Isolation

This is a picture of our WVa house taken from across the valley, looking due north. The house is on a promontory, and sits in the middle of a one acre clearing. The mountain in this picture is Weiss Knob (4460'), pronounced "Weese" rather than the correct German "Wice" or "Vice". The house, just to left of center, is about 2900'. Across Weiss Knob is the White Grass Ski area, only 2-3 miles as the crow flies, but about 8 miles to drive. Most of the mountainside is private, with a small chunk of the middle NFS land.

This is an image taken from the same spot at a higher zoom. The house is about 250' above the road, up a gravel driveway by way of four switch-backs. When we chose the building site, we had no idea of what the overall topography of either property or the proposed homesite looked like, as there are no landmarks to delineate the borders of our property. It is quite an exposed site, and the valley below us is unique in the Allegheny Mountains in that it is situated directly east-west. Thus, as the winds come either from the NE or SW, they are funneled into the valley. The highest wind gust we have recorded was 70 mph, and that was recorded just as the chimney chase was blown off our house, thereby smashing the wind gauge. It is typical for 50+ mph gusts to be recorded, and sustained winds of 35 mph to blow on winter nights. The entire house shakes and twists on its post-and-beam system.

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UPDATE April 16, 2012: I went to have dinner at my friend Rick's home across the valley, I took some wonderful photographs of our property from his deck. The picture at right looking north shows Weiss Knob with Dolly Sods in the back right. The line is the approximate boundary of our property. The top, bottom, and right boundaries are fairly clear, but the left boundary is uncertain. While it looks as if we own most of the south side of the mountain, parallax error in viewing the land from such an oblique angle exaggerates the size of the property. The house is at left of center. Our property is at about 2,600' at the bottom and 3,200' at the top.

Mailbox

Mailbox is installed, completely with scrap lumber and bolts.

Seed and Plant Orders

From Miler Nurseries (arrived on the first day of spring – March 20):

blueberry plants (4)
raspberry plants (12)
horseradish root (3)
rhubarb plants (2)
pH meter


From Johnny's Seeds:

King Arthur bell pepper (started March 4)
Red Rocket cayenne pepper (started March 4)
Padron pepper (Spanish) (started March 4)
E-Z Pick green bean
Fordhook lima bean
Red ace red beet (started March 21)
Touchstone golden beet (started March 21)
Churchill Brussels sprouts (start indoors April 1)
Sylvetta arugula
Astro arugula
Allstar gourmet lettuce
Imperial star artichoke (start indoors April 1)

From Jung Seeds:

Nuggets hops vine (will grow on the split-rail fence)
American Bittersweet (will grow on the east side of the barn)


From the Maine Potato Lady:

Laratte fingerling
Red Pontiac
Red Gold
Peanut fingerling
Nicolo
German Butterball

A Busy Weekend on the Farm

back of barn with DeKalb Ag sign

Lots was accomplished from Thursday through Tuesday, some little things, some big. Bought a new battery for the Graveley and got it tuned up and running. Mowed a small brush patch behind the barn, which is a nice shaded space that faces uphill towards the house, and finished mowing the tall grass we left up in front of the house for the winter as wildlife habitat. Hiked up to the back edge of the property and put red blazes on the trees as a demarkation of our property line. Also placed three no trespassing signs on trees at three obvious entrances from the old road behind the property. I hate to see signs like that, but I also hate to see people with guns cruising across our land, especially when I'm out with the dogs. Cathy brought over my old DeKalb Ag sign that has been hanging in our garage, and I mounted it on the back of the barn: a little Northern Illinois in West Virginia. This sign goes all the way back to when I was in college at Southern Illinois University, where students from DeKalb put these signs in their dorm windows.