The previous owner will live there for about a year and pay the utility bills while we make plans. This summer on our vacation in the States we'll tackle painting the barn and repairing the front porch. Estimates have come in high on jobs that need to be done, but we'll probably have the carpenter reroof the garage, and he'll fix the front porch, but not until I tear off the old rotten wood this summer.
One of the coolest things, it seems to me, is having a barn. It's gonna be red with white trim when we're done.
Here's a couple of photos that show how bad the porch is.
And below is a photo of the barn.
There are eight outbuildings on the land, and we plan to remove about four or five of them and open the land up. There's also a stock dam and pond on the land, but it has been so dry for the last few years, the pond is dry. I don't know if I want it, but the former owner said you remove it at the risk of making the neighbors downstream unhappy, because the dam keeps spring rains from flooding their yards. Anyway, maybe the pond helps recharge the groundwater.
I hope to talk to an extension agent some time and ask some questions, such as, DOEs the stock pond help recharge water; what are the problems it might bring (mosquitoes, in particular); what kinds of trees can I plant that are hardy there.
Speaking of trees, the wind break on the property is made of elms, which have reached the end of their lifespan. We will definitely need a windbreak there, and I imagine a forest-like atmosphere, made up of more randomly planted native, hardy species, including fast growing trees, slower growing trees, hardwoods, pines, cedars, wild grapes, wild plums, maybe even aspen, which grow in the nearby pine ridge.
