowing what to look for and think about. I'm purchasing with a contingency that I'll be able to dig a well and build a septic for a reasonable cost and effort and the contractors have recently confirmed I shouldn't have a problem with any of it. There are a few cons to the land, it's fairly rocky, and it's totally tree-covered. I'll have to have a lot of clearing to make a nice yard for my three dogs (and future grandkids) and space for a garden and some chickens. I plan on leaving the rest forested for now at least. There's a beautiful 100-year-old stone fence that I'd like to keep as the border of my back yard but I do worry about snakes that might be living in it. I saw bear scat in a few places while I walked around, which was not at all unexpected given the location. I love wildlife and being surrounded by it but will need to be extra careful to protect my pets and chickens of course. One of the good things is the lot is currently totally fenced with barbed wire and heavy-duty t-posts. I plan to replace the barbed wire with 2"x4" woven wire fence. Although I'll use wood for the fence in front of the house for the curb appeal, the existing t-posts around the rest is going to save me a ton of $ and work on fencing.

Now it's basically a wait through winter until they can put the house in. And I'm impatient. If winter wasn't coming I'd go down and live in my camping trailer on the lot! I'm going down there this week and will try to remember to post some pics.